Broadcast

Today, in a filing to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® urged the FCC to initiate immediate action to assess spectrum usage and determine how additional spectrum can be allocated for wireless broadband and other uses.

CEA worked with...

The Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), a voluntary association of more than 800 broadcast stations, today announced it is "All Systems Go" for a new era of television service on mobile devices. With Thursday's adoption of a final mobile digital television (Mobile DTV) broadcast standard by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), U.S. broadcasters are poised to roll out an array of digital program services that will be available to consumers on devices ranging from in-car screens to portable DVD players and mobile phones.

OMVC today demonstrated the services enabled by the new standard during a Mobile DTV briefing for government officials and...

When working for Sirius Satellite Radio (now Sirius-XM), I was asked to attend a seminar in Newark, N.J., sponsored by iBiquity, the developer of the HD Radio standard. I was uninformed as to the purpose of the seminar and assumed it was a "spy" mission.

With the invitation in my hot little hand, I presented myself at the conference room sign-in desk. Since the HD radio group considered Satellite radio the mortal enemy, I was greeted with a lot of upturned eyebrows and numerous whispers.

I discovered that...

I am sure most of you have experienced the superb HD picture offered by Blu-ray discs, and wonder why over-the air (OTA) HD broadcast do not exhibit the same quality. The answer to this question is compound and has been discussed in similar blurbs on this subject. However, one of the broadcasters' limitations to optimizing HDTV is inherent in the ATSC standard itself, and that is the obsolete MPEG-2 compression system.

When the digital (HD or SD) signal is originally digitized...

As mentioned in my prior wheezes on this subject, the present US economic climate would appear to present over-the-air (OTA) television broadcasters with fantastic possibilities. With the tremendous opportunities offered by digital production and transmission (i.e. HD and SD multi-channel and mobile and IP capabilities all at the same time), and most of it "free" to viewers, one would think that the time is ideal for OTAs to take a big chunk of penetration from their pay brethren. However, as an undying cheerleader for success of OTA, I feel there are a couple of wishes that must be granted before broadcasters have any hopes of stopping and successfully reversing their 15% household penetration ratio. First...