This Saturday will see the kick off of the Nationwide Affiliation for Broadcasters (NAB) present, a gathering of TV and radio broadcasting professionals that takes place yearly in Las Vegas, Nevada.
One scorching matter of the present this yr will undoubtedly be the progress of ATSC 3.0 digital TV broadcasting, a brand new next-gen commonplace that’s supported by the best 4K TVs within the US from manufacturers like LG, Sony, Samsung, and Hisense.
The benefits that ATSC 3.0 brings over the present ATSC 1.0 digital TV commonplace embody 4K decision video with excessive dynamic vary and immersive audio codecs like Dolby Atmos.
Round 60% of households within the US are reached by at the least one ATSC 3.0 broadcast TV station, which are actually located in additional than 70 markets. Except for a suitable TV with an ATSC 3.0 tuner, all that you must view applications broadcast within the new commonplace is an inexpensive indoor TV antenna.
However the broadcast trade might have a use for ATSC 3.0 aside from TV, and that use is radio.
Who nonetheless makes use of a radio tuner? There’s one in my automobile, sure, however like many different individuals, I way back switched to streaming web radio stations by way of the best wireless speakers. A Sonos Move sits in my kitchen within the precise spot that my radio used to occupy, and once I get bored with listening to the information, I can simply change over to podcasts or the best music streaming services within the wonderful Sonos management app.
However not all individuals might need to stream radio utilizing wi-fi audio system. As an alternative, they could like old school radio, even mono, thin-sounding AM stations with their innumerable speak exhibits.
Radio on the TV
In a current Radioworld interview with Mark Aitken of Sinclair Broadcast Group subsidiary ONE Media Programs, the corporate president detailed a radio-over-ATSC 3.0 supply proof-of-concept that it plans to current on the upcoming NAB present.
The presentation is linked to a brand new venture proposal that shall be filed following NAB 2023 by Fraunhofer, the corporate behind the unique MP3 audio compression commonplace that finally led to the event of the best MP3 players and paved the best way for music and web radio streaming as properly.
In keeping with Aitken, Fraunhofer is looking for to have its extremely environment friendly xHE-AAC audio codec, which permits for high-quality voice transmission at a mere seven kilobits per second and stereo music at bit charges from 24 kilobits per second and up, “introduced into the ATSC for standardization.” Doing so would let ATSC 3.0 broadcast TV stations ship a bundle of native and nationwide radio providers utilizing only a small fraction of their spectrum bandwidth.
Round 50 providers was the quantity instructed within the interview, however since digital broadcast stations have the liberty to slice up their bandwidth nevertheless they need for multicasting, the quantity may probably be even increased, letting a single TV channel ship all radio stations in a given market, together with a choice of different broadcast radio choices.
As a result of ATSC 3.0 is an IP-based transmission system, the TV doesn’t need to be the one outlet for tuning in radio content material carried on TV channels. With the principle TV linked to the house community, different networked gadgets all through the house may entry the programming, the whole lot from laptop computer computer systems to good audio system, small secondary TVs, and tablets.
ATSC 3.0 on the highway
Together with listening at dwelling, there are plans to introduce ATSC 3.0 tuners in automobiles – a topic that may undoubtedly be mentioned at this weekend’s NAB present. After all, an automotive ATSC 3.0 receiver would additionally be capable to tune in TV stations for show on dashboard screens, one thing that poses particular security hazards. GPS is one other chance, however the principle use would presumably be for audio-based content material.
Radio by the TV spectrum, and finally in automobiles, courtesy of ATSC 3.0 could also be near actuality, however TV makers have been slow to support the new standard, reserving built-in tuners for higher-end fashions, within the case of LG and Samsung, or ignoring it altogether, within the case of TCL. Maybe the brand new developments popping out of NAB 2023 will assist to speed up ATSC 3.0 progress going into 2024, however within the meantime we’ll be looking for NAB information concerning cheap tuner upgrades for current non-ATSC 3.0 TVs.
Discussion about this post