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Alchemedia SG says it demonstrated that its Broadcast Services Core, integrated with other IP services, seamlessly transported IP data to a moving automobile traveling between four adjacent Michigan broadcast transmitters. The transported data was configured to include both media files and an HD video stream.
ATSC 3.0 consultant Merrill Weiss provided engineering consulting to ensure that the tests were compliant with ATSC 3.0 standards. He summarizes the project: “The Michigan Coast-to-Coast Data Delivery Drive Tests demonstrated that ATSC 3.0 technologies can be implemented now to deliver data over a wide area to moving vehicles reliably and with high throughput. They also showed that there are extensions to the ATSC 3 technologies with the potential to push throughput and reliability to even higher levels.
The drive tests used a combination of off-the-shelf broadcast hardware with slightly modified software and prototype mobile receiving equipment that implemented diversity reception.
“Early tests used just data protocols already included in ATSC 3 standards, while a later test showed the benefits that could be achieved with more advanced forward error correction software that is available in the marketplace. All told, the tests showed that, in a matter of months, a quite effective system for reliable data distribution to mobile receivers could be set up using existing infrastructure of multiple television stations to cover an area measured in thousands of square miles.
“The Broadcast Services Core for the test was built by Alchemedia SG and based in Washington, D.C. It carried data across a military grade, securable,