The United States of America has proposed the adaptation of the ATSC 3.0 digital broadcast standard to be used by countries globally; they have sent this proposal to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). This proposal is the first significant step in the process of making ATSC 3.0 a worldwide standard.
The US delegation proposed ATSC 3.0 – the world’s first ever Internet-Protocol-based television broadcast standard – to a Working Party of Study Group 6 of ITU’s Radiocommunications Sector, which develops and maintains worldwide recommendations, reports and handbooks on the broadcasting service. The US effort actively supported by the South Korean government delegation with significant assistance from the Korean Electronics and Telecommunication Research Institute.
The ATSC 3.0 standard has been adopted in the USA and the Republic of Korea, and developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee. The suite of voluntary technical standards and recommended practices represents very significant enhancements from the original ATSC 1.0 standard adopted in 1996. It provides an alternative to other digital terrestrial television standards including the European DVB-T, Japanese/Brazilian ISDB-T, and Chinese DTMB platforms.
“We’re delighted to begin this process and look forward to an expedited consideration so that other nations can confidently implement this remarkable new standard,” said US delegation spokesman Larry Olson, Assistant Chief of the Global Strategy and Negotiation Division in the International Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission.
The U.S.A stated that the ATSC 3.0 standard is designed to deliver improvements in performance, functionality and efficiency so substantial to warrant implementation of a non-backwards-compatible system. The IP-based standard, with its higher throughput capacity, can provide:
- Enhanced quality for audio and video services,
- Robust mobile reception on a wide range of devices,
- Improved spectrum efficiency,
- Advanced emergency information,
- Personalisation features, and
- Interactive capabilities.
Jerald Fritz, Executive Vice President of ONE Media 3.0, suggested that the NextGen transmission standard would provide consumers with a whole host of new services and will expand opportunities for broadcasters and service providers around the world. “By integrating broadcast and broadband services, ATSC 3.0 also can be part of the 5G transmission ecosystem for non-television data transmission services,” he added.
In support of the new standard, the United States presented the ATSC’s Advanced Emergency Information Implementation Guide. This document describes methods and examples for implementing the standard’s critical emergency-related capabilities – life-saving services that are expected to be of particular interest both to countries upgrading their digital systems and those still migrating from analogue to digital broadcasting.
The ATSC’s 2019 Board Chairman Lynn Claudy of the National Association of Broadcasters called international acceptance ATSC 3.0 “quite appropriate given the extensive work of engineers from around the world to craft this state-of-the-art standard with built-in capabilities to evolve as the markets warrant”.
Several additional ITU Reports and Recommendations were identified to be modified, reflecting the new ATSC 3.0 standard. Accelerated action on the US proposal is expected at the next ITU working party meetings in July
Source: Advanced Television
