Ford launched Sync 3 in-vehicle entertainment and communications system Thursday, promising faster performance, more “conversational” voice recognition, an intuitive touch screen similar to that of a smartphone and a simplified graphical interface. The company said it drew from 22,000 customer comments and suggestions in creating the third-generation platform, along with information from focus groups, surveys and competitive analysis. The system is optimized for hands-free operation, but the new touch screen delivers an experience similar to using a smartphone or tablet with gestures including pinch-to-zoom and swipe, it said. The display offers a bright background and large buttons with “high-contrast fonts” for daytime use, and at night it switches automatically to a dark background to help reduce eye fatigue and minimize reflections, Ford said. To reduce on-screen complexity, the home screen offers a choice of zones, navigation, audio and phone, and the system prioritizes the control options customers use most, the company said. Phone contacts are searchable via a finger swipe, and users can look up points of interest or addresses with a search box. The new voice recognition system cuts down on the number of steps required to carry out a command, Ford said. A user can name a song, artist, album or genre to bring up a song from a connected smartphone, no longer having to identify a category, the company said, and to switch to SiriusXM or terrestrial radio, users say the name of the station or station number. New features in AppLink enable users to control compatible apps using voice commands or buttons on screen, and AppLink automatically discovers streaming music service apps such as iHeartRadio Auto, NPR One, Pandora, Spotify, SiriusXM and Stitcher, Ford said. In the case of a "significant' accident, a Bluetooth-connected phone is used to dial 911, alerting first-responders to the vehicle’s location. With Sync 3, additional information is relayed, including if airbags were deployed, where damage occurred to the vehicle and the number of safety belts detected in use to help emergency call takers dispatch the appropriate resources to the scene, Ford said.
Emergency alert system participants weighed in on potential solutions to the security and improved function of the EAS process following unauthorized use of an EAS alert during The Bobby Bones Show on AT&T U-verse this year (see 1411100038). AT&T supported use of a year field in the time stamp, and NAB backed an industrywide effort to achieve better authentication of EAS alerts. The comments came last week in docket 14-200. Replies are due Dec. 19, and comments on a public notice concerning EAS security best practices are due Dec. 30.
The Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council approved a report Wednesday from CSRIC Working Group 2 on wireless emergency alerts that recommends the FCC modify its current 90-character limit rule for WEA alerts, to allow for messages of up to 280 characters for 4G LTE devices following technology confirmation by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS). The FCC should retain the 90-character rule for WEA alerts for devices using legacy 2G and 3G networks, but the working group believes the goal should be to phase that limit out as 2G and 3G devices go offline, said CTIA Assistant Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Brian Josef, Working Group 2 co-chairman. “We’re raising the floor” but recognize that some devices will be able to accept WEA alerts of only up to 90 characters, Josef said during the CSRIC meeting.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau granted several media entities temporary waivers from installing operational equipment that can receive and process emergency alert system alerts formatted in the Common Alerting Protocol. Citizens Telephone Co., CMA Communications, JB Cable TV and other entities were granted waivers, while the bureau dismissed waiver petitions filed by Allegiance Communications and James Cable, it said in an order. Granting waivers to some of the petitioners “is justified in light of their underlying circumstances,” it said. The small cable systems covered by the Allegiance and James Cable petitions were bought by Vyve, “which has filed its own waiver requests covering these systems,” the bureau said. The bureau also granted similar waivers to Charter Communications, Comcast, Kenai Broadcasting and other petitioners, it said in another order. The petitioners continued to operate legacy EAS equipment at all times, “thus, the public was not deprived of EAS alerts,” it said.
Broadcasters and the media technology industry are continuing to look ahead to broader mobile DTV and mobile emergency alert system (M-EAS) capability, they said. Following pilot projects over the past few years, participants in the development and implementation of next-generation EAS will try to enhance the technology and include it in the next-gen ATSC 3.0 broadcast system, they said.
When it comes to deployment of the next-gen ATSC 3.0 broadcast system, "I think there’s going to be a good business proposition and a good financial proposition for 4K," Dave Siegler, vice president-technical operations at Cox, told us at NAB's Content and Communications World conference in New York Wednesday. Emphasizing that he was speaking in the context of Cox’s broadcast as well as its cable interests, Siegler said: "So much of it comes into implementation."
Recent incidents of illegal use of the emergency alert system tones warrant more industry focus on a fix to flag such messages, EAS experts said. The FCC Public Safety Bureau released public notices Friday on the impact of false EAS alerts, and how broadcasters, cable systems, DBS systems and others are faring with recommendations for EAS system security. False EAS tones aren’t very common, but their occurrence points to flaws in the system and equipment that must be addressed ahead of the next nationwide EAS test, EAS professionals said.
A draft rulemaking notice (NPRM) proposing classifying linear online video providers as multichannel video programming distributors wouldn’t immediately change much for over-the-top companies, said cable and content officials in interviews Wednesday. The NPRM, circulated late Tuesday according to an FCC official, would enable over-the-top services to take advantage of program access and retransmission consent rights to better offer competition to cable incumbents in the video market, said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a blog post Tuesday (see 1410280053). Retrans rights would still leave OTT services unable to stream broadcast content without also negotiating for content rights, and program access rights apply only to negotiations with vertically integrated distributors, which in practice largely means Comcast, said industry officials.
A draft NPRM that would seek comment on broadening the definition of what the FCC considers a multichannel video programming distributor to include linear over-the-top video providers (see 1410010086) is being shared among some offices on the FCC's eighth floor, and Media Bureau staff has been reaching out to OTT and cable companies to discuss it, said commission officials and industry officials in interviews. Remarks by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and a recent speech by General Counsel Jonathan Sallet (see 1410170039) indicated an interest in the item at the commission's highest levels. Officials at the FCC, in OTT video companies and in the cable industry told us it's not clear if the item is intended to bring online programming into the FCC's purview, provide regulatory certainty for OTT companies like Aereo or increase competition for large cable companies such as Comcast.
Quincy Broadcast Group’s WKOW Madison, Wisconsin, planned to go off the air in the wee hours of Wednesday morning to accommodate the second round of "real-world broadcast field testing" of "Futurecast," the technology developed by LG, its Zenith research and development labs and GatesAir. Futurecast is proposed as the physical layer for the next-gen Advanced Television Systems Committee 3.0 broadcast system.