Three exciting events have recently occurred in the normally sleepy region of Fresno, California. First, Cocola Broadcasting brought an RF 6 ATSC 3.0 “Frankenstation” on line. With UHD content! Second Sinclair launched its emission. Third, the temperature in mid-June was unseasonably cool for a couple days (highs in 70s). With that confluence of events we just had to trek out and see what NextGen Fresno had to offer!
ATSC 3.0, Encryption, and You
Recently there’s been a lot of chatter about ATSC 3.0 broadcasts going encrypted in the not-too-distant future. We’ve actually been hearing murmurs about this for quite a while, however what seems to have set things into a flurry is a notice from Nuvyyo (i.e. Tablo) indicating that their much-anticipated ATSC 3.0 version of Tablo is being delayed – because they need to implement A3SA. A3SA is the security architecture for handling encrypted ATSC 3.0 broadcasts. Apparently Nuvyyo learned a number of broadcasters were going to flip the encryption switch at the end of summer, and (kudos to them) elected not to release a product which wouldn’t handle those encrypted services.
(Now you actually can receive and watch an encrypted service due to the way ATSC 3.0 and common encryption works. It won’t exactly be what you expect, but the psychedelic melange of greens and fuchsias can be quite, well, entertaining in its own right…)
Entangle 3.1415926535897932384626…
It’s been a while since we’ve posted and we’ve got some exciting news – we’re pleased to add the Raspberry Pi 4 to the Entangle family!
NextGen TV Arrives in the Bay Area!
It was a bit unexpected. And the programming isn’t exactly a showcase of what NextGen TV can deliver. But at long last the Bay Area has an ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV) broadcast compliments of KBKF! After spending a couple years trekking to Phoenix, Santa Barbara and Las Vegas to go to the emissions it’s nice to have one in our own backyard. And we’re pleased to add ATSC 3.0 monitoring support at SFBayATSC!
KBKF is operated by Venture Technologies Group, LLC and broadcasts on VHF 6 from Mt. Loma Prieta. At the time of writing the 3.0 emission consists of a single PLP utilizing 64 QAM and an 8/15 code rate. This is a bit more robust than other 3.0 emissions, which often utilize 256 QAM, though at the expense of a lower capacity (~14 Mbit/s). In mid June two ROUTE/DASH services were being transmitted – a barker channel as 6-1 and UChan as 6-2. At the moment UChan has taken the 6-1 VC and the barker has signed off. Interestingly the services are using AAC audio. While this was prevalent in early 3.0 phases when AC-4 support for receivers and encoders was still under development, commercial deployments in the US are required to use AC-4. (The ATSC 3.0 specification provides for multiple audio codecs, but only a single codec is allowed in a region. In North America that codec is AC-4.)
Continue reading “NextGen TV Arrives in the Bay Area!”
Entangle Update Halloween Edition: Spooky Action at a (Social) Distance
Yes we’re still alive! It’s been a crazy 2020. On top of pandemics, wildfires, and air quality bad enough to turn day into night, our WordPress installation has been plagued with issues preventing new posts from appearing. At long last it looks like we’ve exorcised the spirits haunting our site, so here’s what we’ve been up to while manually recovering posts from databases…
It’s been a busy year: ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGenTV) has moved from testing to reality and services have launched in Las Vegas, Portland, and several other locations. SiliconDust did a HDHomerun Quatro 4k Kickstarter, and after an almost comical set of delays including a dock strike and Nick Kelsey hoping for no earthquakes in Southern California, they’ve arrived in backer’s hands (including ours!). And we’ve been busy making sure Project Entangle keeps pace with these developments. Continue reading “Entangle Update Halloween Edition: Spooky Action at a (Social) Distance”