Broadcast Blog

Cord-Cutting: Answers for a Friend

August 19, 2015 / Sam Matheny / No Comments

I got a message from a friend on Facebook saying she had cut the cord. I never thought of her as impulsive, so I was a little surprised that she waited until she cancelled her cable to ask, “what do I do for TV now?” The truth was, she didn’t care. She just knew she wasn’t going to pay her cable bill any longer.

I wrote up some thoughts and shot them over to her. She then suggested that I write a blog post because she has so many friends that are also considering making the move. Now that we have Broadcast Blog, I’ll share a redux of those thoughts.

The big thing most cord-cutters want is continued access to their favorite channels and shows, which typically air on local broadcast television affiliates of ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Univision, PBS, ION and others. They also want on-demand access to other shows or movies. Good news: all of these channels are available for free via over-the-air (OTA) wireless broadcast signals, and there are a variety of over-the-top (OTT) streaming services that will provide access to on-demand programming.

OTA

To start, you need an antenna to pick up the OTA broadcast stations. As an added benefit, the OTA signal will often give you the best quality high-definition (HD) picture as the image hasn’t gone through the additional compression of the cable systems.

When trying to determine the correct antenna type for your location and viewing preferences, check out AntennaWeb.org. This site gives you the distance and directions of nearby towers as well as advice on what antenna might be best for you, based on your home address. I entered the zip code for my home address and you can see that I can get up to 76 channels from 29 OTA broadcasters.

AntennaWeb.org search results

If possible, I recommend buying an outdoor antenna and placing it on a rotor (this can be very useful if your home is situated between a number of towers) and then simply tie it into where your cable line used to enter your home; that way all of your TVs will benefit from this good outdoor antenna reception. With that being said, in many cases all you need is an antenna in the attic or something simple near your TV for indoor reception. When purchasing, I recommend taking a look at the manufacturers Antennas Direct and Channel Master.

Now, if you’d like to record some shows from your OTA feeds you can do that too. The Tivo Roamio has a honkin’ hard drive and it also has a program guide ($15/month subscription) for scheduling and recording your shows. The subscription is only necessary if you want to schedule a TV recording. Channel Master’s DVR+ has two different storage size options and a free program guide. Plus, it has two tuners, so you can watch one show while you are recording another. Tablo DVR comes with four tuners.

The nice thing about these units is they also provide access to OTT streaming services like Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, VUDU, and more. More about that below.

OTT

Streaming services like Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, VUDU and are all examples of OTT solutions that have a lot to offer at a fraction of the price of the average cable package. There are a wide variety of devices that enable access to these services as well as original content from these companies.

In addition to the Tivo Roamio, Channel Master DVR+ and Tablo DVR mentioned above, some other popular OTT devices include:

AppleTV
Amazon Fire TV Stick
Roku
(with your PC)
Sony Playstation
Many Smart TV sets come preloaded with OTT streaming services

For me personally, I start with Amazon because they include lots of content with my Prime membership. I love that 2-day shipping, and giving me instant access to video makes it even cooler. Plus, it is already built into many devices listed above. Next on my list is Netflix. I also use AppleTV, because it frequently has the best picture quality in my opinion and I can download and playback later on my laptop, tablet or phone.

I should qualify all of this by saying I still have a robust video subscription with Verizon FIOS, so I’m not currently a cord-cutter (though I have been in the past). I enjoy the convenience of my FIOS subscription, but there is no doubt that cord-cutting is more than a fad. PBS reports that in the past five years, 3.8 million households have already cut the cord. According to USA Today, perhaps another 7% of households are expected to drop their cable subscription and rely on over-the-air broadcast television and online streaming services.

For further reading on “cord-cutting,” you can check out this WSJ article for understanding why cord-cutting has become such a hot topic and this Geeks Life article for diving deeper into your OTA and OTT options.

Broadcast Blog is a service of NAB Labs for NAB members. If you have questions about anything you’ve read here please contact NAB Member Services and they can put you in touch with some of our tech experts.

Momentum Grows for FM in Smartphones

August 19, 2015 / Skip Pizzi / No Comments

There’s been good news recently for advocates of activating FM radio receivers in smartphones. First came the announcement by AT&T Wireless—the #2 wireless carrier in the U.S.—that it will request its Android phone manufacturers to activate FM reception capability on all their devices in 2016 and beyond. Next, NAB Labs released its latest tracking data of activated FM capability in U.S. smartphones, which showed continued growth in early 2015, reaching the highest percentage of phones sold in any calendar quarter to date (see chart below). And most recently, T-Mobile joined the party, essentially matching AT&T’s move toward pushing its Android platform providers to activate the FM chip in all future devices it provides the carrier. This now represents a significant tipping point in the FM-activation battle, with the majority of U.S. wireless providers now supporting the activation of FM receivers in their smartphones.

The chart above shows the impact of wireless carrier Sprint’s arrangement with broadcasters to have its device suppliers activate FM on their smartphones. The strong growth this deal engendered in 2014 can now be seen to continue into 2015, with over 9 million smartphones sold in the U.S. with their FM capability fully activated by at least one U.S. wireless carrier during 1Q15. Given that only about 2.6 million such phones were sold in 1Q14, this reflects a growth rate of over 350% year-to-year, mostly resulting from Sprint’s action.

Further, the 9.2 million smartphones sold with FM activated by at least one carrier in 1Q15 represented 27% of all phones sold during the period (see chart below). While there’s still a long way to go, this is the highest percentage of total U.S. smartphone sales ever recorded by FM-activated units since NAB Labs started tracking this item in 2012.

The Sprint-driven growth in FM-activated smartphone sales included the preloading of the NextRadio app in essentially all of its smartphones except the iPhone (more on that in a moment). The impact of this deal with a single, smaller carrier will likely be significantly amplified in 2016, when AT&T’s and T‑Mobile’s moves to activate FM on all their Android phones hit the market. This implies that the current growth in FM activation in smartphones will continue to accelerate.

By the way, both AT&T and T-Mobile already offer a few phones with activated FM receivers (although none include the NextRadio app preloaded yet—users can download it from an Android app store and it will work on most of these phones). But a recent scan of the AT&T website showed that among its 28 currently available Android phone models, only 5 had FM activated—and most of these were not among its best-selling models. If AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s new announcements bear full fruit, therefore, the number of additional FM-activated phones in 2016 should be substantial.

At present, this leaves Verizon as the sole U.S. major wireless carrier that has not supported FM activation in its smartphones. Verizon is the largest U.S. carrier (by subscribers), and it has traditionally been the least supportive of FM activation in its devices, so a major challenge among carriers remains. The AT&T and T-Mobile actions will add to the Sprint installed base and push the percentage of FM-activated smartphones toward a majority position, however, perhaps making it difficult for Verizon to persist in isolation with its anti-FM position.

Nevertheless, the bigger challenge to making FM activation a default condition among smartphones remains with Apple. The multiple models of iPhones on sale currently account for about half of the entire smartphone market’s sales (by units), and unlike most other smartphone manufacturers—which either enable FM unilaterally, or at the request of the wireless carriers they sell to—Apple has never activated FM radio on any iPhone, although they all have contained an FM receiver chip since the iPhone 3GS. Meanwhile, other Apple products, like several recent generations of the iPod Nano, do include a high-performance FM receiver, so it’s obvious that Apple can develop a great FM radio experience in its devices. The iPod Nano has no WiFi or other wireless network connectivity, though, so Apple’s strategy seems to be based consistently on the premise that if the device can be network-connected, it shall have no working FM radio. Apple must have its reasons for this, likely due to its unique position of being both a consumer electronics manufacturer and an entertainment service provider, but this renders the wireless carriers who want to activate FM on their smartphones unable to do so on any iPhone at present.

Another recently discovered item in NAB Labs’ research is that one of the top-selling smartphones in 1Q15 included a new connectivity chip that—unlike all other top-selling models—does not include an FM radio receiver. The Motorola DROID Turbo, so far available exclusively through Verizon, uses a Qualcomm Atheros QCA6164 chip for its WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, with no FM radio bundled into the silicon (as all other current connectivity chips do). If this departure from common practice becomes a trend, the climb toward activating FM in most smartphones could become steeper, moving from simply activating hardware already on board to requiring installation of additional hardware.

So while the numbers are improving and alliances are growing, the situation remains fluid, and the battle to activate FM in smartphones will continue on two fronts: with wireless carriers (primarily Verizon) and with smartphone manufacturers (primarily Apple).

FCC and Broadcasters Focusing on Field Enforcement

July 27, 2015 / David Layer / No Comments

Last March the FCC put forth what turned out to be a controversial plan to modernize and reduce the Commission’s field enforcement activities, resulting in significant review and comment by industry stakeholders as well as members of the U.S. Congress. In the midst of these discussions about Field Offices, the Commission in June hosted a “Pirate Radio Roundtable” focusing on strategies to combat illegal pirate radio operations. These activities recently culminated in the release of an FCC Order on reorganization of the Enforcement Bureau’s field operations and a letter from NAB to FCC Chairman Wheeler summarizing ideas from the Pirate Radio Roundtable for possible actions to combat Pirate Radio.

The FCC’s Order, released July 16, 2015, outlines several actions to realign the mission and resources of the FCC field offices and Equipment Development Group. Most notably, the Order closes completely eight of the 24 current field offices and closes an additional three offices with plans to still maintain a “local presence” in these cities (Anchorage, Kansas City, and San Juan). The table and map shown here summarize these office closure actions.

LOCATION	OFFICE TYPE	STATUS
Anchorage, AK	Resident Agent	CLOSED – LOCAL PRESENCE MAINTAINED
Atlanta, GA	District	RELOCATED NEARBY
Boston, MA	District	OPEN
Buffalo, NY	Resident Agent	CLOSED
Chicago, IL	District	OPEN
Columbia, MD	District	RELOCATED NEARBY
Dallas, TX	District	OPEN
Denver, CO	District	OPEN
Detroit, MI	District	CLOSED
Honolulu, HI	Resident Agent	OPEN
Houston, TX	Resident Agent	CLOSED
Kansas City, MO	District	CLOSED – LOCAL PRESENCE MAINTAINED
Los Angeles, CA	District	OPEN
Miami, FL	Resident Agent	OPEN
New Orleans, LA	District	OPEN
New York, NY	District	OPEN
Norfolk, VA	Resident Agent	CLOSED
Philadelphia, PA	District	CLOSED
Portland, OR	Resident Agent	OPEN
San Diego, CA	District	CLOSED
San Francisco, CA	District	RELOCATED NEARBY
San Juan, PR	Resident Agent	CLOSED – LOCAL PRESENCE MAINTAINED
Seattle, WA	District	CLOSED

More generally, the Order directs the field offices to embark on a program to update equipment and employee skillsets to address the likely issues that will accompany new and expanded uses of spectrum. The Commission wants this program to include the expanded use of remotely operated monitoring equipment to supplement field staff, as well as the identification and use of portable devices capable of assessing interference issues in bands expected to experience heavy spectrum use. The Order also stipulates that:

all Bureau field agents shall have electrical engineering backgrounds;
within six weeks of release of the Order, the Bureau will establish procedures for industry and public safety complainants to escalate their complaints within the Field organization;
the Commission will continue to work with outside stakeholders to develop a comprehensive policy and enforcement approach to the issue of unlicensed radio broadcasting;

the Commission will implement a nationwide outplacement effort to assist all displaced employees to find positions in the public or private sectors, including other vacancies within the Commission for which they are qualified and selected.

In an NAB news release on the FCC Order, NAB Executive Vice President of Communications Dennis Wharton said that “NAB appreciates the work of both the FCC and Congress in forging a compromise FCC field office proposal that keeps open many more enforcement offices than was originally proposed. We also thank both Republican and Democratic commissioners for expressing a need to better enforce prohibition against pirate radio stations. NAB looks forward to working with all stakeholders to police the airwaves against these illegal operations.”

In a separate but related matter, on July 17, 2015, NAB General Counsel and Executive Vice President Rick Kaplan sent a letter to FCC Chairman Wheeler with a list of ideas resulting from the FCC’s “Pirate Radio Roundtable” focusing on strategies to combat illegal pirate radio operations. At the Roundtable discussion it was noted that pirate radio operations erode the advertising and membership base of legitimate broadcast stations (both full- and low-power), and undermine investment in legitimate stations, particularly minority-owned stations. They also threaten the health and safety of radio listeners and local residents. Pirate radio operations disrupt the Emergency Alert System (EAS), interfere with aviation frequencies and often transmit from residential buildings where unchecked RF radiation can cause health problems.

Some of the suggestions generated at the Roundtable discussion are summarized in the NAB letter and include the following:

Significantly increase the number of enforcement actions, including Notices of Apparent Liability, Forfeitures and equipment seizures issued by the FCC against pirate operators. This effort should begin immediately as the number of pirate radio stations often increases during the summer months. While the Enforcement Bureau has issued hundreds of Notices of Unlicensed Operation, it has issued relatively few fines or equipment seizures;
Develop a Commission policy statement to share with private and law enforcement groups and help channel Commission resources towards pirate radio enforcement;
Implement a dual strategy that increases pirate enforcement effort in the short term using all existing enforcement tools while working on changes in the Communications Act and other federal laws to improve enforcement against pirate radio. This will include a legislative strategy for expanding the Commission’s authority to prosecute pirate radio operators, including coordination with the Federal Aviation Authority and the Federal Emergency Management Agency;
Raise the awareness of entities (e.g., concert venues, building owners and managers, advertisers) that may unknowingly aid and abet pirate radio operators. Develop best practices with representative trade associations and organizations;
Enlist law enforcement entities that can serve as partners in education efforts;
Enhance the Commission’s ability to identify and prosecute pirate operators, including the continued assistance of broadcasters in locating illegal radio transmitters and studios;
Further examine the impact of pirate radio on the nation’s EAS system;
Create a permanent liaison between the Commission, U.S. Attorney’s Offices, US Marshal’s service, and state and local law enforcement agencies to facilitate pirate radio enforcement;
Explore using private sector engineers to help FCC offices work with local law enforcement in a more efficient manner.

Media Monitoring with Big Data: Opportunities and Challenges

June 29, 2015 / Tariq Islam / No Comments

What would marketing strategists do if every second of all broadcast television, broadcast radio, and social media posts were available in real time for analysis? How would advertisers react if the transcripts of all the TV and radio broadcast information were available in addition to video and audio for every second anywhere in the nation in real time? Big Data analytics provides a means to digest this copious amount of information and to make ad buying decisions on the fly.

Big Data analytics means not only processing very large amounts of data but also attempting to coherently connect the unstructured nature of the data. For example, the data could be a combination of radio and TV transmissions converted into speech by a speech coder, closed caption text of TV programs, Twitter and Facebook posts, financial data and spreadsheets, and news articles. Another advantage of Big Data analytics is that the system is self-learning; once the initial analytical model has been created, additional new data and information can be easily integrated into the knowledge base. Big Data analytics has been creating a buzz in the industry for a number of years, and many companies are already offering tools and services to reap the benefits.

An example of a company that archives broadcast content for media monitoring is Critical Mention. Critical Mention captures and indexes 40 hours of broadcast content every 60 seconds from more than 2,000 unique broadcast sources. The users thus have access to a database of more than 16 million searchable segments, all available in broadcast quality and near-real time. The users can search TV/radio/online news, watch video, edit and share coverage, receive real-time alerts, and create reports. The system also offers analytic tools to gain insight into the data, to benchmark against competitors, to analyze viewer sentiment, and to visualize density of coverage on maps. The following picture is an example of the analysis tool output.

Figure: Critical Mention Analytics

Integration of Big Data analytics with archived media information would open up many new possibilities in the future. For example, the single string-based search provided by Critical Mention can be augmented to perform searches based on different combinations of groups of words. Grouping of related words and inclusion/exclusion combinations of many different groups are known as dictionaries and rules in Big Data jargon, and these well known techniques are used to isolate relevant information and validate hypotheses. The natural language processing (NLP) capabilities of big data can also help make inference about the context in which the key words are used, making the results more reliable and relevant. Yet one can envision that image processing and pattern matching algorithms could be used to detect and quantify product placement in broadcast video. For example, the Coke logo can be identified in time-stamped video frames across all the broadcasters of all the DMAs in real time. These capabilities are computationally intensive, but the algorithms are fairly well understood. Cloud services, which offer scalable computational resources, can make this kind of analysis available in the future.

Recognizing some of these potential business opportunities, broadcasters and consumer electronics manufacturers are developing a next-generation television system with dynamic ad insertion and targeted advertising capabilities. If ad buyers can identify a need – in real-time if they wish – to maintain their brands’ share of voice (SOV) in certain geographically segmented markets, broadcasters will have the technical means to deliver the ads to the intended audience in the future. As a consequence, programmatic advertising and ad exchange might become more dynamic in terms of balancing demand and supply.

This kind of individualized targeting might also raise challenges to traditional advertising models in the broadcast industry. With access to all the real-time and personalized information of the audience, an ad buyer will have the option to use different means to reach the audience, even when the audience is consuming broadcast content. For example, armed with the knowledge of a consumer’s state of mind at a certain location at a certain instant, the ad buyer might reach the targeted customer through a smartphone, thus totally bypassing the broadcasters. Proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) will provide more outlets for targeted advertising, and the situation might become even more challenging for the traditional broadcasting model.

Media monitoring along with Big Data analytics has tremendous potential for targeted and contextual advertising. The advertising industry is changing rapidly, revealing both opportunities and challenges for broadcasters. Broadcasters will need to be vigilant of this fundamental paradigm shift in advertising and adapt to new market challenges.

RDS2 Demonstrated at 2015 RDS Forum Meeting

June 15, 2015 / David Layer / No Comments

For nearly three decades the Radio Data System (RDS) digital FM subcarrier has been providing FM broadcasters the ability to transmit a digital data stream to listeners. Developed in Europe, RDS was slow to take hold in the U.S. at first, but the introduction of digital radio services in the early 2000’s also heralded a significant uptake in the use of RDS to provide song title and artist and traffic-related information to RDS-equipped receivers. It is estimated that there are currently over 5 billion RDS-equipped radios worldwide.

While extremely useful, the RDS signal is severely limited in data capacity, and the RDS Standards (IEC 62106 and NRSC-4-B) include a number of features that have become out-of-date and are no longer needed. Given these factors, the RDS Forum, a European-based standards-development group responsible for the initial development and on-going maintenance of the IEC version of the Standard, agreed at its annual meeting in July 2014 to begin considering an update to RDS that would address these issues. A follow-on meeting to discuss a proposed enhancement called “RDS2” was held in Budapest in November 2014 which resulted in a “feasibility document” describing the proposed RDS2 system.

Last week, the RDS Forum held its 2015 annual meeting, and a prototype RDS2 system was demonstrated. Further, after deliberating the potential benefits afforded by this new system, the RDS Forum created a Working Group with the goal of updating the RDS Standard to include RDS2. A brief description of RDS2 is given here:

RDS2 offers the ability to transmit one, two or three additional subcarriers along with, and identical in structure to, the legacy RDS subcarrier. While the legacy subcarrier is centered at 57 kHz (within the FM baseband), the three new subcarriers are centered at 66.5, 71.25 and 76 kHz (as with the legacy 57 kHz subcarrier, these new subcarriers are each derivable from the 19 kHz pilot). Shown in the figure below is a spectral plot of the RDS and RDS2 subcarriers and the 19 kHz pilot tone (this plot is from the prototype system demonstrated to the RDS Forum);

The proposed RDS2 system design was developed by Attilla Ladanyi, T&C Holdings (Germany) and Peter Jako, Hungarian Radio. The demo transmission hardware operated and on display at this year’s Forum was developed by Allen Hartle and Seth Stroh, Jump2Go (USA), and is based upon Jump2Go’s “JumpGate3” platform; the demo reception hardware was developed by Hendrik van der Ploeg, Catena and Joop Beunders, MacBe (Netherlands). A photo of the demo setup is shown below. Note that this was an actual low-power “over-the-air” transmission.

It is proposed that the new RDS2 subcarriers will be used exclusively to transmit “Open Data Application” (ODA) information. Previously established as part of the legacy RDS format, ODAs are used to support a variety of data services, and are the principal way that new services utilize RDS. Since the new subcarriers will be freed from transmitting the various “overhead” types of RDS data such as the Program Information (PI) and Program Service (PS) codes, the overall data capacity of the RDS2 signal (for “payload”) is on the order of 10 to 20 times (or more) of that available with the legacy RDS subcarrier alone.

A comparison of data capacity is given in the table below, where three cases are compared: Case 0 illustrates the capacity (in effective bit rate) of a legacy RDS subcarrier where 10% of the payload is used for transmitting ODA data (this is a typical scenario in use today); Case 1 again represents a legacy RDS subcarrier but this time with a 70% ODA payload, showing essentially the maximum ODA payload throughput using the legacy RDS signal; and finally, Case 3 shows a 30-fold improvement in ODA payload capacity when all three RDS2 subcarriers are used to carry 100% ODA data (assuming no ODA data on the legacy subcarrier; this is the proposed use case for RDS2). For this table, “STREAM 0” refers to the data stream used to modulate the legacy RDS subcarrier while “STREAMS_1-3” refers to the data streams modulating the three RDS2 subcarriers.

Some of the new applications that are proposed for and would be supportable by RDS2 include the ability to transmit a station logo and the use of the UTF-8 character set to support longer Radio Text and Program Service text strings. Currently, these applications are not supportable with RDS because of the limited capacity of the existing system as illustrated by the cases shown in the above table.

With the completion of the successful prototype demonstration and the RDS Forum members in agreement that RDS2 should be incorporated into the Standard, it is now the task of the newly formed RDS Forum Working Group to develop the detailed specification for RDS2, and in addition to identify the obsolete sections of the existing Standards that can be eliminated. NAB Senior Director, Advanced Engineering David Layer, who participated in this year’s RDS Forum meeting as a liaison for the National Radio Systems Committee (NRSC, co-sponsored by NAB and the Consumer Electronics Association), will be participating in the RDS Forum Working Group, and will work to ensure compatibility of the updated European Standard with the NRSC’s version of the RDS Standard (NRSC-4-B, United States RBDS Standard).

In parallel with the Standards development work, the RDS Forum intends to work on identifying “killer applications” for RDS2, and identifying chip and receiver manufacturer partners interested in developing hardware that will support these upgrades to the RDS system. Outreach is also planned to broadcasters to inform them of this work, and to seek out their input and participation in the Standards-setting and applications development processes.

Visit the RDS Forum and NRSC websites for additional information on these organizations. For additional information on the RDS2 project or to find out how to get involved in this work, at NAB.

Low-power FM Proponents Seek Power Increase

June 1, 2015 / David Layer / No Comments

Low-power FM (LPFM) stations are increasing in number as a result of the FCC’s October 2013 filing window for new LPFM applications. The most recent “ Broadcast Totals” published by the FCC (dated March 31, 2015) show 1,029 licensed LPFM stations which is an increase of 255 from one year earlier, and many more can be expected since, according to the Media Bureau, 2,826 new LPFM applications were filed in 2013.

Currently, LPFM stations are authorized for 100 watts ERP (“LP-100”), but on May 15, 2015 the FCC released for comment a Petition for Rulemaking seeking to increase this to a maximum of 250 watts (“LP-250”). REC Networks, an LPFM advocacy group which also provides broadcast engineering services to LPFM broadcasters, submitted this petition which in addition to asking for a power increase, also requests that the FCC make additional rule changes favorable to the LPFM service at the expense of additional potential interference to full-power FM stations and a reduction in future availability of FM translators. REC’s primary justification for the Petition is to better enable LPFM signals to penetrate inside buildings and automobiles. Comments on this Petition are being accepted by the FCC until June 15, 2015.

The figure above, taken from Appendix A of the Petition, shows an example of the impact of increasing the LPFM power from 100 to 250 watts for station WDFC-LP, Greensboro, NC. Also shown in the figure is the 88.4 dBu contour of 2nd-adjacent full-power station WJMH, Reidsville, NC (class C0, 102.1 MHz). Here are some of the details of the proposed rule changes (page numbers refer to the Petition document):

(Page 11) REC proposes a new class of service for LPFM. This service will be allowed to operate at a maximum of 250 watts at 30 meters height above average terrain (“HAAT”) which will result in a service contour of 7.1 kilometers. Under the new LP-250 class of service, LPFM stations may operate at a minimum of 101 watts at 30 meters HAAT with a service contour exceeding 5.6 kilometers and up to 7.1 kilometers;
(Page 13) REC proposes that if a short-spaced LP-100 station wishes to upgrade to LP-250, they will need to make a technical showing that the interfering contour of the proposed upgraded LPFM facility will not overlap the service contour of the full-service contour;
(Page 14) REC proposes that all requests for an upgrade to LP-250 that already has or will result in a new second-adjacent channel short spacing must be accompanied by a request for a waiver of §73.807 of the Commission’s Rules in respect to the short-spaced second adjacent channel station(s). The waiver request would need to include a technical study that either shows that the second-adjacent channel interfering contour of the upgraded LPFM station would not overlap the service contour of the shortspaced station or a demonstration of no interference which can include such items as a map of the proposed interference area, a tower diagram, a satellite or aerial photograph, the antenna manufacturer’s vertical radiation pattern and/or any details about any nearby structures or major roadways. This will mean that LP-100 stations already on a waiver would have to ask for a new waiver to upgrade to LP- 250;
(Page 26) To help expedite the process to allow for LP-100 stations to be permitted to upgrade to LP-250, REC proposes that an automatic upgrade authority (“AUA”) be given to LPFM stations that meet specific criteria. Under AUA, LP-100 stations would be given a period of time (such as 180 days) to voluntarily upgrade their stations to LP-250;
(Page 32) Currently, FM translators are only required to protect LPFM stations on co-channel and first adjacent channels while LPFM stations are required to protect FM translators on co-channel, first adjacent and second-adjacent channel. REC proposes that FM translators now be required to protect LPFM stations on second adjacent channels as well.

Also included in the Petition is a table which estimates the number of LPFM stations that would likely be eligible for upgrading to the LP-250 service:

Comments on this Petition (due June 15, 2015) may be filed electronically:Visit the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) web page at http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/upload/display;

Visit the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) web page at http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/upload/display;
Enter Proceeding Number RM-11749;
Provide the requested contact information, note that comments may be filed by anyone and an attorney is not required (if no attorney then simply leave this information blank);
Under “Details” the only information required is Type of Filing: COMMENT;
Provide the requested address information;
Under “Documents” choose the file containing your prepared comments – it is best to submit this in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format;
Click on CONTINUE which brings up a page for review;
Click on CONFIRM to submit your Comments.

Is Broadcast Part of the Solution to Internet Traffic Congestion?

May 18, 2015 / Tariq Islam / No Comments

Akamai’s Chief Architect Will Law talked about the trends of Internet connectivity at the ATSC Broadcast Television Conference held on May 14, 2015 in Washington DC. He identified that delivering high quality video will be a challenge to the Internet infrastructure in the future, and that integration of broadcast and Internet could be a solution to that problem.

Akamai’s Intelligent Platform™ is a leading cloud platform that delivers secure, high-performing user experiences. The platform is a globally distributed network of servers and intelligent software, and it handles over two trillion interactions daily. Through this platform Akamai has gathered insightful metrics such as connection speed, network availability, traffic patterns, etc. over different geographical regions. Akamai’s Chief Architect shared some of the data and statistics with the ATSC Broadcast Television Conference audience.

Although average connection speed is increasing across the US, there are significant disparities among the states. It is generally accepted among Internet providers that OTT delivery of a 4K UHD signal would require about a 15 Mbps internet pipe. The following figure shows that many states are not yet ready to support a widespread 4K UHD OTT service.

Akamai also showed that peak bandwidth demand varies with time and coincides with big events. Moreover, the peak bandwidth demand also increases year by year. The following figure shows that the peak bandwidth demand is spiky and that the envelope of the peaks is growing.

Factors that are driving the demand for higher Internet speed are 4K/UHD video, OTT services, catch-up TV, device-based video playback outside the living room, and increasing user expectations of quality. There are a few potential solutions to the bandwidth challenge: better compression (HEVC), growth in average throughput, backbone fiber improvements, hybrid UDP protocols, possibility of IP multicast, P2P, HTTP2, standards such as MPEG-DASH, decreasing cost of storage, and broadcast integration.

Akamai’s solution to the bandwidth problem is to place edge servers near the end user, as shown in the following figure. The edge server, marked as an orange box, is physically near the end user; this kind of placement reduces the burden of fetching the content from distant sources and thus reduces overall internet traffic.

Broadcasters have several opportunities in this environment. First, they could form a partnership with CDN providers and collaborate with caching content on the edge servers. Second, using new technologies such as ATSC 3.0, broadcasters could reach many of the end users directly over the air, especially during the large bandwidth demand spikes associated with big events. If terrestrial broadcasts are integrated with broadband networks, service to consumers will be optimized from the combination of the inherent flexibility of the Internet and the high spectrum efficiency of broadcast delivery.