Our Blog

Posted on

Reach Out and Touch Someone (…or your TV). Thoughts on ATSC 3.0 broadcast apps.

Broadcast television has traditionally been a  prix fixe affair. A bunch of people shoot some video, slice it, stich it, and present it to you on your large screen TV to sit back and savor. If what appears doesn’t suit your palette, well, you can change the channel. Traditional broadcast TV has also been a largely lean back, consumptive experience without any chance to interact with or steer the program.

All that could change with ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV). Continue reading “Reach Out and Touch Someone (…or your TV). Thoughts on ATSC 3.0 broadcast apps.”

Posted on

Breakthrough in DVR Storage and Time Shifting Rumored

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (AB)  Koherence Labs, the R&D arm of consumer electronics consulting firm Koherence, LLC,  is rumored to have made a breakthrough in content recording. Dubbed “InfiniDVR,” the new technology allows  an effectively unlimited recording capacity and permits viewing of all shows that have ever been or will be broadcast.

Continue reading “Breakthrough in DVR Storage and Time Shifting Rumored”

Posted on

Thoughts on Locast: Broadcast Meets Broadband

Locast launched in 2018 as a way for TV viewers to receive OTA TV without an antenna. For those of you familiar with the TiVo Stream (not to be confused with the more recent and most unfortunately christened TiVo Stream 4k), the Locast service essentially does what the Stream does.: it makes the OTA broadcast friendly to network (including internet) streaming. Basically, the Locast service receives the OTA station (using an antenna) and converts it into a broadband stream. Viewers can then use apps on their televisions, set-top boxes, streaming sticks, or other devices to view live programming.

Continue reading “Thoughts on Locast: Broadcast Meets Broadband”

Posted on

ATSC 3.0: DRM and Encryption

A bit more than a year ago I headed over to a former client’s headquarters to discuss a potential ATSC 3.0 project. The moment I stepped into the office I was swarmed by a group of engineers and managers with one primary question : are 3.0 broadcasts really going to be encrypted, and if so what DRM is going to be employed?

There’s been a lot of chatter about encryption of ATSC 3.0 broadcasts and what it means for free over-the-air TV. A lot of that discussion conflates encryption, content protection, and content rights management. This post will hopefully help in untangling things a bit while providing some context, and also some discussion around the unintended consequences that encryption may have on innovation in the consumer electronics space. Continue reading “ATSC 3.0: DRM and Encryption”

Posted on

On the Road to ATSC 3.0

Yes, we’re still alive!

Since CES we’ve been on the road to ATSC 3.0, heading out to Phoenix to sample the Pearl model market, Las Vegas for NAB, and made several diversions to Santa Barbara to work with NPG’s broadcast.

Depending on who you ask, ATSC 3.0 will be the greatest revolution in television since digital television (i.e. ATSC 1.0), or – being incompatible with the current ATSC 1.0 broadcast standard and embracing web and streaming technologies perhaps a little too much – its  greatest boondoggle.

ATSC 3.0 has a great many features for broadcasters, such as the opportunity for targeted advertising and content protection.  But what does it have for the average consumer? Continue reading “On the Road to ATSC 3.0”