ATSC Chief Sees 10 More ATSC 3.0 Ingredients Moving to Candidate Standard Status This Month

ATSC President Mark Richer sees 10 more ATSC 3.0 ingredients moving to candidate standard status this month, he said in the December issue of ATSC’s monthly newsletter, The Standard, published Monday. The new candidate standards will include those of “major elements” of ATSC 3.0, among them video encoding, Internet protocol transport, electronic service guides, second-screen services and closed captioning, Richer said. He expects ATSC will “finalize the few remaining” candidate standards for audio, security and interactive capabilities in early 2016, he said. The candidate standard phase of ATSC 3.0 “is not a time to take a breath,” Richer said. It’s “a critical time for broadcasters to implement test services and for professional and consumer equipment manufacturers to fine-tune their prototypes and demonstrate the capabilities of ATSC 3.0,” he said. “And it’s the time for all stakeholders to work together on any necessary clarifications to the standards documents to assure interoperability.”