Prometheus Radio Project urged the FCC to grant its petition for reconsideration of rules protecting FM translator input signals in the low-power radio service proceeding. NPR’s objection to the petition “does not obviate the physical reality that the function of an in-band translator input depends only on the signal strength at its receive antenna, and not elsewhere,” Prometheus said in its reply comments in docket 99-25 (http://bit.ly/12g8ab1). The National Translator Association (NTA) agrees that the rule language “should refer to a single point which would be the receiver’s input feeding the translator” (http://bit.ly/Z9o2LV). No commenters dispute the scope or significance of the missing and contradictory data recently identified by Prometheus, and NTA and the Educational Media Foundation (EMF) “confirm the need for some additional action to improve data quality on the part of the commission,” Prometheus said. Prometheus also supports EMF’s claim that input signals specified by prior-filled translator applications “can be considered to be in use and therefore, protected by later-filed LPFM applications, presuming that such data is available, accurate and up-to-date,” it said.
A Salem, Ore., low-power TV operator asked the FCC to allow all LPTV operators to change their status to full-power. In a filing to the FCC in docket 12-268 Monday, Kenneth Lewetag said opening a specific window to allow existing LPTV licenses to move to full-power would address the problems caused by current freezes on applications for LPTV operators to change their status. “In this way those of us that already provide a local broadcast service, and could meet the requirement of a full power license, could continue such operations with protection,” Lewetag wrote.(http://bit.ly/Z4UeQH)
The FCC Media Bureau denied applications for consent to assignment of license for two stations in South Bend, Ind. The bureau denied Artistic Media Partners approval for assigning WDND(AM) to Fort Wayne Catholic Radio Group in Fort Wayne, Ind., because it wouldn’t serve the public interest, it said in an order (http://bit.ly/16oxGYx). Artistic Media was previously assigned WHLY(AM) as WDND’s paired lower band station, it said. Licensees and permittees granted dual operating authority aren’t permitted to assign or transfer control of the authorization of one of the paired frequencies, the bureau said. Dual operating authority is conditioned on surrendering one of the two licenses after a certain period, it said. Artistic Media didn’t consummate the acquisition of WHLY(AM) and intended to continue operating WDND(AM) “notwithstanding the imminent expiration of the five-year transition period.” Grant of the application would “constitute a further violation of a commission-imposed processing policy,” and “be unfair to those licensees that have returned one of the paired licenses,” it said. In a separate order, the bureau denied applications to assign control of WHLY from Times Communications to St. Thomas More Foundation and to I.B. Communications (http://bit.ly/16wXfZe).
Ultra HD 4K is a big “focus topic” at European satellite provider SES, Thomas Wrede, the company’s vice president-reception systems, told us by email. SES has said it plans to use the MIPTV conference, which opens Monday in Cannes, France, for a four-day run, to announce its plans to test Ultra HD channels (CD March 20 p18). SES used the MPEG-4 AVC codec at a data rate of 50 Mbps to demonstrate Ultra HD at the IBC show in Amsterdam in September, Wrede said. But future 4K transmissions will use the new High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard, where data rates of around 20 Mbps will be expected, “depending on the content,” he said. “At such data rates, Ultra HD will be commercially viable, as it is about the same data rate (and hence bandwidth) that was utilized initially for HDTV in MPEG-2 (at least in the U.S.),” he said. Real-time HEVC encoders “are still rather far off, and as the HEVC standard has just been released, we need to collect more experience about what data rates exactly work with which content,” he said. Only Broadcom has started sample shipments of its first HEVC decoder chip, but “we expect more silicon to come on the market in the 2014/2015 time frame,” he said. SES’s “biggest worry at the moment” is the lack of a HDMI 2.0 spec for “transporting” Ultra HD at frame rates as high as 50 or 60 Hz, he said. “The industry is waiting for the HDMI consortium to urgently come up with such standard,” he said. Showing Ultra HD at HDMI’s current limit of 30 Hz is “fine” for some “near-still-picture” demos, but is definitely “not sufficient” for sports and other “real” content, he said. Wrede’s “personal opinion” is that “only satellite,” and not over-the-air terrestrial is the right infrastructure for broadcast delivery of Ultra HD, though “there may be some buzz about terrestrial delivery of 4K in Korea or Japan,” he said.
TV Max appears to still carry two Univision Texas TV stations without permission, the broadcaster said in a filing in FCC docket 12-161. The Texas Public Utilities Commission asked TV Max’s corporate affiliate Broadband Fiber to explain the status of pending FCC complaints by the broadcaster and others against TV Max, Univision said. It said TV Max’s response to the PUC “reiterated its view that it is exempt from the obligation to” get retransmission consent, and didn’t acknowledge the Media Bureau’s December letter (CD Jan 3 p11) (http://bit.ly/10z7uap) alleging it didn’t get that OK to carry a half-dozen TV stations in the Houston area. “TV Max went on to opine that ‘it was not until our conversation with the FCC -- and its engineering staff -- that the legal counsel for the Broadcasters understood the technical aspects of TV Max’s compliance.'” But the company violates FCC retrans rules if it retransmits Univision stations’ over its fiber ring, the broadcaster said in the filing posted to the docket Tuesday (http://bit.la/revive). A lawyer for TV Max had no comment, except to say the company would be responding to the FCC Friday.
Level 3 Communications said it won a General Services Administration (GSA) Region 4 Integrated Telecommunications Services (GRITS) II contract. The contract, which could last up to 10 years, has a potential value of up to $285 million. The GRITS II contract allows Level 3 to bid on and provide communications services to all federal agencies and GSA-authorized organizations in GSA Region 4, which includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Level 3 said it holds several government contracts, including Networx Enterprise, WITS 3, GSA Schedule 70, DITCO Basic Agreement and other GSA regional contracts (http://bit.ly/14NPb8v).
Hearst Television renewed its alliance with fact-checking website PolitiFact, said a release from the broadcaster Wednesday. Hearst began working with PolitiFact in January 2012, providing weekly fact-checking segments to Hearst stations during the 2012 election cycle. Hearst also announced the launch of a series of town hall discussions throughout New Hampshire, called “Leaders Listen.” The events will allow voters to ask New Hampshire elected officials questions, and will feature New Hampshire politicians at all levels and will be live-streamed on Hearst-owned WMUR.com and subsequently covered on WMUR-TV newscasts. Leaders Listen will also include reports on New Hampshire’s congressional delegation every Thursday during the 5 p.m. news hour.
PBS deployed Aspera’s high-speed transfer and management solutions for content distribution. PBS selected the Aspera Enterprise Server “to run transfers over a 90 Mbps pipeline and Aspera Console for real-time transfer monitoring and control,” Aspera said in a press release (http://bit.ly/14O152e). The console allows PBS staff to monitor and control transfers in real time, “adjusting bandwidth allocation to reflect project priorities,” it said.
Total IT risk management spending will exceed $80 billion a year by 2017, IDC Financial Insights said Wednesday in a report. While worldwide IT spending in risk technologies and services will continue to grow, it will be at a slower 5.45 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), IDC said. Overall macroeconomic factors are dampening the forecast CAGR, as is the fact that many of the larger 2009-2012 risk projects are now operational or in a mid-stage of implementation, IDC said. Additionally, the emphasis is shifting to projects that grow business productivity, optimize IT infrastructure and integrate technologies in front, middle and back-office operations, IDC said. Even with the lowered CAGR forecast, risk avoidance spending is still outpacing the growth in overall IT spending, and represents between 15 and 17 percent of overall IT spending on average, IDC said. Spending “hot spots” still remain in all regions, and executives continue to look at establishing a standard for building risk management into all strategic, business IT and operational IT initiatives, IDC said. Chief regulatory officers and chief information officers “cannot take their eyes off of regulatory compliance obligations, growing the risk management talent pool, and leveraging risk management,” IDC said (http://bit.ly/16opgQS).
Cisco plans to buy U.K.-based small cell provider Ubiquisys for about $310 million in cash and retention-based incentives, Cisco said Wednesday. Cisco said that when it combines Ubiquisys’s small cell technology with its mobility and Wi-Fi portfolio, it can provide a “differentiated connected experience” that will extend an intelligence layer across the mobile network. Cisco said its Ubiquisys purchase will also complement its recent purchases of BroadHop and Intucell. The deal is expected to close in Q4 of Cisco’s FY 2013, at which point Ubiquisys employees will join the Cisco Service Provider Mobility Group (http://bit.ly/XXm7nv).