Phil Laven of DVB examines how to incorporate ATSC, DVB, ISDB-T and DTMB in the TV future
DOES TERRESTRIAL TV have a future? Your answer to that question probably depends on where you live. If you come from a country that is very heavily-cabled (eg Netherlands or Belgium), you might feel that terrestrial TV has no future. On the other hand, if you come from France, Spain, Italy or the UK, you are more likely to say that terrestrial TV is important. In many countries, the use
of cable and satellite delivery systems has been dramatically increased by the advent of digital TV. In an era when TV programmes are often viewed via the internet, you might conclude that terrestrial delivery is about to disappear. However, there are many
contrary examples: for example, the arrival of digital terrestrial TV in Germany actually increased the number of households using terrestrial TV. Similarly, a recent study from GfK Media indicated that 17.8% of households in the USA now rely exclusively on terrestrial transmitters to get their TV (compared with 15% in the previous year). Figures from the UK regulator Ofcom show that, despite very strong competition from cable and satellite services,
digital terrestrial TV became the UK’s dominant delivery platform in 2007 and is projected to hold 40% of the primary TV set market in 2020 — with an even higher share of secondary TV sets.
Terrestrial lifespan Such figures cast doubt on the idea that terrestrial TV is a dwindling market. But TV viewing is no longer restricted to ‘TV sets’. Delivering TV signals reliably to mobile and portable devices is a huge challenge — especially to millions of such devices simultaneously. In fact, it is impossible for mobile phone networks to cope with the projected demand for video delivery — even if they divert most of their users to Wi-Fi networks. Terrestrial broadcasting (ie ‘one-way’ ‘one-to-many’ transmission) is the best possible way of delivering live TV to massive audiences — and, therefore, we need to enhance digital terrestrial transmission systems to meet the needs of mobile and portable devices. Consumers would welcome the ability to watch free-to-air TV services on such devices (without incurring substantial charges for downloading of data), but it is
‘easier said than done’, it would be disappointing if the next- generation of digital terrestrial TV perpetuated the existing fragmentation of standards. A unified standard is an important goal that would offer huge benefits for broadcasters, manufacturers and, above all, consumers.
Phil Laven: ‘Unified standard is an important goal that would offer huge benefits for broadcasters, manufacturers and consumers’
unreasonable to expect manufacturers to incorporate all of the various standards for digital TV (eg ATSC, DVB, ISDB-T, DTMB, etc). The obvious solution is a single global standard. The multiplicity of regional standards for delivery of digital TV could, perhaps, have been excused when TV sets were rarely moved between countries. However, the increasing availability of high-quality portable displays in the form of smartphones and tablets dramatically changes the environment. Although achieving a single global standard is undoubtedly
A new era One of the most important developments during the last year has been the emergence of the FoBTV (Future of Broadcast TV) initiative following the declaration agreed in Shanghai on 11 November 2011 (at the propitious time of precisely 11.11.11 on 11/11/11). Television broadcast organisations from around the world have signed a landmark memorandum of understanding (MOU) to officially form the global FoBTV Initiative. FoBTV’s founding members
are: Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC); Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC); Communications Research Center (CRC); Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB); European Broadcasting Union (EBU); Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI); Globo TV Network; IEEE Broadcast Technology Society; National Association of Broadcasters (NAB); National Engineering Research Center of Digital TV
of China (NERC-DTV); NHK Science and Technical Research Laboratories; Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the Brazilian Society of Television Engineers (SET). The fact that FoBTV is supported by organisations that have long been involved in the development of the various standards used for digital TV around the world suggests that this is the start of a new era in which ‘global collaboration’ will be the key principle. Such enhanced collaboration is emphasised by the appointment of Mark Richer (ATSC’s president) as FoBTV chairman and your author (DVB’s chairman) as FoBTV vice-chairman. The first chairman of the newly formed FoBTV Technical Committee is Dr. Wenjun Zhang, chief scientist, NERC-DTV. Three vice chairs were named:
Dr. Yiyan Wu, CRC’s principal research scientist, Dr. Toru Kuroda, director of NHK’s Planning and Coordination Division and Dr. Namho Hur, general director, Department of Broadcasting System Research at ETRI. Together, they will lead the FoBTV Technical Committee’s solicitation and evaluation of technical proposals and recommendation of major technologies to be used as the basis for new standards. FoBTV is a voluntary, non-
profit association that is open to any organisation that signs the MOU, which is available at www.fobtv.org.