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FEATURE

Digital Terrestrial TV - 2nd Level

ATSC 2.0
combines various separate norms and standards into one single suite puts all the existing tv viewing features available nowadays into one set merges all variations into one enables superior video and audio quality new standard will replace current one eventually

170 TELE-audiovision International The Worlds Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine 01-02/2013 www.TELE-audiovision.com

www.TELE-audiovision.com 01-02/2013 TELE-audiovision International

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FEATURE

Digital Terrestrial TV - 2nd Level

A Marriage of Broadcast TV with the Internet and Mobile Devices


Jacek Pawlowski
Nowadays all TV is digital, but with different standards in different regions. In North America, the first standards for digital terrestrial TV were published in the 1990s. Since then, these standards have been updated a few times and their recent versions are from 2009, 2010 or 2011. The set of standards that we usually refer to as ATSC actually consists of several tens of harmonized norms. The most fundamental one is A/53: ATSC Digital Television Standard. You can find the list of all currently published A/xx standards on the ATSC web site: www.atsc.org. However, advances in technology are so fast and the end user requirements change that quickly that a moment comes when the standardization body (in this case ATSC) comes to the conclusion that it is better to establish a new set of standards rather than introduce small enhancements in the current norms. There are simply too many new things to be covered. A new set of standards by ATSC is now being released. This new suite is called simply ATSC 2.0. We will focus in a moment on the novelties that are to be covered by ATSC 2.0 but please note that that does not mean that all the present standards will be thrown out. ATSC 2.0 will use some of the features that are already present in ATSC 1.0 but are not normative but optional. For example: Advanced video codecs A/72 and A/73, Software download A/97 or Conditional access A/70. Why is a new standard needed? The simple answer is: because the traditional simple linear broadcasting model one-to-many becomes more and more obsolete today. Although it is still the most effective in moving the common content to very large numbers of viewers, there are too many alternatives that attract the end users attention. Todays customer wants to watch what they want and when they want. They require the technology to be as flexible as possible. How many times you felt an impulse to check something on the Internet when watching TV? How old is this actor? In what film did I see him before? Are you among those ones who watch TV and surf Internet or chat with friends at the same time? If so, imagine a system that in parallel to the normal news coverage or political discussions, sends additional data that you might be interested in to your mobile device (smartphone/tablet). You are offered the links you can click to to dig into more details on what is currently presented on your flat screen TV. It is sometimes called Tell me more service. Such extended information will be downloaded from the broadcasters site on the Internet and displayed either on your smartphone, Wi-Fi connected tablet/laptop or on your TV-screen if you prefer to. So now assume that a ATSC 2.0 enabled TV-set is by matterr of course connected to the Internet this is in fact one of the very basic assumptions of the new system. But the additional content you might be interested in will not necessarily be downloaded from the Internet after you demand it. The TV-set will be equipped with a storage device (HDD, or flash memory) and the broadcaster can send some content before you might think of downloading it. Imagine that you are interested in a new movie just advertised on TV. Your clever provider has already sent it to the HDD of your TV-set. A new movie is just a click away from you. Can you resist it? Who knows, maybe a future premium movie channel will consist of the stream of advertisements offering you movies to watch but not actually broadcasting them at a fixed schedule. It will be completely up to you what to watch and when to watch. And because the Internet connection is a two-way communication, after some time the system will learn what kind of movies you like most and even the advertising will be adjusted to your preferences. Sounds a bit terrifying but it already works this way on the Internet. But the new ATSC 2.0 standard is not only about integrating TV broadcasts and the Internet. Why not watch a content stored on your phone on a large TV screen? It will not be a problem with the new standard. And the other way around: your smartphone will be able to act as a secondary screen providing supplemental information to the currently transmitted video and audio. It can also be used for other purposes like voting, buying and so on. We focused so far on the ways of watching TV but there are also exciting technical improvements like: advanced video compression allowing transmitting even 1080P/60 Hz video over a 6 MHz channel (MPEG4), advanced audio codecs, reception of ATSC M/H content (normally dedicated for mobile devices) on a fixed receiver, 3D television and advanced interactive services. You might say that all these things are already implemented here and there but remember that when proprietary solutions get standardized, more and more producers start to implement them in their products. You do not have to reinvent the wheel or pay a fortune to the original pioneer. When the standards are out, the new features become popular and affordable for a wide public. Todays modern digital TV receivers already combine TV channels delivered in various ways: satellite, cable, terrestrial, Internet. The normal user does not even know, or care, what the transmission media is. However, there is no significant integration between the world of digital TV and many services typical for the Internet domain. ATSC 2.0 is a significant step toward combining these two worlds.

172 TELE-audiovision International The Worlds Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine 01-02/2013 www.TELE-audiovision.com

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