SpectraRep, DigiCAP, Heartland Video Systems Working To Accelerate 3.0 Adoption By Public TV Stations

A strategic alliance announced Monday at the NAB Show is designed to address the unique needs of public broadcasters.

SpectraRep, a provider of datacasting solutions, applications and systems, today announced a strategic alliance with broadcast equipment supplier Heartland Video Systems and ATSC 3.0 gateway solution provider DigiCAP to support public television stations in their adoption of the ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) standard.

The alliance will leverage the deep broadcast experience of each company to provide public stations with guidance on the planning, budgeting, and integration of the ATSC 3.0 standard.

SpectraRep President Mark O’Brien expressed his commitment to the new alliance saying: “We believe ATSC 3.0 will revolutionize the broadcasting industry, and we share this vision with Heartland Video Systems and DigiCAP. Our companies have complementary expertise and extensive experience with public broadcasting, and we know the challenges and opportunities very well. Our combined effort will deliver a unique value to public television stations as they look to transition to ATSC 3.0 and enhance their broadcasting capabilities.”

Heartland Video Systems, a provider of broadcast equipment and solutions, will bring its expertise in broadcast engineering, integration and support to the alliance. DigiCAP, a South Korean company, specializes in solutions and equipment for the broadcasting industry, particularly for the emerging standard of ATSC 3.0. SpectraRep, a provider of emergency alerting through datacasting, will provide its expertise in ATSC 3.0 content delivery, including its IncidentOne solutions, which leverages the power of the digital television (DTV) network to deliver data to first responders at incident scenes.

“We value our deep personal and professional relationships with our friends in public television,” said Dennis Klas, Heartland Video Systems president. “We felt we could provide even better service by showing not only how, but why, public stations are critical to ATSC 3.0 success. Public stations need to be included as their markets transition to NextGen TV.”

In addition to expounding on the value around the transition to ATSC 3.0, the firms say that a significant goal of the alliance will be to help stations simplify hardware selection, system integration and datacasting services. With the help of the alliance, public stations will be assisted in finding lighthouse partners and paths to bandwidth monetization that will make ATSC 3.0 services faster and easier to implement.

“Broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 is only part of the challenge,” said John McCoskey, SpectraRep COO and former PBS CTO. “Identifying enterprise and commercial customers, ingesting, and managing proprietary data and managing those relationships is what SpectraRep has been doing in ATSC 1.0 for over 20 years. Improved reception, additional capacity and mobile applications are tools SpectraRep can leverage to improve existing customer relationships and identify new ones. We very much look forward to helping the industry move forward through this strategic alliance.”

Joonyoung Park, DigiCAP SVP, said: “South Korea has more experience with ATSC 3.0 than any country in the world. We have a great deal of knowledge and experience that will benefit public broadcasters on both the transmit and consumer device side, which we are excited to share.”

The companies said they will meet regularly to share expertise, relationships and outreach to improve public television’s awareness of, and access to, ATSC 3.0. One tool that is available for download now is: Twenty-Five Essential Considerations for ATSC 3.0 Conversions: A guide for public TV stations transitioning to ATSC 3.0. (Visit www.spectrarep.com and click on the Resources link to download.)