Five Detroit Stations Launch ATSC 3.0 Broadcasts

Starting this week, Detroit TV viewers a taste of the future as five stations band together to launch NextGen TV or ATSC 3.0.

The broadcast advance also signals the beginning of another project — the launch of the “Motown 3.0 Open Test Track” for merging automotive applications with NextGen TV. In addition to a better viewing and listening experience for consumers, NextGen TV will also provide an avenue for advanced emergency alerting information for mobile viewers in future vehicles equipped with NextGen TV receivers.

ABC affiliate WXYZ (E.W. Scripps), NBC affiliate WDIV (Graham Media Group), CBS O&O WWJ, MyNetworkTV affiliate and NextGen TV host station WMYD (Scripps) and Fox O&O WJBK are now offering the new NextGen TV service through a collaborative effort which insures that current over-the-air broadcasts also remain available to viewers.

Broadcasters launching services in Detroit are also carving out some of their over-the-air Internet Protocol broadcast capacity to create the Motown 3.0 Open Test Track.

Brian Lawlor, Scripps president, local media, said: “The goal of the Motown 3.0 Test Track is to provide another research and development environment for the automotive industry to road test proof-of-concepts and connected car solutions using the internet protocol (IP) capabilities of the new broadcast TV standard. Transformative advances in core TV broadcast technologies made possible by ATSC 3.0 give terrestrial broadcasters new abilities to deliver Infotainment and IP data services to an infinite number of vehicles simultaneously, as well as to the displays and devices in them — whether on-the-go or in the garage.

“In the future, automobile makers will be able to, for example, update millions of in-car systems simultaneously at a comparatively low cost to today’s manual systems. This is just one of the exciting innovations we see available through this IP capability,” he added.

To commemorate the new test track in Detroit, the first file delivered via ATSC 3.0 is a .PDF file of an 1886 patent for one of first automobiles. Other files to be transmitted with the initiation of NextGen TV service — in addition to live local news, weather and other programming — include advanced emergency alerting, navigation maps, coupons, and non-real-time audio and video segments, all of which future drivers and passengers might want in a future vehicle.

Initial participants in the Motown 3.0 Open Test Track initiative include LG Electronics, Amazon Web Services and LTN Global. Triveni Digital is providing the ATSC 3.0 Broadcast Chain including the Non-Real-Time (NRT) content delivery infrastructure and receiver software. Additional collaborators include Pearl TV, the Phoenix Model Market partners, Scripps, ViacomCBS, Fox Television and Graham Media.