WASHINGTON The May 14 Advanced Television Systems Committee's annual meeting branded this year as Tune In To The Future brought together a record number of broadcast television's best minds to assess the status of the organization's next-generation television system ATSC 3.0 and to ponder technical and business ramifications likely accompanying its adoption.
A record 230 attendees swelled the Ronald Regan Building's Pavilion room to near capacity, reflecting the great amount of interest in the technology destined to become the next U.S. television platform and one that could possibly be adopted on a global basis.
MOVING TO A NEW STANDARD
In opening remarks, Glenn Reitmeier, ATSC board chairman, reflected on the adoption of the organization's first DTV standard 20 years ago and then introduced ATSC president, Mark Richer, who observed the strides made in readying the new standard for implementation, and also reasons for its development.
What a difference a year makes just incredible progress since last year, said Richer. At that point we were talking about general concepts and general directions for ATSC 3.0. Now standards documents are being drafted and they are moving through the ATSC due process.
There are those who still ask why we are developing ATSC 3.0, or as I like to call it, the engineering consultant's full employment act,' continued Richer. Quite simply ATSC 3.0 will provide new business opportunities for broadcasters and new services and products for consumers. The ATSC DTV standard now referred to as ATSC 1.0 is now 20 years old, and employs technologies that are about 25 years old.
Broadcasting has to continue to evolve. We can't put a standard together and expect it to go for 50 years. This is not the way things work in this day and age.
Following Richer's remarks, the conference got down to business with the first of three panel discussions. Media General CTO Brett Jenkins moderated a session featuring Steve Koenig, senior director of marketing research for the Consumer Electronics Association, Will Law chief architect within the Akamai Engineering Group, and Laura Clark, senior vice president with Frank N. Magid Associates. The group examined changes in TV viewing habits and modalities during the past few decades.
Glenn Reitmeier (L) and Mark Richer (R) present the 2015 Bernie Lechner Award to Luke Fay.
INCENTIVE AUCTION'S IMPACT
A second panel examined business issues likely accompanying the FCC incentive auction. TV Technology Executive Editor Deborah McAdams served as moderator and panelists included Jimmy Goodmon, vice president and GM, CBC Media Group, Capitol Broadcasting Co., Erik Moreno, senior vice president of corporate development for Fox Networks Group, Anne Schelle, managing director for Pearl TV, and Lonna Thompson, executive vice president, COO and general counsel for the Association of Public Television Stations.
All acknowledged that the auction will greatly change the TV station playing field, but differed in opinion about its impact.
From the non-commercial TV perspective we have always seen opportunities that may be provided for some of our members, said Thompson. We've always been open-minded at ASPTS to exploring more efficient uses of the spectrum and we're always open to entrepreneurial uses.
I'm against [the auction], said Goodmon. When you dissect it the real losers are those of us who want to remain in business. I'm against the concept of it happening so quickly and not being actually mapped and/or integrated with a new transition to ATSC 3.0.
Moreno acknowledged that there's general agreement that the government wants to have a different use of the spectrum. At the end of the day, for better or for worse, we're going to play the hand that is being dealt to us, which is an incentive auction, he said. But we still have lots of questions [about] how it even works.
WHAT'S IN STORE FOR TELEVISION?
A third panel moderated by former FCC chairman Richard Wiley examined multiple aspects of the changing television landscape and included such industry heavy hitters as Michael Powell, president/CEO of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association; Gordon Smith, NAB president/ CEO; and Gary Shapiro, Consumer Electronics Association president.
Wiley opened the forum by asking panelists for their views on where television is heading.
I see the future of video and television broadcasting in particular as remaining bright as long as [it includes] localism, live free journalism, consumer protection, [and] emergency alerts, Smith said.
I think television is going to be very dramatically different, said Powell. I think it's going to be much more multidimensional of the consumer experience than it is today the nature of content is [also] going to continue to radically expand.
Shapiro emphasized the differences from today. Over-the-top is coming really, really fast and it's hitting, he said. We're going to IP video very quickly and also to different ways of doing things. In the next several years it's all about Ultra-HD 4K, which [is having] a phenomenally successful run.
LECHNER AWARD PRESENTATION
The conference also featured the presentation of the 2015 Bernard J. Lechner Award to Luke Faye, a Sony Electronics engineer and chair of the ATSC 3.0 physical layer specialist group.
Luke Fay's leadership of the specialist group on the ATSC 3.0 physical layer has been exemplary, said Richer. Luke is an excellent engineer with extraordinary leadership skills that are contributing to momentum behind the ATSC 3.0 standard.
Other presentations included a report on the status of digital television in China from Wenjun Zhang, chief scientist for the Chinese National Engineering Research Centre of Digital Television
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
WASHINGTON The May 14 Advanced Television Systems Committee's annual meeting branded this year as Tune In To The Future brought together a record number of broadcast television's best minds to assess the status of the organization's next-generation television system ATSC 3.0 and to ponder technical and business ramifications likely accompanying its adoption.
