ATSC 3.0 And UHDTV At The NAB Show

Posted on Thursday, May 3, 2012 by MegaZone

ATSC Logo Consumer Electronics Daily is reporting on some news out of the NAB Show, and I find the talk about ATSC 3.0 and UHDTV the most interesting. We heard about the start of work on ATSC 3.0 last September, but now we’re hearing a few more details. ATSC 3.0 will support UHDTV, or Ultra-High-Definition Television, which means 4K and 8K video. Jim Kutzner, senior director of advanced technology at PBS, shared some details.

Keeping terrestrial TV broadcasting relevant will require “making it more mobile, making it more on demand, personalizing it more and making it more interactive,” said Kutzner, who has chaired several ATSC 3.0 working groups.  “We do need to deliver higher quality, and we certainly need to make it more efficient.” ATSC 3.0 will be targeted at both fixed and mobile receivers, and will need to encompass “state-of-the-art compression,” Kutzner said. It also will need to be “fully converged with broadband” and it will need to be upgradable to keep pace with fast technological developments, Kutzner said. “Looking ahead,” ATSC 3.0 is “likely to be a complete replacement” for ATSC and ATSC 2.0, “and so it does need to be worth the effort in terms of time and expended resources,” he said.

To accomplish these goals ATSC 3.0 is looking forward to the new High-Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC) being developed by the Motion Picture Experts Group, with the first version expected to be published in January. HEVC is expected to be twice as efficient as today’s MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 codec. That is vital if 4K & 8K video is expected to work over terrestrial broadcast, but it would also be a major advance for ‘standard’ 1080p HD video. Of course, HEVC content will require new hardware to support it.

The article also covers UHDTV delivery over IP, the possibility of using Blu-ray as physical media for UHDTV, and James Cameron talking about the adoption of 3D. Check it out.

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Beantown Next Up For TiVo XFINITY On Demand

Posted on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 by MegaZone

TiVo Central Comcast XFINITY On Demand The roll out of XFINITY On Demand for TiVo customers in the San Francisco Bay Area is now complete and it seems to be a great success. The new feature cleanly integrates XFINITY On Demand into the TiVo UI just like any other video service. And now that the SF Bay roll out is out of the way Comcast & TiVo have turned their sights on the next target market: Boston.

This actually isn’t a surprise, as I’ve posted a couple of times, a while back Comcast made the comment that New England was high on their list of territories to follow the SF Bay. Why? Well, to quote myself:

New England is where Comcast launched the old ‘soft-TiVo’ project. The software-only Java-based TiVo interface that was downloaded to run on their standard Motorola DVR hardware. Despite several years of effort it just never worked well. The HW was under-powered, and with the TiVo interface running in Java on a virtual machine running on top of the native OS, it wasn’t a great performer. And Comcast never seemed to iron out the issues with the head end that was supposed to allow them to dynamically push the TiVo software to units in the field. While the effort was abandoned when Comcast switched focus to XFINITY support for retail units, the existing deployment of soft-TiVo units are still supported. Comcast is looking to finally phase them out by getting the users to migrate to a TiVo Premiere once they can do so without losing their On Demand. So they have an incentive to prioritize New England.

So they still have a number of those old units in the field that they’d love to stop supporting, and I bet many of the customers would love the added benefits of having a real TiVo to boot. And perhaps Comcast will be able to recycle some of the work they did on the head end for that project to support the new roll out. In any case, TiVo confirmed today via email that Boston is the next market that will see this roll out. They didn’t provide a specific time frame, saying only that Boston would see this ‘soon’.

As always, you can sign up to be notified when this is available in your area at tivo.com/comcast

Remember, Comcast controls when this is rolled out to a new area, not TiVo. TiVo has delivered their part, the software integration on the unit. The other piece is the head end upgrades to support the service, and that’s what Comcast needs to do for each service area where this is deployed. That’s why it wasn’t flipped on for everyone at once, and why it is getting a region by region roll out. So don’t bother TiVo with questions about when it will come to your area. Odds are they don’t know, and even if they do know they can’t speak for Comcast until Comcast is willing to announce their plans. If you need to pester anyone, pester Comcast.

Posted in Cable, DVR, TiVo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

What Is SUGAR Volt?

Posted on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 by MegaZone

Boeing Logo While SUGAR Volt may sound like the name of an energy drink, or maybe an all-girl J-Rock band, it is actually a Boeing concept for an airliner of the future. SUGAR stands for Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research, a NASA-organized project, and the Volt is related to the concept’s hybrid-electric propulsion. The goal of SUGAR is to look ahead to 2030-2035 to an N+3 design – which means three generations beyond today’s aircraft. The two leading designs from Boeing are SUGAR Volt and SUGAR High, which is basically the same airframe but with a more conventional power system. For SUGAR High the combination of airframe and propulsion improvements, along with improvements to air traffic control, could result in a 44% to 58% reduction in fuel burn. While the SUGAR High concept could boost that beyond 70%.

The new design looks a bit different from today’s airliners. It is still a tube-and-wing design, but the wing is high-mounted and has a very high aspect ratio – it is very long and thin. Because it is so long and thin it is also strut-braced – something you really only see today on high-wing light aircraft and a handful of smaller transport aircraft. Using struts allows you to avoid beefing up the primary structure to carry its own load, which can add a great deal of weight. It is a trade off between the added aerodynamic drag and structural complexity of the strut vs. the added weight of a pure cantilever design. And some designs may not be feasible without the added support of a strut.

Another unique feature is that the wing is designed to fold to allow the use of today’s airport gates. That may sounds a bit crazy, but it isn’t the first time Boeing has designed such a thing. The B777 was originally designed with the option for folding outer wing panels to allow it to use the same gate spacing as the smaller B767. This was done mainly for American Airlines – who then went on to not order the B777 for a while, and when they did never opted for the folding wings. But Boeing designed, tested, and certified a wing fold mechanism for the B777, so they have experience doing this for a commercial aircraft.

While they first unveiled the SUGAR Volt concept back in 2010, they’ve continued to refine it and just published the following video to YouTube:

Personally I really like Boeing’s more recent SUGAR Freeze concept, an N+4 concept for the 2045 timeframe. It evolves the SUGAR High & SUGAR Volt concepts by utilizing liquefied natural gas (LNG) and fuel cells to generate power. In either case, LNG is a cheaper & cleaner alternative to Jet-A, but it adds the complexity of needing to be stored cryogenically under high pressure.

I’m still partial to the blended wing body concepts myself, just because they are so radically different from today’s wing-and-tube designs. But I know in the end there are many factors that will determine future designs – materials, propulsion, aerodynamics, maintenance, ground handling, passenger preferences, etc.

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A Brief Video History Of The U.S. Air Force

Posted on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 by MegaZone

Lockheed Martin Logo I’m not sure what the occasion is, but Lockheed Martin released this six minute video which is basically a quick overview of the history of the U.S. Air Force. I still find the technique of adding motion to old photos kind of jarring, it reminds me of the cheap ‘motion comics’ I’ve seen, but the video is a decent, if brief, look at the history.

Posted in Aerospace, General | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

SpaceX Conducts Falcon 9 Launch Pad Static Fire

Posted on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 by MegaZone

SpaceX Logo SpaceX Monday Conducted a static fire of their Falcon 9 launcher on the pad at Cape Canaveral in anticipation of the planned May 7th launch of their Dragon capsule to the ISS. If the mission is successful it will be the first commercial resupply mission to the ISS, a truly historic mission. The launch is scheduled for 09:38 EDT, with NASA TV coverage beginning at 08:00.

There isn’t a lot to see in the video, the test firing only lasts for two seconds before the planned abort. I still think it is fun to watch, and it shows just how sparse SpaceX’s pad infrastructure is. When they start manned flights of the Dragon I suppose they’ll need a more traditional service tower for crew access.

I’m excited for the mission, while at the same time trying to temper that with the knowledge that it is very much a test flight and there is a good chance it won’t go off as planned. But if anything does go wrong SpaceX is committed to learning from the mission and trying again, just as they did with the first few Falcon 1 flights which, while failing as a larger mission, we successful as instructive test flights, leading to eventual success. And ultimately to the successful flight of the Falcon 9 and Dragon.

Good luck and godspeed, SpaceX!

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