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  April 23, 2012
Radio Tech Check

Future of Broadcast Television Initiative Launched at NAB Show

One of the many highlights at the 2012 NAB Show was the Future of Broadcast Television (FOBTV) session held on Tuesday April 17. The session included a keynote by Ben Keen, Chief Analyst at Screen Digest on the global situation for terrestrial television broadcasting along with presentations by Mark Richer, President, Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), Lieven Vermaele, Director, European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Technical Department, Toru Kuroda, head of Planning and Coordination, NHK Science and Technology Research Labs (STRL), and Wenjun Zhang, Chief Scientist, National Engineering Research Center on DTV, China. The session reviewed and built on presentations made at the Future of Broadcast Television Summit held in Shanghai, China, in November 2011, where world broadcasting leaders established a framework for cooperation in future development of terrestrial television broadcasting systems.

Contemporaneously with the session at the NAB Show, the formation of the global Future of Broadcast Television Initiative was announced with the report that technical executives from 13 television broadcast organizations from around the world had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) formalizing the initiative.
The MOU underscores the goals of the FOBTV Initiative, which include:

  • Developing future ecosystem models for terrestrial broadcasting taking into account business, regulatory and technical environments,
  • Developing requirements for next generation terrestrial broadcast systems,
  • Fostering collaboration of Digital TV development laboratories,
  • Recommending major technologies to be used as the basis for new standards, and
  • Requesting standardization of selected technologies (layers) by appropriate standards development organizations.

    FOBTV is a voluntary, non-profit association that is open to any organization that signs the MOU. FOBTV will be run by a Management Committee including representatives of the founding members and also will have a Technical Committee that will be responsible for solicitation and evaluation of technical proposals and recommending major technologies to be used as the basis for new standards. Participation in the work of the FOBTV Technical Committee will be open to all MOU-signatory organizations that have a direct and material interest in the work of FOBTV.

    The complete MOU - signed by technical executives of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC), Communications Research Centre Canada (CRC), Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB), European Broadcast Union (EBU), Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Globo TV-Brazil, IEEE Broadcast Technology Society (IEEE-BTS), National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), National Engineering Research Center of Digital TV of China (NERC-DTV), NHK Science and Technology Research Laboratories (NHK), Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the Brazilian Society of Television Engineers (SET) - is available at www.fobtv.org.

    FCC Approves Adaptrum TVWS Device and Grants Telecordia Permission to Begin Providing Database Service in Nottoway County, Va..

    On April 19, 2012, the Commission's Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) granted equipment authorization to Adaptrum, Inc. of San Jose, California for its TV White Space device. The Adaptrum device (FCC ID A2UACRS10) is the second TVWS device to be approved by the FCC and the first to operate on UHF TV channels. The Adaptrum device can operate on UHF channels from 470-698 MHz. Like the earlier approved Koos Technical Services, Inc. (KTS) device, the Adaptrum device is approved for fixed operations only and must be professionally installed.

    In a Public Notice released on April 19, 2012, OET also announced that it is permitting Telcordia Technologies, Inc. (Telecordia) to begin providing TV bands database service to the public in Nottoway County, Va. OET stated that:

    This database system will support unlicensed radio devices that transmit on unused channels in the spectrum bands used by broadcast television (TV white spaces, or TVWS). The Nottoway County project will use a recently certificated Adaptrum TV bands radio system together with the Telcordia database to provide high-speed broadband service at 20 sites that serve rural schools and households.

    OET had approved Telcordia's database system in March 2012 but stated that Telcordia could not provide service to the public until the FCC's system for registering unlicensed wireless microphones was operational. However, OET also stated that Telcordia could request approval in limited geographic areas prior to the availability of the FCC's unlicensed wireless microphone registration system and found that Telcordia's request to operate its service within the limited area of Nottoway County, Va. is consistent with this approach.

    IEEE Broadcast Technology Society Issues Call for Papers

    A Call for Papers has been issued for the 2012 IEEE Broadcast Symposium, to be held October 17-19, 2012, in Alexandria, Va. The Symposium Committee seeks timely and relevant technical papers relating to all aspects of broadcast technology, in particular on the following topics:

  • Digital radio and television systems: terrestrial, cable, satellite, Internet, wireless
  • Mobile DTV systems (all aspects, both transmission and reception)
  • Technical issues associated with the termination of analog television broadcasting
  • Transmission, propagation, reception, re-distribution of broadcast signals
  • AM, FM, and TV transmitter and antenna systems
  • Tests and measurements
  • Cable and satellite interconnection with terrestrial broadcasters
  • Transport stream issues - ancillary services
  • Unlicensed device operation in TV white spaces
  • Advanced technologies and systems for emerging broadcasting applications
  • DTV and IBOC reception issues and new technologies
  • ATSC and other broadcast standards developments
  • Broadcast spectrum issues - re-packing, sharing

    The submission deadline for abstracts is May 15, 2012. Visit http://bts.ieee.org/images/files/2012_IEEE_BS_Call_for_papers.pdf for additional information. This Symposium is produced by the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society.






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