Sam Matheny is on a mission to bring next-generation TV to America. As CTO of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), Sam is one of the driving forces behind ATSC 3.0, the new standard that reimagines how content is delivered to consumers.
Because it merges broadcast and broadband seamlessly, ATSC 3.0 expands the menu of services and experiences broadcasters can offer, like 4K Ultra-High Definition programming, enhanced linear TV, real-time addressable advertising, companion device support, immersive audio and much more. (Everything you need to know about ATSC 3.0 is right here)
At the NAB show this year in Las Vegas we sat down with Sam to discuss the benefits of ATSC 3.0 and the Association’s work with Vewd.
Take it away, Sam:
Transcript
My name is Sam Matheny and I'm the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of the National Association of Broadcasters.
How can broadcasters benefit from the work that Vewd and the NAB are doing together?
Vewd and NAB working together can benefit broadcasters really by doing the foundational work that is going to enable next-generation television.
With next-generation television, it is the world's first IP-based standard and what it's really doing is bringing together the best of broadband with the best of broadcast. It's a new environment.
So as we started to develop these new types of applications for TV – and these include advanced advertising, these include interactive and customized content applications – they require a level of development that has normally been associated with the web, but now they're going to be applicable in broadcast.
And so what we've been able to do by working with Vewd is to develop the foundational frameworks that form these applications and that, at NAB Show this year, found its way into other devices made by LG, made by Sony, made by Samsung.
What are the capabilities of next-generation TV formats?
So at NAB Show this year we were trying to be really aggressive we wanted to really show the capabilities of ATSC 3.0.The current demo that we have was one that we really developed in partnership with NBC and WRAL TV and it was around the Olympics. It's about creating a customized broadcast experience for the end-user.
So we what we do with it is we combine the broadcast ultra high-definition video and audio with an application that is customized by the end user. A user is able to enter the teams that they like, the sports that they're interested in, the countries that they're interested in following and have that information delivered via the internet in combination with the broadcast to provide an experience that's unique to them.
The other piece of it is that we are we're involving content, we're involving other technologies, we're involving so many different moving parts and pieces, and so to be able to bring those together and to provide an easy to understand and navigate application for the end-user on multiple platforms from different manufacturers has really been important.
Why did the NAB select Vewd as a partner on this new technology?
The way we came to work with Vewd was when we were starting this work we said we knew that we needed a partner that understood the space. We knew we needed someone that had been working with smart TVs. That had experience with the interactive environments that were possible there and that could help us bridge the gap to bring that to next-generation television.Vewd was right there engineers in the booth helping us every step of the way, solving the problems that were unforeseen and making sure that when the doors opened that everything ran flawlessly. And so what we have really been impressed with is the way that Vewd has been able to leverage their expertise in smart television to help port over these applications and to make them function with ATSC 3.0. So in that regard, they've been a wonderful partner.