The Advanced Television Systems Committee celebrates 33 years at our 2016 Broadcast Television Conference, May 10th and 11th at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.
“ATSC 3.0: Planning Your Rollout” sessions on Tuesday May 10 will provide an overview of the ATSC 3.0 standard architecture, highlighting various layers of the standard (including discovery and signaling and the Physical Layer transmission system). Presenters will detail results of recent PlugFests in the US and abroad, discuss content creation with ATSC 3.0, give a “deep dive” into the upper layers of the standard, and preview how interactivity will be enabled. We have an exciting group of industry leaders on the agenda.
On May 11th, our “ATSC 3.0: Countdown to Launch” theme is underscored by the FCC’s fast-track consideration of a joint petition seeking authority to voluntarily begin broadcast services using the ATSC 3.0 transmission standard. Wednesday’s event will feature remarks from FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, a keynote presentation about “Broadcasting in an IP World” from Sony’s Hugo Gaggioni, panel discussions about channel repacking following the spectrum auction, and discussion about consumer products planned for reception of ATSC 3.0.
Sessions also are planned regarding the introduction of Ultra HDTV service using ATSC 3.0 in Korea and the state of digital TV in Europe. The late afternoon will include an update on the advanced emergency alerting capabilities of the standard and how Over-the-Top delivery is being utilized by broadcasters. The full agenda for Wednesday the 11th is online here.
My personal favorite: the Bernard J. Lechner Award, the ATSC’s highest technical honor, will be presented to an outstanding ATSC volunteer on Wednesday afternoon. Past Lechner award winners are featured on the ATSC website. Additionally, ATSC sponsors will demonstrate a variety of technologies during the two day programs and the kickoff cocktail reception, scheduled for 6:00 PM on May 10th. Demos from LG Electronics, Zenith, Enensys, Triveni Digital, Dolby, SeeQVault, Sony, and Verance will grace the lobby area. Other sponsors of 2016 Conference include ONE Media, CTA, IEEE BTS, NAB, NERC DTV, PBS, Samsung, and TitanTV.
It’s easy to follow along on social media using the 2016 conference hashtag #ATSC3Ready. Next generation broadcast television is closer than ever. See you next week!
Lindsay Shelton-Gross
Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC)