PILOT shows ATSC 3.0 Interactive Environment at NAB Show

PILOT Demonstrates First Next-Gen TV Interactive Environment Prototype Home Gateway at NAB Show

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A prototype ATSC 3.0 receiver and gateway demonstrating the Interactive Environment will be featured during NAB Show, April 18-21, 2016, Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nev., in the PILOT booth (SU16009) at the Futures Park exhibition in the east end of South Hall, Upper Level.

The “Next Generation TV” standard, or ATSC 3.0, was developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), a cooperative effort by the broadcast, consumer electronics, cable, satellite, motion picture and computer industries. One of the key features of ATSC 3.0 is the Interactive Environment. This new approach to broadcasting is based on HTML-5, the language of the World Wide Web, and will enable broadcasters to provide a richer and more customized experience for viewers.

The home gateway combines an over-the-air (OTA) TV tuner with Internet access, Wi-Fi connectivity and a software environment that enables new types of user engagement. The demonstration will feature content from several contributors to highlight the breadth of functionality that the Interactive Environment provides, including:

• Interactive multi-view programming provided by Fox Sports
• Local interactive news and weather programming provided by News Press & Gazette
• The capability to recognize local station members and offer exclusive content, provided by PBS
• On-demand content provided by Akamai where content is pre-loaded and stored for instant gateway access
• A PILOT channel featuring the NHL’s Washington Capitals that showcases zoned and targeted advertising as well as advanced emergency alerting capabilities

“Next-Gen television is about much more than just improving the video and audio experience,” said So Vang, National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) vice president of Advanced Technology and the project lead for the Interactive Environment. “This prototype begins to demonstrate what is possible with an Internet Prototcol (IP) based standard that leverages common web techniques to create a very engaging user experience.”

Advanced analytics for the increased engagement offered by the Interactive Environment of Next-Gen TV is another opportunity for broadcasters. Yet Analytics has integrated their software into the prototype gateway and will demonstrate real-time viewing and engagement metrics.

“This is early and important work that begins to show the promise of Next-Gen TV,” said Sam Matheny, NAB’s CTO. “We’d like to get to a place where we can share our prototype and SDK with other developers and content providers to build out additional and even more compelling use cases. I hope you’ll see something like that happen as we proceed.”

The Interactive Environment prototype was developed as part of PILOT’s ATSC 3.0 Gateway project, in collaboration with OpenZnet, Opera TV and Videon Central. Additional support for the demonstration was provided by Monumental Sports Network, true[X], Dolby®, Harmonic and Sinclair Broadcast Group.