Last week, Business News Americas broke the story that the ATSC Forum — the industry group that lobbies for the international adoption of the US ATSC digital TV standard of the Advanced Television Systems Committee — plans to close its doors at the end of September. Although the ATSC Forum’s closure has gotten little attention… Read more »
Monthly Archives:: September 2009
Broadcasters Challenge Broadband TV Patent Submarine Threat
I’ve pointed out how the EBU, the world’s largest organization of national broadcasters, is beating the drum to avoid patent lock-ins in new standards for hybrid broadcast-broadband TV services. EBU’s own write-up of last week’s EBU/ETSI workshop is even more direct: “Broadcasters are haunted by the ghosts of the submarine patents which emerged with MHP… Read more »
Patent Dumping For Democracy: Reconsidering America’s DTV Diplomacy
“More Democratic” … “It is a matter of social justice” So US ambassadors have lobbied South American governments since 2007 that “[t]he issue is whether the government will choose the [ATSC] digital television standard that is already providing the highest quality, lowest cost, and most democratic opportunities …” In recent months Peru, Argentina, and now… Read more »
“Conflict Through Consensus”: Europe’s Hybrid Broadbanders Paint on UK’s Project Canvas
A “Julius Stonian” observation: standards groups aren’t “consensus organizations”, they are political organizations. Winners declare their way the “consensus”, and changes in political context shift the “consensus”. So reflects calls in several slides at yesterday’s Hybrid Broadcast-Broadband (HBB) workshop to look deeper into Intellectual Property Rights and other control points in the new “broadcast+broadband” (aka… Read more »
The BRIC That Could: How Brazil Is Changing Your TV
Europe sneers at their technology. US’s DTV transition passed them by. BBC’s intelligentsia never noticed them. No consumer electronics industry to match Asia; neighbors don’t speak their language. So how did Brazil become a world leader in digital TV? And why the tip of the hat to Brazil DTV middleware leader TQTVD, to whom I… Read more »
DTV Patent Pools: What’s Wrong & How to Fix It
At the 2009 Brazil SET Broadcasting & Cable Conference I presented on 3 panel topics: “DTV Patent Pools: What’s Wrong & How to Fix It” (pdf) “Conformance & Certification: Key to Digital Switch Over“ “Hybrid TV, The Way Forward?“ Slides on DTV patents below; the overall theme that Brazil has become a world DTV leader… Read more »
Hybrid TV: The Way Forward?
At the 2009 Brazil SET Broadcasting & Cable Conference I presented on 3 panel topics: “DTV Patent Pools: What’s Wrong & How to Fix It“ “Conformance & Certification: Key to Digital Switch Over“ “Hybrid TV, The Way Forward?“(pdf) The overall theme that Brazil has become a world DTV leader was picked up in the Brazil… Read more »
What Have We Learned From the Digital Switch Over?
At the 2009 Brazil SET Broadcasting & Cable Conference I presented on 3 panel topics: “DTV Patent Pools: What’s Wrong & How to Fix It” “Conformance & Certification: Key to Digital Switch Over” (pdf) “Hybrid TV, The Way Forward?“ The overall theme that Brazil has become a world DTV leader was picked up in the… Read more »
With Argentina Embracing ISDB, ATSC Forum Should Look at Its Education Function
September 1, 2009 VIA ECFS AND ELECTRONIC MAIL [pdf here] Marlene H. Dortch, Secretary Federal Communications Commission Office of the Secretary 445 12th Street, SW Washington, DC 20554 Re: Notice of Written Ex Parte Presentation In the Matter of Petition for Rulemaking and Request for Declaratory Ruling Filed by the Coalition United to Terminate the… Read more »