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I WANT MY 3.0 DEVICES RANT
IS IT TIME TO BUILD THE "FREEDOM CHIP"
WHAT HAPPENS IF WE BUILD OUT NEXT GEN TV BUT NO RECEIVERS ARE DEVELOPED?
WILL THE "MOBILE FIRST" MANTRA OF SBGI AND OTHERS CREATE AN ARTIFICIAL BARRIER TO ENTRY FOR FIXED HOME USE DEVICES?
WHAT HAPPENS IF THE KOREAN, JAPANESE, AND CHINESE DTV MANUFACTURERS ALL DECIDE TO PUSH DIFFERENT FLAVORS OF UHD-HDR?
As we covered in our last edition, there is a lot of policy discussions and ranting about not forcing the mobile carriers to include ATSC 3.0 chips and antenna into their phones. This policy argument now has mobile device maker Nokia issuing their own statement for the record about the problems they predict will happen with a forced including of 3.0 into their products.
Here are the three key points which Nokia makes in their filing:
1) Increasing the antenna bandwidth reduces the total antenna efficiency in mobile devices
2) There is no "free" space for additional or larger antennas in mobile devices
3) Adding a new receiver chain to mobile devices for ATSC 3.0 reception would impact device design, performance, and cost
Our own comments, from talking with industry experts, and an actual 3.0 test bed station owner are:
1) Next Gen TV devices need to be developed asap so that Class A and LPTV next gen TV station deployments can start in 2018.
2) T
he current mobile carrier and device manufacturers have very valid concerns about any forced introduction of the 3.0 standard into the mobile devices they create, forcing them to do it is not the free market, but that there is legislative history to do this.
3) Mobile device manufacturers and mobile carriers should be willing to discuss the problems with the development of next gen TV mobile devices, and the TV industry should be willing to discuss how to overcome these objections.
4) LPTV
viewers already have many types of OTT devices in their homes, their offices, their schools, their government offices, at a bus stop, or at a stadium; and, a new Next Gen TV mobile device for many would be a natural extension of their personal device ecosystem.
And to gain some perspective from an actual ATSC 3.0 device maker, Airwavz.tv CEO, Bonnie Beeman. Airwavz is the maker of the Quarterback add-on device for mobile phones, provided these quotes for us all:
1) Consumers want access to OTA digital TV and they don't care how they get it, as long as the solution is easy, affordable and works as expected.
2) The most efficient and logical path to growing ATSC 3.0 mobile adoption is designing and building an intelligent roadmap of "inside and outside" end-user devices, deployed over time and focused on giving consumers the best possible TV experience.
3) While television broadcasters are undertaking extraordinary business and financial measures to decide when (and if) they will upgrade from ATSC 1.0 to ATSC 3.0, they are also working hard to expedite the spectrum repack and financing the necessary SFN national buildout plan.
4) Because this work has a tremendous impact on the quality and availability of ATSC 3.0 for mobiles, the comments made to FCC Docket 16-142 by Nokia, T-Mobile, Motorola and Ericsson are technically accurate and fiscally sound.
But what about the Korean'
s and their UHD TV network roll-out for the 2018 Olympics? Will they not have receivers and TV sets with UHD built in? Yes, and that is the problem. They will first be building out their own flavor of UHD and HDR, and these will not be all that compatible with the USA market at first, or maybe not at all in 2018!
This just came through the internet tubes to us:
"Seoul's three major networks only feature one or two channels each. They've already abandoned standard definition digital, instead using their allocated spectrum to simulcast in HD as well as UHD, which is four times sharper than Blu-ray.
Only five per cent of content is produced in native UHD, but this is set to rise to 50 per cent by 2023. This focus on quality rather than quantity means South Korean broadcaster MBC doesn't rely on foreign content or excessive reruns to fill its single channel.
"Less than 10 per cent of what MBC broadcasts each week would be repeats," said company broadcast engineer senior officer HeeJoon Kim."
THE BIG CLASS-A NEXT GEN TV ATSC 3.0 TEST IN PORTLAND OREGON
HAS BEEN TESTING THESE FRESH OFF THE PLANE SAMSUNG RECEIVERS
Unless an American 3.0 chip is made, and built into TV sets, home gateways, and mobile form factors, we may be left behind in deploying our own flavor of the standard.
And we may find ourselves behind for years in rolling out a significant amount of next gen TV devices. With SBGI off in India chasing mobile design and fab services, (we do wish them MUCH success), there is a void in the marketplace for good old USA chip design and fabrication to be done.
Freedom Chips anyone?
And while I'm at it, how about let's bring back the "All Channel Receiver Act"? Force all manufacturers to do what benefits our unique spectrum holdings and responsibilities. Highest best use costs a lot to deliver on. So if you are operating within the TV band, there is a rule for you, or a rule making in process.
Now this could start being cool folks. Take the recently donated for the public benefit group of Microsoft TV white space (TVWS) patents, add in some ATSC sugar here, with an extra filling of LTE-X, a little AWARN, some LMR, FM, AM, CBRS, and well, we got a huge brick to carry around, or do we?
NO, THIS IS NOT A NEXT GEN TV DEVICE.
IT IS A FORM FACTOR INTO WHICH A 3.0 CONSUMER OR PROSUMER DEVICE CAN BE OUTFITTED TO RECEIVE ATSC 3.0.
The design breakthrough is that today's active tech-enabled lifestyles each have varying form factors and devices
which enable and enhance that experience, and can be dual purposed as antenna.
So antenna size is no longer a factor, or design problem.
Next Gen TV is not just about home viewers, it is about IoT devices, venues, billboards, movie packages, gaming downloads, and more. When ganged together the potential throughput of 3 or 4 Class-A and LPTV together is predicted to be huge, and enough to create all kinds of opportunities.
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