’13 Set The Stage For Broadcast Tech’s Future

In the high jump, long jump and pole vault, the most important phase of each event is the penultimate step — the moment that sets up the dominant leg to make impact, compress the muscles and launch an athlete into a sandpit or over a bar.

In many ways, 2013 was broadcasting’s penultimate step when it came to the technology that helps broadcasters gather and deliver news, setting up 2014 to be an important year.

The Advanced Television Systems Committee laid the groundwork for ATSC 3.0, the next-generation TV standard that’s expected to handle 4K broadcasts and many IP-based features; broadcasters placed greater confidence in bonded cellular technology, pushing vendors to innovate new products that incorporate the technology; and important broadcast technology vendors experienced changes in leadership as well as plenty of mergers and acquisitions.

If 2013 was the year when the broadcasting industry held its breath waiting to see what happens next, 2014 could see the bar raised on technical advances.

To an even greater degree than 2012, this year teased consumers — and some broadcasters — with 4K, or ultra-HD, technology. More than 10 companies showed off 50 different 4K television sets at the International Consumer Electronics Show, even though only 5% of the market is expected to own an ultra-HD TV by 2016.

American broadcasters recognize they can’t get left behind when it comes to 4K. In August, the ATSC received 10 proposals for ATSC 3.0, the next-generation standard that will give broadcasters a platform to implement 4K, 3D (which appears to be on its way out, if ESPN’s yearend exit is any indication) and interactivity. Proposals came from companies like Samsung and Sony, but also from a bonafide broadcaster in Sinclair Broadcast Group, which has been testing its proposed standard at WNUV Baltimore, during the overnight hours on and off since March.

Based on the proposals, ATSC 3.0 will include some form of DVB-T2, the European broadcast standard, at its roots. That’s good news for broadcasters looking for a universal, flexible standard that can transmit one potent signal and have it be picked up by mobile devices and 4K-ready TV tuners at the same time. The DVB standards group demonstrated that capability at this year’s IBC Show in Amsterdam in September.

Broadcasters, specifically on the sports side of the business, aren’t waiting on the final version of ATSC 3.0, however, to get their hands on 4K camera and graphics equipment. In fact, the ultra-high resolution format has proven to be a valuable tool for traditional high-def broadcasts.

“4K is allowing sports broadcasters to shoot at a longer distance and have the ability to zoom in because of the higher resolution,” Jay Shinn, a manager at camera maker For-A, said in January, leading up to CBS’s Super Bowl broadcast. The network’s “Heyeper Zoom” system used six For-A FT-One 4K cameras that let operators zoom in digitally beyond the focal length of the lens thanks to the extra pixels. Fox enhanced this year’s MLB playoffs with similar technology from Vision Research for its Phantom Cam. Expect even more 4K progress when it comes to sports broadcasts in 2014 and beyond.

If it wasn’t Superstorm Sandy in 2012 that convinced broadcasters that bonded cellular technology was a must-have tool in the ENG toolbox, then maybe it was the devastating wildfires and flash flooding across Colorado (KOAA Colorado Springs actually relied on JVC’s single-cellular GY-HM650 ENG camera to cover the floods), the destructive tornadoes across Oklahoma or the Navy Yard shooter story in our nation’s capital. With no cords connected to an ENG truck, broadcasters can go live from the thick of big stories.

At TVNewsCheck’s NewsTECHForum this week in New York City, Mel Olinsky, CBS VP of broadcast distribution, said the network has grown very comfortable with the cellular technology for day-to-day stories. “If we’re sending Scott Pelley out there, we’re still going to make sure we have one, possibly two satellite trucks,” he says. “But we do realize the importance of bonded cellular.”

This type of confidence has pushed bonded cellular manufacturers like LiveU, TVU and Dejero to create an ecosystem that helps manage the slew of devices — from backpacks to camera packs, to smartphones apps — out in the field. Those ecosystems come in the form of an IP-based multiviewer, a cloud-based Web application that allows broadcasters to display the live cellular feeds across a station or station group on a single screen and switch feeds at the click of a mouse. TVU was first to market with the multiviewer and has already released a major firmware update that adds additional ENG tools.

As more cellular transmissions continue filling the airwaves in 2014, one broadcast group isn’t giving up on the traditional Broadcast Auxiliary Service (BAS) band for newsgathering. Gray Television has been testing its IP-based Community Hotspot system at KBTX Bryan, Texas, which aims to provide the reliability of a microwave truck without the telescoping mast, and the newsgathering freedom of bonded cellular without the worry of being knocked off the air due to cellular congestion.

“It’s a reinvented approach to ENG,” says Jim Ocon, Gray VP of technology and the mastermind behind the hotspots system. Ocon has received interest in the system from other broadcasters recently, and hopes to launch tests in Austin, Texas, next month.

The timing on Gray’s system is critical for broadcasters, as the wireless industry in March wrpte a letter to the FCC, asking the commission to consider spectrum from the BAS for commercial reallocation, much to the dismay of the National Association of Broadcasters.

When it came to the vendors responsible for supplying technology to broadcasters, plenty of moving and shaking took place this year. Two major companies, Grass Valley and Harris Broadcast, saw changes in leadership. Tim Thorsteinson returned to Grass as its president-CEO, and perhaps in a surprising move, Harris Broadcast parted ways with CEO Harris Morris following lackluster returns after longtime parent Harris Corp. spun its broadcast division off last year. The Gores Group, which owns Harris Broadcast, named Charlie Vogt, an executive from the voice-over-IP industry, as its new CEO. Vogt hopes to transform the company for the future as more aspects of the broadcasting industry become IP-based.

Longtime graphics manufacturer Chyron was on the verge of being delisted from the Nasdaq Stock Exchange before agreeing to merge with European sports graphics manufacturer Hego. So far, the new company, called ChyronHego, is realizing the benefits of the merger. ChyronHego CEO Michael Wellesley-Wesley retires this month, after leading the company for 10 years.

But perhaps the biggest broadcast vendor news of 2013 came when longtime antenna manufacturer Dielectric sent a letter to broadcasters across the industry in April saying it was going out of business. “Dielectric is the Cadillac name for a lot of reasons,” Marty Faubell, Hearst Television’s VP of engineering, said in May. “This is a real tough to pill to swallow.”

Fortunately, Faubell and other broadcasters never had to swallow that pill. In June, Sinclair Broadcast Group bought Dielectric for less than $5 million — an insignificant amount, according to Sinclair CEO David Smith, who was busy spending millions on TV stations this year.

2013 could also be known as the year of streaming for TV broadcasters. All four major television networks unveiled and began rolling out streaming strategies (some are still a work in progress), while watching controversial streaming video provider Aereo win key battles against them in court (the big fight is coming).

Meanwhile, Dyle and the Mobile500 Alliance continue squeaking along, hoping mobile DTV can take off. If TVNewsCheck Editor Harry Jessell is right — and he has a pretty good track record — don’t expect to see much from those two companies anytime soon.

After the New Year, TVNewsCheck will publish a list of our top TV tech news stories to follow in 2014.

This is Part III of our four-part 2013 Year in Review special report. Read the other parts here.