United States Proposes ATSC 3.0 as ITU International Digital Broadcast Standard

The United States of America has proposed to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) adoption of the ATSC 3.0 digital broadcast standard for use by all countries in the world. The proposal is the first major step in the evaluation process for worldwide acceptance of the standard. The ITU will review the world’s first IP-based Broadcast System proposal to other regions, such as Europe, China, Japan, and Brazil, which have their own TV standards.

Three young South Korean entrepreneurs with a track record of successful tech startups have announced a second venture: Muzika. Co-founders Inseo Chung, Sangmin Heo, and Jangwon Lee previously launched Mapiacompany, a music technology platform. Muzika will incorporate blockchain technology to build a music sharing platform that envisions a revolutionary token economy for music that allows fans to engage directly in the production, distribution, and consumption of music.

The opening game of the 2018 Football World Cup in Russia marked the world’s first regular broadcast with immersive and interactive audio: The South Korean television and radio network company SBS transmitted this match live in Ultra-High Definition (UHD) based on the ATSC 3.0 standard, utilizing the advanced features of Fraunhofer’s MPEG-H TV Audio System, immersive sound and interactive audio.

Musicanote, a music media content startup from Seoul, South Korea, which previously developed a music search engine, has now launched an online music score annotation service. The platform for archiving musical knowledge, enables text, images, and videos to be added to music scores online. Musicanote is a member of the K-ICT Born2Global Centre, a startup ecosystem from the main Korean government agency under the Ministry of Science and ICT.

World-renowned experts in audio and media technologies, Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, and MStar Semiconductor, specializing in application-specific ICs for the consumer and communication product markets, announced the immediate availability of the MPEG-H TV Audio System decoder in MStar’s 4K mainstream TV system-on-chip (SOC) platform T12, leveraging the company's highly-integrated ICs.

One of the most important highlights at CES 2017 was at the Fraunhofer IIS booth, showing final versions of several MPEG-H solutions, in preparation for the rollout of the first broadcast services adopting the standard next year. On display was an MPEG-H enabled LG UHD TV, scheduled to be available this year, and the final version of the MPEG-H enabled 3D Soundbar reference design. Fraunhofer IIS also developed a trademark program for products incorporating its MPEG-H TV Audio System.