A new S35 specialist group was formed at...

A new S35 specialist group was formed at the ATSC to model and evaluate the “ecosystem” in which ATSC 3.0 systems will be deployed, ATSC said Wednesday. S35 will probe “the various layers of content and data that will flow into and through ATSC 3.0 encoders and will be delivered to consumers through broadcast and other media,” said Merrill Weiss, the longtime DTV consultant and engineer who will chair the group. It plans a series of “Top-Down 3.0” meetings to create “block diagrams for the respective layers and examining their interactions with one another,” Weiss said. Sony Electronics in San Diego will host the first meetings Sept. 29-Oct. 1, he said. S35’s “output” will be of “keen interest” to the other ATSC specialist groups that are developing ATSC 3.0’s “actual technology,” he said. “Those groups need to understand the environment in which ATSC 3.0 will be applied.” S35 “will consider the flow of content from acquisition through post production, distribution, emission, and redistribution,” ATSC said. It will examine all types of content and functionality “impacting on a fully operational ATSC 3.0 broadcast system,” it said.