Exactly four years ago, SK Telecom, working with Sinclair Broadcast Group and Harman International Industries, successfully demonstrated next-generation TV broadcasting by combining ATSC 3.0-based broadcast network and SK Telecom’s 5G network technologies.
In this instance, 5G enabled highly targeted advertising, much like an IP address does for digital media. The convergence of ATSC 3.0 and 5G has other applications, and the technology in October took a step forward thanks to the release of two new ranges of antennas, NGP and NGS series, from Radio Frequency Systems that include 5G-TV.
Now, LPTV pioneer and LPTV Broadcasters Association founder “SuperFrank” Copsidas tells RBR+TVBR that a request for an experimental license for 5G broadcasting — along with “XGen Network” use — has been filed with the Commission for a TV station in New England.
The LPTV facility is licensed to Westmoreland, N.H., adjacent to Keene and serving nearby Brattleboro, Vt., and Athol, Mass., as well.
WWOO-LD is licensed for PSIP Channel 17 and uses digital channel 28. It is licensed to Milachi Media LLC, led by Bill Christian.
Christian is widely known for his LPTV savviness, and in June 2022 sold Westmoreland-licensed WWAX-LD 27 to Gray Television for $900,000. Christian’s work with Mike Reed in Lafayette, Ind., received coverage by RBR+TVBR numerous times between 2017 and 2020.
Now, Christian is partnering with Copsidas and another well-known television veteran — outspoken communications policy consultant and former FOX and ABC executive Preston Padden — for the creation of XGen Network (XGN), an entity devoted to “the new world of 5G broadcasting” as it pertains to independent “local power” television broadcasters.
For Copsidas, who was in Washington, D.C., on Monday for the first meeting of the FCC and NAB joint “Future of Television” initiative, there’s money in the “local power” promise of LPTV. Why? He argues that LPTV power and height are better suited to 5G than full-power stations. Thus, the potential of single-frequency networks (SFNs) is tremendous — especially, Copsidas notes, because LPTVs “cover the nation.”
With the request for Part 5 Experimental Authority from the Commission, WWOO-LD will deploy a Rohde & Schwarz transmission chain in a real-world test environment. XGen Network will provide service to both smartphones and commercial receivers able to receive UHF broadcast frequencies, Copsidas says. “Once the experimental license is granted and the test facility built out, we will have information to share,” XGN notes.
What is the key value of 5G TV, compared to the much-discussed broadcast data capabilities associated with the NEXTGEN TV rollout and continued expansion of ATSC 3.0? “As a broadcaster, WWOO-LD will air one programming stream and data stream,” XGN explains. Software and apps for smartphones, tablets, and commercial receivers have been or in the process of being developed, it adds.
As such, 5G TV’s promises are forthcoming, but Padden, Christian and Copsidas believe starting the test process today will yield future dividends for not just them but for all LPTV station owners — including Gray Television, which has invested significantly in LPTVs in recent years. “XGen has spent months working with chip manufacturers, transmitter companies, software developers, mobile device makers and government authorities to put the pieces in place,” the company says.
Christian remarked, “Recent developments in technology on both the transmit and receive sides, combined with an ever-increasing appetite for video and data on mobile devices, make this the perfect time to build and test 5G broadcasting.”
There is also a benefit for First Responders, as XGN says they will gain another option in the “P.A.C.E.” initiative with a 5G broadcast that keeps delivering even when cell phone service fails. “It also serves as a source of information for the general public when cell phone service is challenged by excessive use as 5G Broadcasting delivers in its own frequencies directly to the end user,” XGN shares.
Padden believes anyone who has been frustrated in a crowded football stadium trying to watch the game on a phone can understand the value of sending out in-demand streams and data via broadcast. “But, the possibilities are so much more, from long-distance learning to high-definition encrypted video to First Responders, to filling holes in areas unserved by the Internet.”
For Copsidas, “This is a brand new platform and will take time to answer the questions we all want answered. It is the excitement of venturing into a new world of broadcasting.”
Getting those answers will see WWOO-LD serve Boston, through an antenna atop One Beacon Street, one of the city’s tallest buildings. This will allow Copsidas and his team to conduct a side-by-side comparison with Boston’s first ATSC 3.0-enabled TV station, WCRN-LD, which uses digital channel 25 and has a PSIP of channel 31.
The test will see WWOO-LD run a “standard linear program stream” from NASA TV. While testing pursuant to this STA is underway, the AntennaTV programming seen on WWOO-LD will shift over to a digital stream on Milachi’s co-owned WVCC-LD 6, also licensed to Westmoreland, N.H. WVCC-LD already broadcasts NewsNet on another of its digital multicast channels, and as explained in the FCC filing, “Because the coverage area of
WVCC-LD is significantly larger than that of WWOO-LD, while testing of 5G Broadcast on
WWOO-LD is ongoing, no current viewer of AntennaTV will experience any loss in service.”
A $300 experimental STA was paid on Friday, to coincide with the FCC filing made on behalf of Christian’s group by legal counsel Mark Denbo of Smithwick & Belendiuk.
