Ark Multicasting Demos ATSC 3.0 Standard And Business Model

Ark Multicasting, a low-power television broadcaster, last week gave the broadcast industry a sneak peek at what it is accomplishing together with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Trinity Broadcasting Network.

The event took place at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville where Christian content creators, delivery platforms and broadcasters gathered to see what Ark calls “the enormous opportunity they have with Ark and the broadcast internet data delivery solution and new revenue streams available without sacrificing ministry efforts.”

Technology demonstrated included the ATSC 3.0 transmission standard, orchestration and edge-to-cloud infrastructure solutions provided by HPE, and the current deployment build of Ark with their customer, TBN. Ark announced its initial deployment of 10 internet broadcasting facilities in late 2021. The complete buildout will include some 300 stations covering 100 million people in the United States.

Ark Multicasting Co-Founder and CEO Josh Weiss demonstrated the power of the multicasting solution by highlighting how Verizon typically transits 6.5 exabytes across their network in a given month. “Ark can transfer 45 exabytes in that same month — in just one city,” Weiss said. “There is no other solution as efficient, effective or as elegant as what we are bringing to market.”

On hand for the presentation was Madeleine Noland, president of the ATSC, the organization responsible for the new television standard.

Noland said: “This new digital system is based on Internet Protocol. It is currently the world’s most efficient broadcast standard, bar none. And, since it’s the world’s first IP based broadcast system, it’s really about delivering any kind of data. So, it can deliver linear television data in the traditional form, and also deliver any other kind of data like software and firmware updates or distance education learning materials, enhanced GPS, file-based media and more.”

Noland congratulated Ark, HPE and TBN for being “instrumental in developing exciting new use cases for broadcasters using ATSC 3.0” and thanked them “for their tremendous efforts and novel approach to this flexible new standard.”

Prior to the demo, Noland mentioned being excited because she had not seen it. Her post-demo response was: “I was incredibly impressed. Ark, HPE and TBN demonstrated a mature datacasting solution in operation today. Nothing makes me more proud than seeing the hard work of the ATSC committees in real-world implementations.”

Weiss along with Ali Dernaika, HPE’s ATSC 3.0 solution architect, gave the overview and functional end-to-end demo of the operation complete with how a customer can log in and order various services on any of the Ark stations including linear video services, data transfer services for distance learning, smart city IoT, firmware updates, and Content Delivery Network services.

The audience was able to see how an ATSC 3.0 core network was capable of controlling and modifying the 6 MHz spectrum allocation of any individual broadcast station within the network with a few simple clicks by TBN or any Ark customer. The audience was then able to see the data files as they transited the broadcast headend and then show up on an end user device.

The event was hosted by Lee Miller, executive director of the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance. He had praise and positive comments from the podium for the work that had been done on pushing out this new technology,

“I want to thank Ark, HPE, and TBN for being such trailblazers in the new technology of ATSC 3.0 and television spectrum,” Miller said.

Larry Haley, CEO of Trilogy, TBN’s technology subsidiary, explained why TBN chose to become a partner with Ark. “Faith-based organizations today, are constantly seeking innovative ways to cultivate new revenue streams while diversifying existing revenue models.”

TBN uses the data capacity of the spectrum to deliver its linear channels. In addition, utilizing revenue-generating datacasting services, Trilogy will be providing services for distance learning, utility providers, automotive, connected cities, first responder communications and more.

“We’re proud to be working with leaders like Ark and TBN who are changing broadcasting and blazing a trail for others to follow. HPE is enabling Ark to harness ATSC 3.0 standards and merge broadband and broadcasting to move from linear TV to multicast,” said Paolo Ceccherini, worldwide business lead, digital video solutions, at HPE Communications Technology Group. “Thanks to our best-in-class ATSC 3.0 compliant blueprint, we can help Ark to deliver the broadcast core network controlling all stations and orchestration services, as well as enabling the introduction of additional compelling use cases. HPE provides infrastructure, software and services that together make up the edge-to-cloud platform for Ark’s broadcast internet service.”