The starting pistol fires and hundreds or tens of thousands of runners eagerly charge toward the finish line. Once the race is completed, they retrain and later do it all over again. As a runner for most of my life, I intimately understand the excitement and anticipation participants feel just prior to race start, the sometimes pain during the race and the elation upon finishing. I can see the finish line.

I’m delighted and honored to be appointed editor of The Broadcast Bridge. Following on from Brad Dick, who has built an outstanding team of writers delivering world class editorial, I look forward to carrying the flag, and building on the outstanding success of the writing team.

Whether producing and feeding Super Bowl games, contentious presidential debates, live sports, live news, or just out shooting b-roll for a stand-up, TV production can come to an instantaneous halt when what you need isn't available or it fails.

Of all the newer delivery technologies, 5G is likely to offer the strongest competition to the world’s free, over-the-air (OTA) broadcast model. Planned 5G services may offer multiple content streams, 4K, support for new video standards, mobile reception and on multiple devices. Here is how I think the new ATSC 3.0 standard stacks up against this competitor.

The ATSC 3.0 click is ticking and TV broadcasters are just now starting to scramble with changing channels, formats, and paradigms. What will happen when the deadline strikes?

The ATSC has voted to approve as a full standard the key element of the Physical Layer, the so-called “bootstrap” or the discovery and signaling feature of the standard. The first essential piece of the new paradigm in broadcasting is now set.

ATSC 3.0 is a package of new television standards designed to bring broadcasting into the Internet age. But it is not backward compatible, which makes its controversial. In this edition of Viewpoint, Mike Chapman, a business expert on television with the consulting firm, Accenture, predicts how he believes ATSC 3.0 will develop.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking center stage in many applications. It already has some history in data analysis. But this year, AI is making gains in the creation of media, especially custom-tailored subscription channels.

Today's headlines seem to shout, "Step right up, read all about it. New 5G cellular technology to replace OTA broadcast. Streaming over 5G will deliver 4K, HDR, and every conceivable compression format to homes, businesses and cell phones."

As TV screens have gotten larger, the role of design and aesthetics has grown and reached beyond the CE (Consumer Electronics) makers to broadcasters and content producers. This is evident at recent trade shows such as CES 2018 earlier this year where focus on picture quality has been mirrored by efforts to make screens blend more harmoniously in the background.