News & Press
IEEE Broadcast Symposium Call for Papers – Abstracts Due May 1, 2019
Register Now for the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society’s (BTS) ATSC 3 Roadshow at PBS D.C. on May 31, 2019
The IEEE Broadcast Technology Society (BTS) Hosts the “IEEE Broadcast Society’s ATSC 3 Roadshow” at PBS TechCon 2019
February 12, 2019 12:21 PM Eastern Standard Time
The IEEE Broadcast Technology Society will be hosting the ATSC 3 Roadshow at PBS TechCon 2019. BTS will be hosting the one-day course on the new ATSC 3 digital television (DTV) transmission system, taught by expert Gary Sgrignoli of Meintel, Sgrignoli, and Wallace, the noted digital TV transmission consulting firm. The Broadcast Technology Society will be offering the ATSC 3 Roadshow course on several dates in locations throughout the United States.This course will develop a fundamental understanding of the ATSC 3 digital transmission system's Physical Layer, provide attendees with practical application ideas and update them regarding the progress of the spectrum repack and ATSC 3 deployment. Attending the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society's ATSC 3 Roadshow will earn attendees SBE credit towards re-certification and can facilitate preparation for the upcoming SBE ATSC 3 Specialist Certification exam.
WHERE: Flamingo Las Vegas, 3555 South Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, Nevada 89109, United States
BTS is Proud to Sponsor the IEEE Try Engineering Summer Institute
IEEE offers a great Summer Camp program, Try Engineering Summer Institue for high school aged children with an interest in becoming future Engineers. BTS is a proud Sponsor of this important program for the 2nd year! The goal of the program is to spark enthusiasm in engineering and technology in the next generation of the problem-solvers and difference-makers, and position these innovators for long-term success in academics and in life.
Organized in two-week sessions each summer, on three dynamic college campuses across the United States, the TryEngineering Summer Institute unites students from around the world-- co-ed, between 12-17 years old -- to:
- engage in hands-on design challenges
- experience the work firsthand with behind-the-scenes tours with real-life engineers
- discover not just what's happening today, but what's coming tomorrow, through conversations with renowned guest speakers and incredible Summer Institute counselors
Best Practices For ST 2110 Cybersecurity
They begin with network design
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COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS—The television broadcast technical plant is changing or has changed for many. The traditional baseband based serial digital interface (SDI) commonplace since the inception of digital television is being replaced by an IP-based infrastructure. The migration to an all-IP infrastructure brings several advantages, including:
- Cost savings by using commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) IT hardware. Enterprise routers and switches have enormous economies of scale compared to the broadcast world’s purpose-built, industry-specific infrastructure.
- Greater system workflow flexibility. The inherent architecture flexibility provides for a change in workflow processes without a system re-wire commonly found in the baseband SDI plant. With a COTS Ethernet switch, high-capacity, non-blocking signal routing can be implemented in far less space than the traditional matrix SDI router.
- Format and resolution agnostic. Enterprises and streaming video service providers already use COTS infrastructure for a wide variety of formats and resolutions, from 720p through 1080p at 60fps and 4k. The use of IT industry standards also enables the high levels of interoperability commonly found among COTS equipment manufacturers.
- Simplified interconnection wiring. Installation costs are significantly reduced because less interconnection cabling means less labor. The SDI plant’s fixed signal path is replaced with a “star” architecture found in enterprise IT networks. System changes also are implemented by software configuration rather than facility re-cabling.
The use of an IP network in a broadcast facility has been commonplace for some time now. One example is the familiar RJ-45 Ethernet jack on many broadcast devices. Use of the IP network has been primarily for command and control, monitoring or file transfer.
But when an IP network is mentioned in the context of transporting real-time broadcast media, an instant lack of trust is often a common response. Many broadcast professionals are simply unable to accept the perceived risk involved for mission-critical content transmission. The “belt and suspenders” mindset of the broadcast engineer simply does not permit the perceived unreliable operation found in the IP environment. Reinforcement for this mindset is often obtained from one’s personal experience with the Internet.
ENABLING PROFESSIONAL MEDIA OVER MANAGED IP NETWORKS
To enable interoperability between system components from different manufacturers, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) established the ST 2110 standard. SMPTE 2110 is considered an umbrella standard, or a family of individual functional standards, that allow for the transmission of uncompressed audio and video over an IP network.
SMPTE 2110 is a suite of standards for transmission of “professional media over managed IP networks.” Audio, video and ancillary data are treated as separate, uncompressed essence data streams. Individual standards focus upon functional components of the suite, such as video (ST 2110-20) or audio (ST 2110-30). Ancillary data may include captioning data (ST 2110-40) that is associated with the media essence streams. A unique feature of ST 2110 allows essence data streams to be sent or routed over different physical paths and re-assembled at a destination end point by the incorporation of a synchronization mechanism (ST 2110-10).
Several SMPTE standards incorporate established Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request for Comments (RFC) provisions into the standards. Examples include the ST 2110-20 standard incorporating the IETC RFC #4175 for uncompressed video transmission and the ST 2110-10 system standard incorporating the IETF RFC #3550 Real Time Protocol (RTP). The IETF RFC’s are considered the “Bible” of IP networking.
It's important to make a couple of critical distinctions regarding the SMPTE ST 2110 standard. First, what is known as the public “Internet” is not the intended physical transport platform. By definition stated in the ST 2110 title, a “managed” IP network is the transport platform. A managed IP network is a private network that is built on private physical facilities or more likely a telco common carrier provided Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network. Performance can be specified in a Service Level Agreement (SLA) to ensure reliable delivery of real-media content such as high-definition, uncompressed video. Differentiated services are utilized to meet and maintain a contracted Quality of Service (QoS).
In contrast, the public Internet is a maze of independent interconnected networks with no end-to-end performance coordination or governance. Thus, the term “best effort” is used to describe the QoS of the public Internet. This is simply not an appropriate network choice in which to implement SMPTE ST 2110.
THE CIA TRIAD OF CYBERSECURITY
The private nature of the physical network platform also becomes a first step in mitigating cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Nevertheless, ST 2110 is an IP-based data network, so the IT industry’s accepted security practices should be deployed in any implementation.
Fig. 2: The “CIA” Triad
Network cybersecurity mitigation involves a number of individual steps or practices rather than one single step. Overall, the goal of network security is to meet the attributes defined by the “CIA Triad” as illustrated by Fig. 2. The triad is based upon the three attributes of: Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability. It should be noted that the phrase “AIC Triad” may also be used to avoid confusion with a US government agency of the same acronym.
Confidentiality refers to the ability of the network infrastructure to not allow disclosure of the data or information traversing the network infrastructure to any unauthorized user or host. Integrity refers to the ability of the network to ensure that the data has not been altered by an unauthorized user or host. And availability refers to the ability of the network infrastructure to ensure that resources are available only to authorized users or hosts.
Cybersecurity events such as a Denial of Service (DoS) attack or a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack target the availability attribute by impacting access to the network resources by legitimate users. A Man in the Middle (MITM) attack seeks to destroy the integrity attribute by altering the data or information traversing the network.
Industry best practices begin with network design as the first step in cyber-security threat mitigation. The network is segmented or layered into functional areas as dictated by the business case use, regulatory policy or organizational policy. Each layer or segment has unique use or purpose with an established security access policy. Inner layers are considered the core network segments and are the most secure.
The characteristics of an MPLS network provide an economical platform for ST 2110 implementation.
Other security attributes involve physical network infrastructure equipment protection from tampering through locked enclosures, cabinets or cages. Implementation of Ethernet switch port security is another capability that a managed switch offers to control what host device can be attached to a switch port. Packet filtering can be implemented by an Access Control List (ACL) to allow select host interoperability between network segments. The ACL filtering can be based upon several IP header fields such as addresses, protocol and port number.
Infrastructure equipment management should be implemented in an out-of-band manner. Out-of-band management also allows the use of the public Internet for accessibility implemented in a secure manner such as an encrypted Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection to the management network. This approach provides an air-gap between content transport network segments and the management network.
All of these outlined practices come together to define a secure network rather than complying with a single attribute. Cybersecurity can’t be ignored or left as an afterthought. At the end of the day, the broadcast engineer should have trust and confidence in a SMPTE ST 2110 network that is implemented as intended by the published standard utilizing established industry security practices.
Wayne M. Pecena is a IEEE BTS Distinguished Lecturer and Director of Engineering, Texas A&M University, KAM
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Internet of Radio-Light: Combining Visible Light and Millimeter Wave RF to Provide Ultra-Fast, Ubiquitous Indoor Broadband
Fifth-generation (5G) mobile is venturing where no cellular technology has gone before—the centimeter and millimeter wave bands (3 GHz to 300 GHz). And for good reason—there’s virtually no room left in cellular’s traditional sub-3 GHz bands to add enough capacity to shoulder all the additional traffic that 5G technology will enable.
WiFi is just as congested. That’s why in 2014, the FCC relaxed its rules for the 5 GHz band, effectively giving some WiFi devices access to another 100 MHz of spectrum. But with 4G and 5G cellular both offloading some of their traffic to WiFi, that extra 100 MHz won’t go far.
Hence the need for a new, fundamentally different air interface, one that combines traditional radio frequency (RF) technology with visible light. Called Internet of Radio-Light (IoRL), this technology aggregates 5G Component Carriers in the unlicensed 60 GHz millimeter wave (mmWave) band and visible light communications (VLC) in the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum between 400 and 800 THz. However, WiGig IEEE 802.11ad could equally well be used for the air interfaces with some slight modifications to the system architecture protocols.
This combination enables:
- Throughput greater than 10 Gbps, making it a viable alternative to WiFi, fiber, and copper for providing high-capacity broadband service in offices, airports, apartment buildings, and other places where demand is the highest.
- Latencies of less than 1 ms, which is fast enough for delay-intolerant applications such as Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and videoconferencing.
- Location accuracy of less than 10 cm, making it a good fit for IoT applications such as tracking high-value assets inside buildings, or wayfinding in malls and convention centers.
These are the same places where cellular and WiFi will always struggle to keep up. For example, cement boards and the wire mesh in stucco are great for attenuating signals. Some building owners try to get around that problem by installing Long Term Evolution (LTE) Home eNodeB (HeNBs) to create a private, local-area cellular network. But that infrastructure is expensive, and getting mobile operators’ approval to use their scarce spectrum can take months.
Broadband Coverage as Ubiquitous as Light
IoRL avoids these limitations partly by leveraging the trend toward LED lighting in offices, apartment complexes and other commercial buildings. IoRL uses Remote Radio Light Heads (RRLH), which can be integrated with conventional LED lighting systems. So, during remodels and new construction, the IoRL network installation simply becomes part of the lighting installation rather than an extra step with additional expenses for labor and materials
IoRL also leverages lighting’s ubiquity since the dawn of civilisation. Unlike WiFi access points and HeNBs, lighting fixtures are in every part of a building—even stairwells, restrooms, parking garages, and elevators. That means IoRL automatically has coverage in all of those places.
The RRLH uses 5G’s multi-component carrier feature to aggregate the VLC and mmWave bands to provide more throughput than each technology could provide by itself. Figure 1 provides an overview of the RRLH and other components in an IoRL network. It also shows that mobile operators could use IoRL to offload some of their traffic by enabling interworking with their gNodeBs or to simply act as a 5G Radio Access Network direct interface to the Internet in the Home.
IEEE BTS Explores Changes in Audio Technologies
Smart Speakers, 5G, Spectrum and more receive attention
James E O'Neal, Oct. 10
The first day of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society’s 68th three-day Broadcast Symposium drilled deeply down into emerging “disruptive” technologies as they affect the broadcast platform.
INVASION OF THE SMART SPEAKERS
Heading the list was the rapid rise of “smart speaker” technology and their deployment in the consumer environment. In his presentation “The Broadcaster’s Place in the Smart Speaker Ecosystem,” the NAB’s Senior Director of Technology, Education and Outreach Brian Savoie noted that even though smart speakers were launched only about three years ago, their acceptance and popularity is really unprecedented. 
[Read: IEEE BTS Fall Broadcast Symposium Gets Down to Business]
“The adoption rate has been very rapid,” said Savoie. “It’s likely to be faster than that of any other consumer device in history.”
He noted that the smart speaker is becoming a gateway for connecting with many services that consumers routinely use, and advised broadcasters that “Alexa is coming to the car” and they needed to make plans to get on that platform. “A hybrid voice-controlled radio was demonstrated at the Orlando Radio Show a couple of weeks ago. It’s coming.” He added some broadcasters could already be ready without knowing it. “If you’re streaming, you may already be on the platform.”
SPECTRUM SHARING, 5G, PIRATE BROADCASTERS, AND MORE
First-day “disruptive” presentations ran the gamut from methodology for sharing of 2025–2110 MHz spectrum between the U.S. Department of Defense and television ENG crews to 5G wireless broadband technology and its possible impact on conventional over-the-air broadcasting. Hybrid over-the-air/internet broadcasting was also on the radar, with one presenter providing information on initial testing of methodology for transmitting not only sight and sound, but also smell, taste, and touch content to provide a completely immersive experience.
Even the first-day luncheon keynote address followed through on the theme with a slightly different aspect of disruptive technology — the concept of storytelling — with Dolby Laboratories’ Chief Scientist Poppy Crum, describing how new and changing media technologies have the potential to change the way storytellers interact with their audiences, and even the storytelling methodology itself.
Activities wrapped up with a presentation on “Pirate Radio and FCC Enforcement” from Charles Cooper, director of the FCC’s Field Division of the Enforcement Bureau. Cooper stated that enforcement of pirate operations has a very high priority at the FCC, and noted that during the past year, 242 notices of unlicensed operation had been issued, and that the highest possible monetary penalty had been issued in the case of a Florida pirate operation.
“We also referred several cases to the federal courts for equipment seizure,” he said.
The conference continues on Wednesday with sessions on AM/FM digital-only broadcasting, ATSC 3.0 and UHD television, and connected car radio.
IEEE BTS Fall Broadcast Symposium Gets Down to Business
Bob Weller
For the 68th time, the opening gavel came down and the annual IEEE Broadcast Technology Society’s Fall Symposium got underway with opening remarks by the society’s president, Bill Hayes, and event co-chair Bob Weller describing the day’s conference theme of “Disruptive Technologies in the Broadcast Space.”
“Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, the cloud, immersive technologies and are all examples of these,” said Weller. “Keeping broadcast front and center on the automobile dashboard in the face of Pandora and other streaming services has become a focus of the radio side of our industry. This means offering more choices, and we’ll be hearing about all-digital AM and all-digital-FM implementations that do just that, as well as a panel session on the connected car.”
The three-day symposium is being held at the Key Bridge Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Va., just across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital.
Dr. Uma Jayaram, Principal Engineer and Managing Director of Engineering at Intel Sports will be joining the Broadcast Technology Society as a Keynote Speaker on Virtual Reality, Thursday, October 11, 2018 at the 2018 IEEE Broadcast Symposium
Contacts
IEEE Broadcast Technology Society
Margaux Toral, Society Promotions & Marketing Manager
732-981-3455
m.toral@ieee.org
IEEE BTS AND SBE PARTNER WITH ATSC TO EDUCATE INDUSTRY ABOUT NEXT GEN TV
WASHINGTON, Sept. 7, 2018 – The IEEE Broadcast Technology Society (BTS) and the Society of