ATSC appoints new board


Details

Joseph O'Halloran

| 30 December 2015




US digital TV standards body The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) has elected five industry executives to serve on its board of directors for three-year terms beginning January 2016.



ATSCThe ATSC is an international, non-profit organisation and its current focus is developing voluntary standards, in particular the ATSC 3.0 next-generation broadcast standard. The association’s 150-plus member organisations represent the broadcast, broadcast equipment, motion picture, consumer electronics, computer, cable, satellite and semiconductor industries.

In September 2015, the body elevated the ATSC 3.0 next-generation television broadcasting physical layer spec to 'candidate standard' status after doing the same with the system discovery and signalling portion of the spec. The ATSC 3.0 physical layer allows television broadcasters to choose from a variety of transmission parameters, so that each station can tailor its signal to best serve its local market by providing the combination of services and coverage area best suited for the market and its terrain.

Driving such moves will be the new board which will now include fresh members such as Christopher Homer, VP, operations & engineering, PBS, and Anne Schelle, executive director, Pearl TV. They will join re-elected board members Brett Jenkins, Media General; Richard Friedel, Fox Networks; and current board chairman Glenn Reitmeier, NBC Universal. The Board will elect its chairman at its first meeting of the new year.

Homer will now be responsible for the management of the PBS Network Operations Centre, Media Operations Centre, PBS Satellite Operations Centre and Engineering & Maintenance. These facilities support distribution operations for the US public television interconnection, serving more than 350 independently owned and operated public television stations across the US.

Schelle has been executive director of Pearl TV since June 2014. She represents Pearl TV on Sprockit, the start-up programme of National Association of Broadcasters and served previously as senior advisor to the NAB and as executive director of the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), where she led outreach efforts by broadcasters to introduce mobile TV services.

Pearl is a 170-member partnership of broadcast companies and TV stations that reach two-thirds of the US population.