Sony Group Corporation

Sony Corporation

Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

Fred Ansfield

Brant L Candelore

Adam Michael Goldberg

Loren F Pineda

Graham Clift

Luke Fay

Peter Rae Shintani

Keith Resch

Bibhudendu Mohapatra

Morio Usami

William Clay

Pablo Antonio Espinosa

Jose Omar Gonzalez Hernandez

James Richard Milne

Frederick J Zustak

Techniques are described for expanding and/or improving the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 television protocol in robustly delivering the next generation broadcast television services. A receiver, to automatically switch from presenting a service on a first frequency to a second frequency such as when a mobile receiver is moving through a boundary region between two broadcasters, can temporarily use a satellite link or 5G wireless telephony or other over the top (OTT) source to acquire a service until an OTA link satisfies quality requirements.

ATSC boundary condition fall over to internet

Faster channel change time in ATSC such as ATSC 3.0 is effected by using the native tuner of a display device to present a currently demanded channel and a second tuner, which can be dongle-based, to tune/scan preemptively in the background based upon heuristics such as usage pattern of the user. If the user is pressing channel-up key using a remote control, the second tuner can be scanning and tuning the next channel in the channel map to preemptively tune to a second channel likely to be desired by the user for immediate presentation of that channel through the second tuner.

Faster channel change time system for ATSC 3.0

An electronic apparatus and method for retransmission of signals using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is disclosed. The electronic apparatus includes a controller to control a movement of a UAV to a location within a signal coverage area associated with a remote transmitter. The electronic apparatus further includes receiver circuitry disposed on the UAV to receive a first signal from the remote transmitter. The first signal corresponds to a first wireless communication standard. The electronic apparatus further includes a signal processor to process the first signal to obtain a second signal and transmission circuitry to control one or more antennas disposed on the UAV to transmit a beam of the second signal to an electronic device that includes one or more receivers. The second signal corresponds to a second wireless communication standard which is same as or different from the first wireless communication standard.

Retransmission of signals using aerial vehicles

Techniques are described for expanding and/or improving the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 television protocol. In an ATSC 3.0 environment, receivers (including consumer and professional receivers) have signal reception parameters and antenna factors available to them. These reception parameters, together with time and location data are transmitted to one or more servers that maintain databases of reception characteristics. This data is analyzed such that a set of likely receivable signals (based on reception parameters, date/time, location, geographical features, transmitter information, etc.) is identified. Receivers query the servers to receive information indicating the set of likely receivable signals to reduce channel scan time by scanning only or first for more-receivable channels. Also, difficult reception locations identified in the data collected by the servers are used in aggregate to guide RF improvements (e.g., adding SFN transmitters). Further, the data collected by the servers may provide data to be used to feed 'MFN' data.

Digital TV reception using OTT backchannel communication

Techniques are described for expanding and/or improving the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 television protocol in robustly delivering the next generation broadcast television services. In a boundary region between first and second broadcast stations in which a receiver can pick up signals from both stations, a lower level signaling PLP is used to identify a channel quality metric for identifying the best frequency to receive a broadcast service on which is sent from both stations.

Techniques for ATSC 3.0 broadcast boundary area management using signal quality and packet errors to differentiate between duplicated services on different frequencies during scan

Techniques are described for expanding and/or improving the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 television protocol in robustly delivering the next generation broadcast television services. In a boundary region between first and second broadcast stations in which a receiver can pick up signals from both stations, a lower level signaling PLP is used to identify frequencies duplicatively carrying the same service and then higher level PLPs are activated for each duplicate to determine a channel quality metric for identifying the best frequency to receive the service on, which is sent from both stations.

Techniques for ATSC 3.0 broadcast boundary area management using complete service reception during scan to determine signal quality of frequencies carrying the duplicate service

Techniques are described for using ATSC 3.0 to augment in-stadium (including in-arena) video feeds. In addition to a central stadium large screen view, spectators can use their mobile devices or view wall-mounted TVs around the stadium to receive in-stadium special feeds broadcast using ATSC 3.0, but not necessarily broadcast beyond the stadium and its environs.

Using ATSC 3.0 to augment in-stadium video feeds

Techniques are described for expanding and/or improving the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 television protocol in robustly delivering the next generation broadcast television services. Telepresence is provided through over-the-air (OTA) virtual reality (VR) broadcast streams.

Telepresence through OTA VR broadcast streams

Techniques are described for expanding and/or improving the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 television protocol in robustly delivering the next generation broadcast television services. Multiple memory buffers are used to manage broadcast packet repair and presentation or storage.

Stream repair memory management

Techniques are described for expanding and/or improving the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 television protocol in robustly delivering the next generation broadcast television services. In a boundary region between first and second broadcast stations in which a receiver can pick up signals from both stations, a primary tuner receiving signals from plural antennae presents a demanded service while a secondary tuner uses a single antenna to scan for duplicate transmissions of the service, with handing off between the tuners being effected between scanning and service presentation.

Techniques for ATSC 3.0 broadcast boundary area management using plural tuners handing off between presentation and scanning

Techniques are described for expanding and/or improving the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 television protocol in robustly delivering the next generation broadcast television services. When automatically switching from presenting a service on a first frequency to a second frequency such as when a mobile receiver is moving through a boundary region between two broadcasters, the current broadcaster application is notified and depending on the context, may continue executing or send data to the new broadcaster application.

ATSC 3 application context switching and sharing

Techniques are described for expanding and/or improving the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 television protocol in robustly delivering the next generation broadcast television services. A receiver, to automatically switch from presenting a service on a first frequency to a second frequency such as when a mobile receiver is moving through a boundary region between two broadcasters, can consider not just signal strength and error rates of two frequencies carrying the same service to select which frequency to tune to, but also relative location and direction of motion of the receiver with respect to each broadcaster.

ATSC 3 reception across boundary conditions using location data

Techniques are described for expanding and/or improving the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 television protocol in robustly delivering the next generation broadcast television services. In a boundary region between first and second broadcast stations in which a receiver can pick up signals from both stations, a primary tuner presents a demanded service while a secondary tuner scans for duplicate transmissions of the service, and if one is found, the version with the better quality metrics may be presented.

Techniques for ATSC 3.0 broadcast boundary area management using plural tuners

Techniques are described for expanding and/or improving the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 television protocol in robustly delivering the next generation broadcast television services. In a boundary region between first and second broadcast stations in which a receiver can pick up signals from both stations, a primary tuner presents a demanded service while a secondary tuner scans for duplicate transmissions of the service and tunes to it if found. When the primary tuner loses signal, it tunes to the frequency of the secondary tuner and acquires any missing NRT data recorded from the secondary tuner prior to the handover.

Growing community of inventors

San Diego, CA, United States of America

Fred Ansfield