A key ATSC 3.0 implementation firm has completed the configuration of the encoding system for New Mexico PBS powered by Ateme technology with live AI-fueled language translation for its NEXTGEN TV broadcast signal.
The process, courtesy of Heartland Video Systems, is completed virtually in real time through cloud translation services provided by third-party provider LingoPal.
And, they are now in place at ATSC 3.0 “lighthouse” KNMD-TV in Santa Fe, N. Mex., and sibling KNME-TV in Albuquerque.
The conversion included the Ateme encoder, which processes 2x HD programs and 3x SD programs.
The existing KNMD-TV Ateme ATSC 3.0 encoder was re-configured by the HVS engineering team to send an SRT English-only audio stream to LingoPal’s cloud-based service. The 5.1 English audio track was processed through the AI system, which live translated the original audio into Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean tracks. These new audio streams, delivered in 2.0 downmix mode and lip-synced with the video, were returned to the TV station’s ATSC 3.0 Ateme encoder.
HVS then published a copy of the KNME-HD service with the extra audio tracks, replacing the original KNME-HD with only English.
For Mike Schmidt, ATSC 3.0 Technologist at HVS, “Sometimes technology advances enough to unlock features that previously could not be imagined. The hope, in that case, is that the process isn’t too complex or require so many resources so that it can’t be readily used. I was very pleased to find that neither drawback applied to this feature set. The entire configuration took about an hour, not including the work LingoPal did to prep the service beforehand. And worked as advertised the first attempt.”
