Minutes of the Technical Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (B-TAC) - Final Minutes of the Meeting Held on September 25, 2006.

Attendees of the Third Meeting of 2006
Technical Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (B-TAC)

Present were:

1. CHAIRMAN'S OPENING REMARKS

Mr. Mimis welcomed the members to this third meeting of 2006 and opened the meeting.

2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Mr. Moltner proposed adding '2^nd FM channel co-location' as item 7.2 for further discussion. The agenda was approved as amended.

3. DRAFT MINUTES OF THE SECOND MEETING OF 2006-10-25

The draft minutes were approved with minor editorial changes.

4. MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES

• A) NavCom analysis program

  Mr. Leduc reported that the software program had finally been approved by NavCanada. However, as a result of the government's cost recovery policy, the Department was debating how to proceed with this issue. He suggested that it may be sold for between $800 - $1,000 per copy. Mr. Stacey pointed out that the original intention of providing the software free of charge to applicants and broadcast consultants was for the applicants/broadcast consultants to do the preliminary NavCom analysis thereby reducing the work burden on the Department. Mr. Leduc replied that the previous version of the software would still be adequate to do the preliminary analysis in most cases, but the latest version would deal with more complicated situations. Mr. Mimis suggested that the Department was still reviewing this issue, mindful of the benefits to the Department for free issue of this program to broadcast applicants and consultants. However, the Department must also take into account the Treasury Board's guidelines on cost recovery. He was hopeful that this issue would soon be resolved .

• B) Call Signs

  Mr. Dadourian said that the Canada Gazette notice for call sign de-regulation had been issued and was in effect since September 16, 2006. Essentially, the Department would no longer be involved in regulating phonetically similar call signs in broadcast applications and it would be up to the applicants to choose from the list of available call signs. Any dispute arising from choice of call signs would be resolved between stations.

• C) AM-IBOC Report

  Mr. Lam presented a summary of the AM-IBOC test report to the members and added that a general presentation of the findings would be given later under agenda item 5.1. He also indicated that this would be followed by the CBC's FM-IBOC presentation on the recent tests in Toronto.

5. STATUS REPORT

5.1 Digital TV/DRB

Mr. Dadourian reported that the U.S. NTIA $1.5B program to subsidize set-top DTV converters would run from January 2008 to March 2009. Only households who would be exclusively dependant on over-the-air transmission would be elegible. A $40 voucher would be given for each TV set with a maximum of 2 subsidies per household. Mr. Dadourian suggested that features for the converter would be very basic, e.g. it would have a composite RF ch 3/4 output, tunable between channels 2 to 69, closed captioning and v-chip capabilities and only one input connected to the external antenna, etc. On the subject of the DTV standard for Brazil, the Brazilian national broadcaster had recommended a hybrid Brazil/Japan standard which is based on the Japanese standard with some modifications. However, this standard would not likely be adopted by other South American countries, some of which favored the ATSC standard. Mr. Dadourian also reported on the latest development in IPTV which he suggested would be a new frontier for TV. It would be IP based networks to provide a particular quality of service and reliability. He indicated that Japan was planning to launch this service in 2008, probably through subscriptions. Mr. Dadourian suggested that this type of service would present a challenge to the CRTC in terms of service and content regulation.

DRB

Mr. Dadourian reported that the U.S. had implemented AM and FM High Definition (HD) radio in many of its markets and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would be studying HD interference and coverage issues to assess the impact on its services and make recommendations to the FCC for rule making on HD radio. The work would be done by an independent consulting firm in the next 12 months, and the emphasis would be on reception quality (i.e. coverage and interference in areas between 66 dBu and 50 dBu). He suggested that Canada should monitor its development and be aware of its findings. A brief discussion ensued as to whether Canada could be involved in this study and it was agreed that it would be difficult for Canada to participate in this study at this stage before any findings were known. On a related matter, Mr. Mathieu would like to know if the L-band would still be retained for digital radio. In reply, Mr. Mimis said that the CRTC had conducted a public hearing and he expected that this issue would be part of its policy announcement on digital radio.

AM-IBOC Presentation

Mr. MacMillan presented pictures showing the structure of an AM-IBOC signal in the 1^st adjacent channel situation, the methodology of the tests, the Helmholtz Coil used in the tests and a block diagram of the test set-up. He also presented test findings and the conclusions drawn from the results. In summary, AM-IBOC interference would have more impact on better quality receivers. AM coverage would be reduced in the presence of 1^st adjacent channel AM-IBOC signal, AM-IBOC carrier back-off could ease the interference effect, and new rules must be established for 1^stadjacent channel sky-wave interference if AM-IBOC were to be permitted after sunset. A brief discussion followed on the test results and Mr. Mimis indicated that a paper based on the test results would be presented at the next CITEL meeting.

FM-IBOC Presentation

Mr. Gauthier first outlined the differences between the U.S. and Canada rules in FM broadcasting technical regulations (e.g. the classes, the ERP's and the protected contours, etc.). He also explained the FM-IBOC emission mask and the FM HD Radio Service planning parameters. He reported that the CBC, under the Digital Radio Coordinating Group, had conducted some laboratory and field tests to assess the HD Radio coverage in various reception conditions (e.g. fixed, vehicular, portable, indoor/outdoor, etc.). Interference evaluation was also done between HD Radio/FM host/1^st adjacent channel/analogue stations/ 2^nd adjacent analogue channels/other HD radio stations. Mr. Gauthier said that a number of different HD radios were used during the tests. As well, channel simulations for different conditions were used in the laboratory measurement. Preliminary results had suggested that for analogue stereo reception at the 54 dBu in the presence of a 1^st or 2^nd adjacent IBOC channel, the audio SNR would degrade by 6dB. However, this was based on a small sample of receivers. For the field tests, three FM-IBOC transmitters were used, two in Toronto and one in Peterborough. Apart from some heating concerns in the setting-up of equipment, preliminary coverage evaluation indicated good performance in multi-path environment in areas close to the transmitter, although some interference to CBLA-FM-1 had been observed. Again, Mr. Gauthier cautioned that additional field measurement would be needed to provide a better analysis. In concluding this presentation, Mr. Gauthier demonstrated audio recordings of the test programs and comparison between the FM-IBOC and analogue signals.

5.2 BPR Updates

Mr. Boilard reported that the Canada Gazette notice regarding. changes in the call sign rule and electronic submission had been issued. He said that work on the antenna policy should be completed shortly and he expected a Gazette notice of the new policy will be issued in the near future. Mr. Boilard suggested that all the BPRs will have to be modified in order to harmonize with the new policy.

5.3 CRTC Updates

Ms. Gallant said that the public notice on Broadcasting which set out the framework for licensing and distribution of HD Specialty Services was published on June 15, 2006. Essentially, it outlined the HD programming requirements for prospective licensees. The Commission would impose the same quality standard for the distribution of Specialty Services similar to the over-the-air services. Ms. Gallant also reported that the Commercial Radio policy review, which would include IBOC and the L-band, would be completed soon and a public notice is expected sometime near year-end or early 2007. A number of other issues which the Commission was dealing with included the review of the regulatory framework for over-the-air TV (PN CRTC 2006-5) on issues such as transition to HDTV and the role of over-the-air TV, etc. The Commission was also involved in calls for new TV undertakings in Calgary, Edmonton and Sydney, Nova Scotia.

5.4 Subcom 15 (Gov-on-line)

Mr. Vaccani reported that the Department received and processed more e-applications with standardized engineering briefs in pdf format and contour maps as specified in BPR 1. He said that the Department had planned for a major undertaking to update the databases, starting with non-broadcasting sites and then the broadcasting sites. This work proposal would be forwarded to the Change Control Committee in the Department for approval. One of the major tasks would be to complete the digitization of all contours.

5.5 Subcom 17 (Post DTV Transition Issues)

Mr. Dadourian said that the Department would meet with the FCC in October to formulate an agreement for post-DTV transition which would include the allotment plan within 400 km across the border for coordination. In Canada, efforts had been devoted to assigning channels to broadcasters to replicate their existing analogue service after DTV transition and this work had now been completed except for optimization of channels in some areas. Mr. Dadourian indicated that some major work may still be required to re-inject the vacated allotment after transition for quality of service, etc.

5.6 Subcom 19 (PI Codes)

Mr. Vacanni reported that the CBC had produced an algorithm to generate the PI Codes and it was proposed that the Department should manage the assignment of the PI Codes. He suggested that this could be done either by posting the assigned PI Codes on the Department's website or an alternate option would be to post the algorithm on the website for users to generate their own PI Codes. In any case, this proposal would have to be approved by the Department's Change Control Committee for implementation.

5.7 Subcom 20 (CDTV Consumer Info)

Mr. Dadourian said that a number of issues on transferring the CDTV consumer information would be studied including copyright, evaluation and selection of useful material to be posted, etc. He indicated that members of the subcommittee would be contacted for their input on all of the issues. Mr. Mimis added that there should be no problem posting the information on the Department's consumer site.

6. INFORMATICS

Mr. Stacey inquired if it would be possible to include the standby site information in the database and uniquely identify them as such by a flag. In reply, Mr. Leduc suggested that it might be easier to have a separate table in the extract to achieve this goal.

7. OTHER BUSINESS

7.1 Interference from FM Modulators

Mr. Stacey referred to tabled documents TAC-06-03 and TAC-06-04 which detailed the problem of interference caused by low-power FM modulators. He said that this subject had been discussed by the RABC Broadcasting Committee and the EMC Committee and that he would like the members to be aware of the potential impact of this type of interference. Mr. Stacey suggested that Canada should modify the RSS-210 to harmonize with the U.S. rule (Part 15) to avoid this potential problem in Canada.

7.2 2nd FM Channel Co-location

Mr. Moltner suggested that the existing rule re. 2^nd FM channel co-location should be reviewed for better spectrum management, especially in major markets. He suggested that a subcommittee should be set up to study this issue. Mr. Mimis said that the existing rule was the result of previous studies on the subject. However, he suggested that if a review of this rule by a subcommittee was deemed necessary, the terms of reference must first be drafted to start the process. Mr. Moltner agreed to draft and to circulate the terms of reference to the members for consideration.

8. DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING

The date of the next meeting will be on Tuesday, January 30, 2007.