How RT-RK contributes to US broadcasters

NextGen TV (also known as ATSC 3.0) is the next generation of terrestrial broadcast system designed to improve viewing experience of television content with better video and audio quality, support for interactive application, as well as advance emergency alert system. It is meant to supersede existing ATSC 1.0 DTV standard across USA, Canada, and South Korea, with the potential to expand beyond. Nextgen TV is not exclusive for TV devices; it can be used on mobile devices such as phones, tablets, and as part of infotainment system in the cars.

RT-RK engineering team in Novi Sad, a driving force of iWedia R&D, is a pioneer in NextGen TV development. We had already had a successful deployment of ATSC 1.0 with different SOCs/OEMs and as a logical continuation we started implementation of NextGen TV stack in early 2017, before launch of NextGen TV content in any country.

RT-RK architects chose to adopt the same approach for the new standard as in the past deployments. That is how brilliant middleware solution we have. The NextGen TV software stack is platform agnostic fitting any Linux, Android, or RTOS system. The stack is not hardware/SoC dependent. For the Android TV devices it is pre-integrated with MediaTek, Realtek, and Android Tuner HAL framework. For the tuner we have chosen integration with Sony ATSC 3.0 which can be used as part of the automotive entertainment systems, or as an extension for gateway devices which will via IP send ATSC 3.0 content to other devices – tv/mobile/tablets.

Our goal is to have a well-defined reusable and versatile solution. We can deliver a turnkey solution, where all the NextGen TV software components will be delivered by us, or to use just part of the NextGen TV software stack and other 3rd party available software. The components are:

1. Broadcast and broadband middleware stack:
   • • Handling of ATSC 3.0 installation and service list management (broadcast/broadband)
     • ATSC 3.0 service playback (MMTP/MPU, ROUTE/DASH and broadband DASH)
     • ESG service management (program guide)
     • AEA service management (emergency alert)
     • Subtitles/closed captions
     • Parental
     • NRT processing
2. Media Player
3. Interactive app
4. Browser (engine for running interactive apps)
5. TV app

As an independent software solution company, we have a good collaboration with major TV organizations in USA: PearlTV (business organization of U.S. broadcast companies consist of eight of the largest broadcast companies in America including: Cox Media Group, the E.W. Scripps Company, Graham Media Group, Hearst Television Inc., Nexstar Media Group, Gray Television, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and TEGNA, Inc) and Sinclair Broadcast Group.

The iWedia’s NextGen TV software is pre-certified with the official NextGen TV test suit from Eurofins and DRM test suite defined by A3SA organization.