The Broadcast Engineering Conference convenes at the NAB Show amid the final stretch in the DTV conversion and a host of other technology changes that promise to bring big changes to the world of TV broadcasting.
The conference co-produced by the Society of Broadcast Engineers, April 18-23, dives head first into one of those emerging technologies, ATSC Mobile DTV, on its opening day with an IEEE-BTS technology tutorial examining the ATSC’s Mobile DTV candidate standard. The session will examine the eight parts of the specification, including RF/transmission system characteristics, service multiplex and transport subsystem and application framework as well as video and audio system characteristics.
The following day, two sessions will be devoted to mobile/handheld television. The morning session will examine building a TV infrastructure to support mobile/handheld TV. Topics include content development, management and workflows to support mobile/handheld service, adding ATSC mobile/handheld to a DTV station metadata flow and integrating ATSC mobile television into a broadcast transmission system.
The afternoon session picks up the examination of mobile TV issues with an examination of measures taken in Brazil to overcome strong attenuation, multipath and Doppler effect issues when setting up a mobile TV service that accommodated the Ayrton Senna II tunnel in São Paulo. Other topics to be examined include receiver considerations for ATSC Mobile DTV service, transport and signaling characteristics and content delivery.
Exciting engineering developments aren’t restricted to mobile television, however. New technology trends — ranging from digital 2GHz BAS radios and receivers to the global availability of IP connectivity — are changing how electronic newsgathering is accomplished.
During the Broadcast Engineering Conference at the NAB Show April 21, the focus will turn to newsgathering. Topics to be examined include: ENG safety awareness; IP connectivity and the convergence IP technology with the broadcast infrastructure; the role of high-quality video calling technologies, such as those from companies like Skype, in newsgathering; and global IP connectivity via satellite services such as BGAN and the impact they are having on newsgathering.
