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Technology

Building on nearly 100 years of innovation leadership, today’s Zenith develops core technologies that enable content security, robust transmission and future broadcast standards.

Pro:Idiom® Digital Rights Management System

Pro:IdiomThe Zenith-developed Pro:Idiom system is a robust, highly secure Digital Rights Management (DRM) system. It provides high-quality security to facilitate rapid, broad deployment of HDTV and other high value digital content to the hospitality and healthcare markets. Zenith, which is the creator and exclusive licensor of Pro:Idiom technology, has made licenses available to qualified companies around the world.

Unlike other DRM approaches, Pro:Idiom has been designed specifically for the hotel and healthcare industries, resulting in lower costs, and reduced maintenance. Its world-class encryption technology, large installed base of more than 3 million devices, integrated design and attractiveness to interactive system providers make Pro:Idiom the clear choice for delivering HDTV services to hotel guests and hospital patients with confidence.

Advanced Warning and Response Network

Zenith is one of the key technology players behind the Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN), a new broadcast system that will harness the power of next-generation terrestrial broadcasting to significantly enhance the nation’s emergency preparedness for the public and first responders. AWARN is designed to leverage ATSC 3.0 TV broadcasting to deliver reliable, rich media alerts to mobile and fixed receivers anywhere, anytime.

AWARN builds on the Mobile Emergency Alert System (M-EAS), which was adopted as a broadcast standard by the Advanced Television Systems Committee in spring 2013. Proven M-EAS is evolving into AWARN following the successful conclusion of a nationwide field trial and development program spearheaded by Zenith, along with PBS, LG Electronics, Harris Broadcast (now GatesAir) and NAB Labs.

AWARN is ideal for next-generation alerting because it bypasses bandwidth bottlenecks that overload cellular-based systems and has the ability to reach millions of devices – and people – simultaneously. AWARN will transmit rich-media alert messages with video, photos, graphics, maps and evacuation routes, radar images, text and audio (including text-to-speech). AWARN can also geographically target alerts to devices and citizens who need them.

ATSC Digital Television Broadcast Standards

ATSC 3.0: Zenith is playing a key role in the development of the next-generation digital broadcast standard known as ATSC 3.0, which being documented by the Advanced Television Systems Committee. Expected to redefine TV broadcasting for decades to come, ATSC 3.0 will provide higher capacity to deliver 4K UHD services, robust reception on mobile devices and improved spectrum efficiency. The increased payload capacity of the physical layer combined with advanced HEVC video compression coding will allow broadcasters many more options for broadcast services.

Core technologies developed by the Zenith R&D Lab, along with parent company LG Electronics and partner GatesAir, are included in the majority of the ATSC 3.0 Candidate Standard for the “Physical Layer” transmission system. Zenith/LG innovations are included in at least 10 of the 15 building blocks in the new Physical Layer Candidate Standard. Landmark experimental broadcasts in Seoul, South Korea, and real-world field tests in Cleveland, Ohio, and Madison, Wisconsin, represent important milestones in the collaborative effort by Zenith, LG and GatesAir to develop ATSC 3.0 technologies.

Mobile TV: An important capability of the next-generation ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard will be robust transmission to mobile and handheld devices. As co-developer of the core technology behind the current ATSC A/153 Mobile Digital Television Standard, Zenith helped pave the way for the mobile TV. Beginning in 2007, together with LG Electronics and Harris Broadcast (now GatesAir), Zenith engineers devised the MPH (Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld) transmission system. This technology augmented the Zenith-developed, industry-standard VSB (Vestigial Side Band) digital TV transmission system. In 2009, following extensive industry-wide field tests and laboratory evaluations, the ATSC adopted the Zenith MPH technology as a core element of the A/153 Standard. As a passionate advocate for mobile TV, Zenith has been working closely with broadcasters to help set the stage for next-generation mobile TV as a centerpiece of ATSC 3.0.

Digital TV: As the inventor of the VSB (Vestigial Side Band) digital transmission technology at the heart of the current ATSC A/53 Digital Television Standard, Zenith proudly helped lead the nation’s transition to all-digital broadcasting. Zenith’s VBS technology was chosen by the Digital HDTV Grand Alliance as its transmission system, recommended in 1995 by the FCC Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service and adopted in 1996 by the Federal Communications Commission as the U.S. digital TV standard – enabling transmission of HDTV, multi-casting and data broadcasting. Zenith holds essential patents for the U.S. broadcast standard ATSC A/53 and licenses its intellectual property on a reasonable and non-discriminatory basis. In fall 2007, Zenith formed a licensing pool with several other companies to collectively license their patents essential to the ATSC standard. MPEG LA, LLC (www.mpegla.com) is the administrator of the pool and has the authority to grant a single license under the essential patents of all the pool members, including Zenith.