US broadcasters Sinclair, Nexstar and Univision have partnered with mobile towers group American Tower to jointly construct and operate Single Frequency Network sites to broadcast ATSC 3.0 signals in the Dallas area. This is seen as a first step toward a national launch, the companies said.
The SFN will allow for the testing and validation of the new broadcast standards, which will support features such as immersive audio, deep-indoor reception, mobile reception, zoned programming/advertising, automotive services and advanced emergency alerting, among others.
In addition to its over 40,000 US tower sites and expertise in installing broadcast equipment, American Tower provides proficiency, through its ecosystem partners, in network connectivity, SFN synchronization, wireless RAN and radio frequency propagation. The result of this buildout and the associated engineering is expected to provide a deployment roadmap that delivers cost efficiencies for broadcasters and increases speed to market for new TV services.
Sinclair, Nexstar and Univision are parties to a memorandum of understanding regarding the establishment of a consortium that will promote spectrum aggregation, innovation and monetization and enhance their abilities to compete in the wireless data transmission sector.