IEEE BTS Talks Mobile DTV


The 60th Annual IEEE Broadcast Symposium opened Wednesday with tutorials on HD Radio, which included a presentation by John Kean from NPR Labs on "The Design and Use of the HD Radio Coverage Model." Many of the lesson's John Kean learned in researching HD Radio coverage could apply to mobile DTV as well.

Wednesday's keynote luncheon speaker, Lt. Col. Douglas A. Williams, from the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command, gave a very interesting presentation on broadcasting from an aircraft. Even though he began the presentation by stating that he wouldn't be talking about the engineering involved, attendees heard about the antennas, frequency bands and power levels used as well as the unique challenges of operating high power transmitters from a large aircraft. Yes, large air cooling systems are needed to keep the transmitters cool and yes, they do stop broadcasting during aerial refueling.

The afternoon session provided background technical and practical data on ATSC mobile DTV. Rich Chernock from Triveni Digital provided an extended tutorial on all aspects of ATSC Mobile DTV. One of many tips discussed during the tutorial included the requirement that, unlike conventional ATSC, the data coming out of the studio transmitter link at the transmitter site has to match the data going into the link at the studio, bit for bit.

Tim Laud from Zenith Electronics presented data on tests he conducted in the Chicago area using the assorted coding options available in ATSC mobile DTV. So far, most mobile DTV broadcasts are using all quarter-rate coding or mixed rate (1/2, 1/4, 1/4, 1/4) coding. It turns out that other combinations could offer a better trade-off between robustness and efficiency. Some suggestions: use one-half rate coding on segments A and B only, ignoring the less robust C and D segments. Also, changing the Reed Solomon coding on all quarter-rate coding from 48 parity bits to 24 party bits has a small impact on robustness while allowing more data. I'll have more on this in a future column.

Finally, anyone who's had an opportunity to listen to mobile DTV on a small portable device knows that audio can be a problem http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/106496. Down-mixing 5.1 audio from the main channel into stereo audio for mobile isn't good enough. The dynamic range is too large for the small speakers and the noisy environments in which many of these devices operate. Conventional audio processing won't work. Tim Carroll from Linear Acoustic cautioned the audience not to use one of his conventional audio processors for Mobile DTV. Although, Carroll didn't mention it, I suspect we'll see a customized Mobile DTV audio processor from Linear Acoustic soon.

Sessions continue Thursday through Friday, ending with a panel discussion, including Bob Weller from the FCC, on spectrum issues related to the FCC's Broadband Plan.

Doug Lung
Contributor

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack. A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.