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Meetings

March 21 Meeting: Verimatrix

Speaker: Petr Peterka, Chief Technology Officer at Verimatrix
Topic:  Content distribution flow and federated rights management powered by blockchain.
When: Wednesday, March 21, 12 noon. Program after free lunch.
Where: iHeart Media, 9660 Granite Ridge Drive, San Diego
Speaker Bio:
Petr has served as CTO of Verimatrix since 2010. In this role, he is responsible for the company’s overall revenue security strategy and anti-piracy efforts as well as its advanced technology research and intellectual property development. He has more than 25 years of experience in the multimedia industry, and has extensive familiarity with content protection techniques for IPTV, DVB and OTT streaming, as well as forensic watermarking technology.
Petr represents Verimatrix at DECE, AAPA, W3C, SCTE and he has actively participated in other standards organizations including ATSC, DVB, SMPTE, ATIS, TVA, CEA, DLNA, OMA, and others. Petr served as the vice-chair of ATSC T3-S17 group in the role of a Java system architect defining a TV applications platform before smartphones and smart TVs were even invented. He also regularly speaks at conferences including NAB, Digital Hollywood, Anti-piracy and Content Protection Summit, and Copyright and Technology and has been published in numerous industry publications.”
Local News

KFMB-TV Applies for Big Power Increase

Channel 8 applied in late November to increase their power output from 19.8 kW to 87.4 kW ERP. KFMB Stations RF Supervisor Rick Bosscher says they can implement that power level with existing equipment. The station still uses an RCA omni-directional transmission antenna built in 1972 that handled 50 kW transmitter power. Their Harris iCD 30 transmitter, capable of 10.5 kW, has been loafing along at 2.4 kW. There’s an older Harris that can also handle the new power level, and that will continue as a backup unit.

VHF TV stations have had a hard time competing with UHF stations since the digital transition in 2009 because home viewers are trying to use indoor antennas with small apertures designed for UHF reception only. Signal penetration through metal-reinforced stucco causes a loss that used to create a poor viewer experience for rabbit ear antenna viewers, but those viewers who put up with static-filled NTSC video found themselves unable to get a usable ATSC picture at all.

The FCC opened a window this fall for all TV stations to upgrade their signals within the existing rules limiting interference. A number of UHF and VHF stations are taking advantage of this opportunity to boost their power.