NAB Show 2023 Report

This year the National Association of Broadcasters celebrated the 100-year anniversary of their NAB Show.  Much has changed in the last 100 years moving from mostly live broadcast radio and TV to today’s pre-recorded, high production values, streaming, and on-demand content.  The technical program of NAB 2023 has expanded over the last 100 years to include all matters of production, post-production, broadcast, non-broadcast transmission, and rendering of content to delivery platforms that go well beyond lean-back radio and TV receivers.

The topics at the NAB show are of direct interest to our CTSoc members as the end target of NAB content is our consumer technology services and devices that deliver the content.  The evolution of NAB includes moving beyond passive lean-back content on stationary furniture to include interactive and small-screen service offerings.

The Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) hosted a NAB technical session on 2023 technology trends and many of the topics revealed are of interest to our CTSoc field of interest ( https://theiabm.org/iabm-technology-and-trends-roadmap/ ).  Quoting excerpts from the SBE session, for example:

• Cognitive intelligence is coming into TV sets, which enhances parts of an image depending on what’s going on within the scene. ML-based upscaling to 4K is already well-established in higher-end consumer televisions and will continue to evolve.
• Aside from live content, OTT is solid and common. AI/ML techniques are improving compression, however, licensing isn’t standardized. Having video anywhere, on any device, at any time is commonplace, not just expected but demanded.
• The push for virtual zero latency continues. ATSC 3.0, NextGen TV and 5G deployments are well underway. Monetization models are still very much in flux. Churn is a constant battle with the hope that AI will assist. UHD delivery over satellite is mature in several markets.
• Smart media devices pioneered Internet-of-Things (IoT) and now “Smart Speakers” enabled by Amazon, Google and Apple technologies are quite mature and have evolved as a centralized point of coordination, control and consolidation of increasingly large numbers of diverse consumer IoT home automation devices – with media functions at the core. This signals the emergence of yet another significant paradigm for aggregation, control and monetization of consumer experience.

While NAB covered a wide range of topics such as above, the major theme of NAB 2023 was exploring the future for broadcast TV based on the newly released NextGenTV (ATSC 3.0) broadcast TV standard ( https://www.nab.org/innovation/nextgentv.asp ).  Given that most consumers enjoy video over cable, streaming, and other than over-the-air broadcast TV, you might ask-- is a new over-the-air broadcast standard such as ATSC 3.0 is relevant or important?  History based on the introduction of broadcast digital TV based on ASTC 1.0 demonstrated that digital TV was broadcast before being adopted by cable.  It can be expected that numerous aspects of broadcast ATSC 3.0 will migrate to cable and other means of distribution.  Of special interest are these features of the new NextGenTV standard:

• IP protocol formats
• Multiple bit rates and formats to adapt to a variety of screen sizes, resolutions, and transmission channel quality
• Support of robust delivery to highly mobile receivers
• Incorporation of interactive use cases and applications based on a return channel from the consumer

Over the product roadmap timeline, I believe there will be two significant impacts of ATSC 3.0 upon the CTSoc products and services within our field of interest:

In the short term, the robust delivery to high-velocity mobile devices will enable content targeted to cellphones and tablets.  In particular interactive content that blends broadcast video with interactivity based on the two-way return channel incorporated within ATSC 3.0 standards.  One might argue that various past attempts to mix broadcast video with unicast two-way were marketplace failures. For example, Qualcomm’s MediFlo ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaFLO ) and ATSC M/H ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATSC-M/H ATSC A/53) did not have marketplace traction. However, with ATSC 3.0 going to enable interactive content to stationary devices in the home, content and services directed to mobile devices is sure to follow.

In the longer term with the introduction of autonomous self-driving vehicles, the ability of NextGenTV to deliver video to moving vehicles whose drivers no longer need to have their eyes busy with driving should enable a new set of new services that will disrupt our industry in a positive way ( https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10015875 ).  Several postings have explored this mobile opportunity ( https://www.atsc.org/atsc-documents/type/3-0-planning-team-reports/) and ( https://www.tvtechnology.com/opinion/nextgen-datacasting-theres-money-to-be-made ).

In the Consumer Technology space, I expect the introduction of ASTC 3.0 broadcast content will create many new and exciting opportunities for service providers and product OEMs.

Stuart Lipoff, EIC Emeritus CTSoc World

and Chair CTSoc Historian Committee