[UACCESS-L] New Mobile DTV standard includes closed caption support!

[Larry Goldberg <larry_goldberg@wgbh.org>]

This is a very exciting announcement - a rare case of inclusion of
accessibility in the very first version of a new standard: the new technical
standard for mobile DTV specifies that CEA708 captions (DTV CC) can be
carried within the mobile DTV signal.

We can thank ATSC President Mark Richer, a long-time supporter of access
going back to his time as head of PBS technology, for this accomplishment,
as well as the voting members of the Advanced TV Systems Committee who
responded immediately and positively to NCAM's Geoff Freed when he brought
the captioning issue to the group. Geoff worked on this standard as part of
NCAM's NIDRR-funded "Captioning Solutions for Handheld Media and Mobile
Devices" (http://ncam.wgbh.org/mm/).

The next steps will be mobile DTV broadcast tests with caption data included
- and the implementation of caption decoding in mobile DTV reception
devices. These last two important actions are TBD - and NCAM will continue
to work with industry partners to encourage the testing of emission and
reception of mobile DTV captioning.

... Larry ... 


ATSC ADOPTS MOBILE DIGITAL TV STANDARD - PRESS RELEASE

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16, 2009 ­ The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC)
is pleased to announce the approval of A/153 ATSC Mobile DTV Standard. The
ballot, tallied at midnight Oct. 15, was approved with overwhelming support
by the full ATSC membership.

The ATSC Mobile DTV Standard defines the technical specifications necessary
for broadcasters to provide new services to mobile and handheld devices
using their digital television (DTV) transmissions. The new services for
mobile and handheld devices are carried along with current DTV services
without any adverse impact on legacy receiving equipment. ATSC Mobile DTV
was developed to support a variety of services including free
(advertiser-supported) television and interactive services delivered in
real-time, subscription-based TV, and file-based content download for
playback at a later time. The standard can also be used for transmission of
new data broadcasting services.
For more information, see www.atsc.org