Building Media Networks for Next Gen TV

ATSC 3.0 allows terrestrial broadcasters to use their spectrum in innovative ways. In contrast to previous efforts to enhance ATSC 1.0, Next Gen TV (ATSC 3.0) enables broadcasters to become service providers and deliver data services, for example. Allowing for the firm's long-term growth, early planning for these prospects creates business opportunities.

Network Architectures and Technologies

ATSC 3.0 alters the existing commercial connections between broadcasters. To provide better services to all viewers, broadcasters must transition from pure competitors (independent and vying for advertising money) to partners who must construct a new network to support this new technology.

This ecosystem change may be referred to as "competition" since it enables broadcasters to continue airing existing content while simultaneously releasing spectrum for the implementation of upgraded Next Gen TV services.

In regional ATSC 3.0 implementations, broadcasters will be able to transmit rich content, rich video, and related data streams, going beyond HD to 4K HDR and high frame rate video. New services will be supplied over the air, the Internet, and an assortment of IP-enabled systems. ATSC 3.0 will also enable broadcasters to transmit emergency services and vital communications.

Frequency-Unique Operation

ATSC 3.0 provides, for the first time in the United States, the technical basis and commercial motivations for terrestrial broadcasters to justify the use of SFNs. SFNs let numerous transmitters in an area share the same frequency, reinforcing each other and lowering the spectrum required for ATSC 3.0 installations.

Using precise temporal synchronization, it is possible to identify a transmitter's emission and its echo from that of two transmitters on the same frequency sending the identical symbols near enough in time. It necessitates that the transmitters be precisely synchronized while sending identical data, such that identical symbols are encoded and transferred within the time expectations.

To do this, each transmitter must synchronize its broadcast with those of its neighbors, which they do by utilizing a shared timed reference. The time constraint is often specified as +/- 1 s.

The first all-IP DTT network in the world

Earlier large-scale DTT used ASI to connect to transmitters, but with DVB-T2, most transmitters switched to IP. The issues posed by the advent of IP/Ethernet as an interface were, to a certain degree, how to transmit video streams across restricted bandwidth networks without packet loss.

Another obstacle was combining large-scale, lossless point-to-multipoint multicast to several locations with limited BW connections. This should also be supplemented with protection against network or device failures. Traditional Ethernet network equipment is not suited for these conditions.

ATSC 3.0 Transmission Blueprint

Net Insight is currently constructing many networks to facilitate the repackaging of the ATSC 1.0 spectrum and the deployment of ATSC 3.0 SFNs.

Our architectural design incorporates lessons from more than a decade of SFN deployment experience and the concepts articulated in this article.

Download Net Insight's whitepaper to learn more about Building Media Networks for Next Gen TV only on Whitepapers Online.