ATSC 3.0 Discussion

[Mister B]

Sadly, Trip has summed up the current situation very well. The days of high end FM tuners connected to home audiophile systems are behind us. Even if one were to set up such a system with vintage equipment the currently available radio stations can not provide an adequate signal. Thankfully, I can still play my vinyl records on high end equipment.

 

[comfortably_numb]

There are people still using Sprint for cell phone service? Amazing!!

 

[Trip]

There are people still using Sprint for cell phone service? Amazing!!

My carrier of choice.

- Trip

 

[pamajestic]

My carrier of choice.

- Trip

It works great for me in South Central PA and the Mid-Atlantic. I believe most of my hometown network was built out by Nextel. I connect to band 41 at my house.

 

[comfortably_numb]

They have terrible coverage in the rural Midwest. Verizon is king here.

 

[Trip]

It works great for me in South Central PA and the Mid-Atlantic. I believe most of my hometown network was built out by Nextel. I connect to band 41 at my house.

You're in the Shentel region. The Shentel region is the best part of the Sprint network, far and away. As well as it works around here, I always love visiting the Shentel region.

Anyway, this is quite off-topic.

- Trip

 

[comfortably_numb]

You're in the Shentel region. The Shentel region is the best part of the Sprint network, far and away. As well as it works around here, I always love visiting the Shentel region.

Anyway, this is quite off-topic.

- Trip

Ironic as Sprint began in Kansas.

 

[navychop]

Sprint is now part of the New T-Mobile. With the Sprint mid range, and T-Mobile’s 600MHz, coverage should expand rapidly over the next couple of years, even more than the last couple. And they’re using 5G. Longer range, better penetrating power, than the mm wave 5G the big two are using. And reconsidering. But speed at 600MHz is way less than at mm wave frequencies. So if you want the great speed, stand outside with a line of site to a mm wave tower within about 900 feet.....

Way different from five years ago!

 

[DarkStarPDX]

Any word you can share about how the station will monetize the new system?

I think that eventually, how commercials are sold will become quite different. There will still be region-wide spots that air and they'll continue to pay based on the ratings, however we'll see hyper-localized spots that end up paying CPM (cost per impression) like internet advertisements.

For local small businesses, it will be a huge opportunity for them to be able to commit to paying $100 or $200 per month, instead of the typical $2,000 to $4,000 per month the big companies are able to in order to do television advertising.

Do the translators have to update equipment or does the improved picture quality simply pass through from the parent station?

99% of the translators that provide Portland-market programming receive the same bitstream that feed our main transmitters here in the city. Without getting too much "in the weeds," our translators are fed in a variety of methods, fiber, microwave, and via off-air pickup. The translator site only needs a basic exciter to receive the bitstream and modulate it on the air, minimizing the amount of equipment on each site.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Sprint is now part of the New T-Mobile. With the Sprint mid range, and T-Mobile’s 600MHz, coverage should expand rapidly over the next couple of years, even more than the last couple. And they’re using 5G. Longer range, better penetrating power, than the mm wave 5G the big two are using. And reconsidering. But speed at 600MHz is way less than at mm wave frequencies. So if you want the great speed, stand outside with a line of site to a mm wave tower within about 900 feet.....

Way different from five years ago!

It still won't help if there isn't a tower around. We have one stick in town and it's Big Red.

 

[scottcorinna]

The one point everyone seems to be missing in the free OTA discussion is the move by the networks to streaming services.
There is no mandate that the major networks provide programming to local broadcasters for OTA.
As we’ve seen CBS, NBC and ABC via Disney+ have the ability to bypass the local affiliates.
The larger broadcasters like Tegna and Meredith may survive on self produced programming but I’m not sure they can.
BTW, I worked in broadcasting for 38 years and that was a discussion within the industry 5 years ago.

 

[N5XZS]

Well I think internet streaming stills have a lot of problems with buffering and heavy traffic overload on the servers.

I still think one way radio TV broadcasts stations on terrestrial and satellite frequencies bands does better job to endless recievers out there.

 

[Justin Hill]

The one point everyone seems to be missing in the free OTA discussion is the move by the networks to streaming services.
There is no mandate that the major networks provide programming to local broadcasters for OTA.
As we’ve seen CBS, NBC and ABC via Disney+ have the ability to bypass the local affiliates.
The larger broadcasters like Tegna and Meredith may survive on self produced programming but I’m not sure they can.
BTW, I worked in broadcasting for 38 years and that was a discussion within the industry 5 years ago.

Some network affiliates often fill out their days with syndicated programs, but there seems to be no mandate for that, either.

 

[scottcorinna]

Well I think internet streaming stills have a lot of problems with buffering and heavy traffic overload on the servers.

I still think one way radio TV broadcasts stations on terrestrial and satellite frequencies bands does better job to endless recievers out there.

I agree there are issues with the streaming services now but think about 5 years down the road when the technology catches up with the vision.
In addition the networks won’t be hamstrung by the FCC.

 

[baboonie]

ok all.
I made a few mistakes what I said earlier,was a friday night,Now what I meant to say is microsoft in some schools is useing atsc1.0 two ways. When I say atsc is two ways.Microsoft might be using a hybred system. They are useing whitespace with some schools.But it is still using cbrs(citizen band radio signal)but think about this,all cellphones use spectrum.Cellphohes,smartphone are 2way. Now ATSC3.0 has it built in to decode it.So maybe you will need a side box to send the upload,like cb radio but ATSC3.0 can decode it and send back what you want. If notice what fcc says,they are talking about broadband internet over broadcast channels. Now for what I said about sinclair,yes they own most of the patents for ATSC3.0 but they are also business. So think about this,you get paid from commercials, so you can put all your stations in one spot,like STIRR and with ATSC3.O able to link your stream to just one channel and only takes an upload order over CBRS and you send it back to that indivisual television. Like broadband internet works now,hell why not. Now lots might think I'm talking out my ass,but think closely about it,Why couldn't sinclair be thinking about that.

P.S.
There will always be stations like ABC,not saying they won't kill their good programming,They not stupid enough to give up their free spectrum worth billions to the cells,they getting for free and if don't put up programming,they know the people own the spectrum they are using and not the fcc and they know if not used for the people the fcc has to reclaim it.

 

[TNGuy84]

The two-way communication regarding ATSC 3.0 will be via broadband via your ISP. You can't transmit a UHF signal long distances back to a station without some serious power behind it. Remember those two-way UHF signal senders and receivers that they mass-produced for consumers in the 80's and 90's? Those probably didn't even use a Watt of power and required you to space the equipment a short distance apart. As for broadband over ATSC 3.0 stations, the downlink data would come from the towers, but you would need a broadcast-capable device of some sort to send an uplink signal back to that ISP. That would likely be supplied by the OTA broadband ISP. They would likely use a cellular device to relay uplink data and have some sort of licensing agreement in place with a provider like T-Mobile to distribute the uplink signal back to them. Since they're only sending one-way traffic, the fees they'd pay for small uplink bandwidth wouldn't be as great as using cellular service for both uplink and downlink data.

 

[Tower Guy]

ChannelMaster to market TiVo Nextgen DVR

Channel Master to Market TiVo Edge DVR with its OTA Solutions

Deal will kick off with the launch of TiVo’s new 500 terabyte device later this summer

www.nexttv.com

 

[N5XZS]

There's a slight typos 500Tb should be 500Gb.

 

[navychop]

Ungood. I was hoping for a pure CM product.

 

[Ypsiguy]

5G will be a much wider pipe than what an ATSC 3.0 station can provide. 4G LTE wireless internet will quickly evolve to 5G.

I foresee ATSC 3.0 stations taking on satellite services like Dish and DirectTV and killing them off. There will also be a reduction in the number of transmitters with ATSC 3.0. Why have recurring costs on your own transmission facilities when you can just outsource to another 3.0 station and deliver your signal in 4K?

Services like Evoca in Boise, ID are how they will do it. They plan on delivering about 80 channels over two ATSC 3.0 transmitters.