ATSC 3.0 and the NAB Show Express: Part 1 - Consumers

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) normally holds its annual trade show, the NAB Show, in Las Vegas, in early April every year. Last year, the show was held April 6 – 11, with 92,912 attendees. Typically, these attendees represent 160 or more countries and there are 1600+ exhibitors. Of course, because of the coronavirus, no one held a show of that size or any size in April of 2020.

Instead, the NAB held the on-line NAB Show Express on May 13 – 14. According to the NAB, they had an estimated 40,000 people access the site by May 20^th and collectively these attendees had accessed 1.8M minutes of video content. I know I watched my share and saw a total of 14 presentations: the introductory and awards presentation featuring Kermit the Frog, 11 presentations on ATSC 3.0 and two presentations on 8K. Two of the ATSC talks I watched twice, for a total of 386 minutes of content. In addition, there was an online technical exhibition featuring 1,479 exhibiting companies. The NAB Show Express content remains on-line through the end of August 2020 and registration is free. If you are a display, broadcast or content creation industry professional who has some idle time during the coronavirus shutdown, you would do well to watch some of the presentations in your field. 

I won’t write about the two 8K presentations I saw since Pete Putnam has already covered them in a previous Display Daily titled “8K Association Webinars: What Didn’t Happen in Vegas Stays Outside Vegas… I also wrote about 8K recently in a Display Daily titled “Sharp and the 8K Ecosystem.” My one complaint about the two 8K Association panel sessions at NAB Show Express was there was no discussion of High Frame Rate (HFR). 8K/24P or 8K/30P makes beautiful still images but who watches TV to see still images?

I’ve written about ATSC 3.0 before, most notably in my 2016 Display Daily titled “ATSC 3.0: Is US Broadcasting Doomed?” After listening to the 11 presentations on ATSC 3.0, now dubbed “Next Gen TV” by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), I have a slightly less dark view of the future of ATSC 3.0 in US broadcasting. BTW, I’ve seen the CTA spell Next Gen TV several different ways but I’ll stick with this way. The CTA plans to use the Next Gen TV logo, shown above, as part of a logo program, much like the Wi-Fi Alliance uses the Wi-Fi logo. 

Anyone can use the IEEE 802.11 specification for wireless communications between two different devices. However, if they want to call that link “Wi-Fi” and use the Wi-Fi logo, they must have the device tested and approved by the Wi-Fi Alliance. With the logo on a device, the consumer can then be assured that the device has been tested for compatibility before he purchases it.   Similarly, the CTA plans on testing both televisions and other devices plus broadcast stations to ensure they are compatible both with the ATSC 3.0 specification and with each other. If a consumer buys a television with the Next Gen TV logo on it, he will be assured it will work with Next Gen TV broadcasts, when they become available in his area.

When Will ATSC 3.0 Be Here?

In my 2016 DD, I forecast that it was unlikely that ATSC 3.0 would make a significant appearance in the US market for five years, i.e. arriving in 2021. Listening to the broadcasters talk in a panel session titled “Latest Update on NEXTGEN TV’s Commercial Launch 2020,” I believe this forecast was spot-on. They said the original plan was to have two markets, including Las Vegas, on the air and broadcasting ATSC 3.0 before the NAB Show in Las Vegas in April and an additional 60 markets on the air before the end of 2020. Covid-19, of course, made a mess of both the NAB Show and the plans for bringing stations on the air with ATSC 3.0. The main limitation, according to the speakers, was the restriction on travel. The hardware and software for the broadcasters is ready at the vendors but the people to install it and set it up couldn’t get to the broadcast stations. Still, according to John Hane, President of Spectrum Co. LLC, there are likely to be ATSC 3.0 broadcasts in up to 30 markets by the end of 2020, depending on when the travel restrictions are lifted.

The big problem with ATSC 3.0, for both the consumers and the broadcasters, is that it is not backward compatible with ATSC 1.0. Almost every TV in the US has an ATSC 1.0 decoder in it – they are required by federal law. However, an ATSC 1.0 TV cannot receive ATSC 3.0 signals and there is no software patch that can be uploaded to a smartTV that can change this.  The ATSC 3.0 uses orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) to encode its data onto the RF signal but ATSC 1.0 uses 8VSB. This is a major change and it allows ATSC 3.0 to broadcast up to 90Mbps and tweak their signal to broadcast fewer bits, but more robustly. ATSC 1.0 had a fixed bit rate of 19.4 Mbps and the robustness of the signal is built-in and designed to give ATSC 1.0 roughly the same coverage area as an analog NTSC signal at the same broadcast power. ATSC 3.0 allows adjusting the bit rate/robustness equation in real time with up to 4 different RF pipes. For example, one pipe would maximize bit rates for nearby viewers and a second could be more robust and aimed at more distant viewers, including ones that were outside ATSC 1.0 coverage.

The TV manufacturers are in the process of solving the problem of compatibility for the consumer. At CES, Samsung, LG and Sony announced their 2020 TV product lines will include TVs with ATSC 3.0 tuners in them. According to the speakers at NAB express, Samsung TVs are already on the market and LG and Sony will follow later this year. The catch for the consumer is these TVs are all very high end. For example, Amazon lists the Samsung 85-inch Class QLED Q950T Series with 8K Resolution and both ATSC 3.0 and 1.0 decoders, packaged with a Harman Kardon 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos Soundbar, for $13,796. As I write this, however, Amazon lists this as “Temporarily out of stock.”  If a consumer is planning on buying a $13K TV, this is fine but what about the rest of us?

The solution for the rest of us is a set-top box (STB) like the HomeCaster. These units have internal ATSC 3.0 and 1.0 decoders and are designed to connect not just to a conventional smart TV but also to other home devices that might want to access ATSC 3.0.  The HomeCaster is not yet available in the US, nor has a launch date or price been announced. However, since there is very little ATSC 3.0 content being broadcast, that does not pose an immediate problem. In five years, when ATSC 3.0 broadcasts become common and ATSC 1.0 is no longer available in some areas, I would expect ATSC 3.0/1.0 STBs to be readily available at modest prices. Also, by then, ATSC 3.0 tuners will be more common in mid- and low-end TVs.

The lack of backward compatibility of ATSC 3.0 is a more serious problem for broadcasters. How they can cope with this without going off the air with their ATSC 1.0 broadcasts will be discussed in tomorrow’s Display Daily.  – Matthew Brennesholtz