The Nation’s Capital Goes NextGen

Inside the Engineering of the Howard University NextGen TV Broadcast Collaborative

The launch of WHUT as the lighthouse station in Washington, D.C., was a landmark achievement in the national deployment of ATSC 3.0 and NextGen TV.

It was accomplished via the Howard University NextGen TV Broadcast Collaborative, a unique collaboration between a university-owned public television station and some of the largest commercial television station groups and networks in the country.

In this engaging conversation, some of the lead engineers and technical minds that came together to make it happen discuss the process. Learn about what it took to launch one of the largest television markets in the country, what it means to be broadcasting in the nation’s capital, the special opportunities this brings for tomorrow’s engineering talent, as well as how it fits within the larger rollout.

The roundtable discussion took place on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. Recorded video from the event is embedded above.

Additional Resources

• NextGen TV Host Station Manual v12

Additional Product Resources from Triveni Digital

• Triveni Digital ATSC 3.0 Broadcast Gateway
• Triveni Digital StreamScope Enterprise central DTV service quality manager
• Triveni Digital StreamScope XM Verifier essential ATSC 3.0 verification software
• Triveni Digital StreamScope Combo ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0 analyzer
• Triveni Digital GuideBuilder XM ATSC 3.0 transport encoder

Additional Product Resources from Synamedia

• Synamedia Solution Brief: ATSC 3.0 Next-Generation TV for Programmers and TV Networks
• Synamedia Media Edge Gateway ATSC 3.0 Receiver Datasheet
• Synamedia vDCM Encoder Datasheet

Moderator

Sam Matheny is Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at the National Association of Broadcasters. With over 25 years of experience in the broadcast and data networking industries, including earning a patent for inventing mobile and interactive DTV technologies, Sam leads NAB’s technology team in its efforts to promote innovation and propel broadcast technology into the future. He also provides overall leadership for PILOT, as well as NAB’s TV, Radio, and Digital Technology Committees.

Speakers

David Folsom is Technical Lead at Pearl TV and formerly Chief Technology Officer of Raycom Media Inc. (now part of Gray Television). While consulting for Pearl TV, he was responsible for the management and engineering of the Phoenix NextGen TV Model Market Station Project as well as other Pearl TV and Pearl TV Network Consortia projects. He is also the author of the Phoenix Project NextGen TV Host Station Manual, as well as the Pearl webinar series about NextGen TV. His focus throughout the development and rollout of NextGen TV is in advancing NextGen TV through operational and technical education.

Sean Plater is General Manager at WHUR 96.3FM, WHUT-TV, and The Howard University Radio Network in Washington, D.C. In this capacity, he handles the day-to-day operations of six radio stations (four local and two national), WHUT-TV, provides guidance for each department and, most importantly, ensures that the stations superserve the DMV (D.C., Maryland and Virginia). He considers himself to be a student of the broadcast business and is always looking for innovative ways to enhance and further expand the brands that he manages.

Kurt Rao serves as the senior vice president and chief technology officer at TEGNA and is charged with working across TEGNA to drive the development and implementation of the company’s next-generation client and customer technology solutions in the areas of content, advertising, data and insights and media distribution.

Ralph Bachofen is Vice President, Sales and Marketing, at Triveni Digital. He has more than 20 years of experience in voice and multimedia over Internet Protocol (IP), telecommunications, and the semiconductor business. Bachofen is an expert in the role of metadata in the effective provisioning and monitoring of DTV services in ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0 infrastructures. Bachofen’s education includes an executive master of business administration and a bachelor of science in telecommunication technologies. Bachofen is a frequent speaker on the topic of test and measurement strategies, advanced broadcast platforms, and mobile DTV delivery, at a variety of industry conferences including the Broadcasting Engineering Conference at the NAB Show, BroadcastAsia Conference, the Caribbean Cable and Telecommunications Association, and the SCTE .

Jovo Miskin is Principal Software Architect at Synamedia, with 25 years of experience in the media processing industry. Specializing in bleeding-edge technologies like SMPTE ST2022-6/7, SMPTE ST2110, ATSC1/3.0, Digital Program Insertion, Linear Stream Switch and many others, Jovo played a significant role in architecting various Synamedia flagship products as part of the video network innovation incubators team. Jovo holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Faculty of Technical Science, University of Novi Sad, Serbia.