DETROIT—NextGen TV is coming to Detroit in more ways than one. Five stations are set to collaborate on the transmission of the ATSC 3.0 next-generation standard. In addition, the Motown 3.0 Open Test Track is set to get underway for testing NextGen TV automotive applications.
E.W. Scripps stations WXYZ-TV (ABC) and WMYD-TV, Graham Media Group’s WDIV-TV (NBC), CBS owned-and-operated WWJ-TV and Fox Television owned-and-operated WJBK-TV are working together to provide the NextGen TV service to their Detroit viewers, while also ensuring that current over-the-air broadcasts remain available. WMYD-TV is serving as the NextGen TV host station.
All of the broadcasters involved in bringing NextGen TV to the Motor City are also carving out some of their over-the-air IP broadcast capacity to create the Motown 3.0 Open Test Track.
“The goal of the Motown 3.0 Test Track is to provide another research and development environment for the automotive industry to road test proof-of-concepts and connected car solutions using Internet Protocol (IP) capabilities of the new broadcast TV standard,” said Brian Lawlor, president, Local Media, Scripps.
Lawlor says that NextGen TV gives terrestrial broadcasters the ability to deliver infotainment and IP data services to vehicles simultaneously, as well as to the displays and devices in them.
The test track will test the delivery of live local news, weather and other programming, as well as advanced emergency alerting, navigation maps and non-real time audio and video segments. The first test, however, will be the delivery over ATSC 3.0 of a PDF file of an 1886 patent of one of the first automobiles.
LG Electronics, Amazon Web Services and LTN Global are among the initial participants at the Motown 3.0 Test Track. Triveni Digital is providing the ATSC 3.0 Broadcast Chain, including the Non-Real Time content delivery infrastructure and receiver software. Additional collaborators include Pearl TV, the Phoenix Model Market Partners, E.W. Scripps, ViacomCBS, Fox Television and Graham Media.
NextGen TV is in the process of being deployed out across the country, having so far launched in markets that include Las Vegas, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Salt Lake City.
