WASHINGTON—The 2020 ATSC Next Gen Broadcast Conference has its plans finalized, set to take place five months from its original date and virtually rather than in person, according to a memo from ATSC President Madeleine Noland.
After paraphrasing “Hamlet”—“To meet or not to meet?”—Noland, in a memo released on July 6, said that all remaining ATSC technical meetings in 2020 will be conducted virtually, as will the Next Gen Broadcast Conference because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Originally scheduled for May, then initially postponed to August, the annual Next Gen Broadcast Conference will instead take place in October in conjunction with the NAB Show New York, with special programming that Noland says will leverage the second-half momentum for ATSC 3.0 deployments. Details and dates for the program sessions are currently in development.
ATSC had programming as part of the NAB Show Express that took place this spring in lieu of the NAB Show in Las Vegas.
Noland anticipates that the traditional time and in-person format for the Next Gen Broadcast Conference will return in 2021, announcing a date of May 12-13, 2021. The virtual version of the NAB Show New York is scheduled for Oct. 21-22.
Beyond conference plans, Noland shared that ATSC is aggressively pursuing its dual track of supporting the ATSC 3.0 rollout and planning for the future. This includes receiving real-world feedback from implementers in the field and the Technology Group offering clarifications and updates to technical documents.
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In addition, the ATSC 3.0 Conformance Implementation Team is preparing for 2021 features, while the Future Broadcast Ecosystem Technologies and Core Network Technologies for Broadcast teams are working on new developments for the broadcast ecosystem. Full details on the work of subcommittees are available online.
“While it’s certainly not ‘business as usual’ these days, it is nonetheless ‘full steam ahead,’” Noland said.
Noland's full statement is available on the ATSC website.
