Pearl TV Opposes Incorporating A/322 Document Into Final ATSC 3.0 Rules

Pearl TV supports the FCC’s initial proposal to incorporate only the A/321 “bootstrap” physical-layer document into the final rules on ATSC 3.0, it told representatives of the commission's Media Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology in meetings Tuesday. ATSC 3.0 “was designed to be flexible and to adjust to changing technology,” Pearl said in an ex parte notice posted Thursday in docket 16-142. With only A/321 in the rules, the FCC “will ensure that ATSC can develop different features and capabilities for Next Generation TV depending on how the standard is received and develops,” it said. “This ongoing flexibility is a virtue of the standard and should be maintained. The arguments made by the few parties who support incorporating A/322 are not persuasive, in particular because some parties may stand to benefit from their intellectual property interests in A/322.” It didn’t mention names, but LG Electronics has been a particularly outspoken proponent of putting A/322, the document on physical-layer protocol, in the final rules, saying failure to do so risks “disenfranchising” the public in the form of faulty receivers that don't properly demodulate the ATSC 3.0 signal (see 1706080054). LG and Zenith R&D Lab representatives met with the commission Thursday to emphasize "the importance of incorporating A/322" into the ATSC 3.0 rules, LG said in an ex parte notice posted Friday. LG and Zenith have made no secret of their stake in ATSC 3.0's physical layer. At Cleveland field trials two years ago, they said that of the 16 “blocks” that will comprise ATSC 3.0's physical layer, LG has at least some involvement in at least 10 of those blocks (see 1507130007). Pearl worries “low-end manufacturers, motivated by avoiding IP expenses, will simply bypass A/321 and only build their devices to the specifications of A/322,” it said. “As technology evolves and improves, these devices would be left orphaned without the core A/321 capability to be updated to more advanced standards.” Sinclair's One Media also has come out against putting A/322 into the final ATSC 3.0 rules (see 1706080054). Pearl and Sinclair partnered with LG rival Samsung in an ATSC 3.0 memorandum of understanding two years ago (see 1506170046). Samsung publicly has been silent on the A/322 issue.