SpectraRep's EduCast Service Deployed Using NextGen TV

SpectraRep has announced that its EduCast™ service has been deployed using NextGen TV.

The launch was accomplished with a partnership with ONE Media 3.0 a division of Sinclair Broadcast Group using their Washington DC TV station, WIAV.

EduCast™, which can seamlessly operate on either ATSC 1.0 or 3.0 spectrum, is by far the most widely deployed broadcast distance learning service in the US. Though a partnership with America's Public Television Stations (APTS) it is now deployed in 12 states.

The NextGen TV deployment at WIAV is the first broadcast learning service to use NextGen TV to deliver educational services to students and teachers from K-12 to college who lack broadband access.

The NextGen TV ATSC 3.0 standard for broadcasting offers higher data rates and more robust performance. EduCast™, a datacasting service, uses a portion of the digital television capacity to deliver a secure, wireless data network that safely delivers targeted assignments, course materials and classroom videos to students. With EduCast,™ educators are better able to reach their students and provide a more equitable remote learning environment. Built on two decades of experience with datacasting using ATSC 1.0 transmission in partnership with APTS, the pivot to support remote learning use-cases was possible quickly enough to meet the challenges of families without adequate broadband access. That partnership also allowed for the educational materials created by public television stations to reach students with high-quality, curated content in their homes.

John McCoskey, SpectraRep’s COO, said: "When the ATSC 3.0 standard was ratified, we knew it could dramatically improve our service offerings due to its native IP architecture, increased data capacity, and better reception characteristics. Our goal was to enhance our services to operate using both ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0 transmission systems and to provide stations and end users a simple, no-cost transition from one to the other. At the station that means just configuration changes and moving a few cables. The in-home receiver we chose and have deployed already supports both transmission standards."

In anticipation of the staggered and voluntary transition of stations from the current standard to NextGen TV ATSC 3.0, SpectraRep partnered with industry leading DigiCAP to develop an advanced in-home receiver capable of simultaneous operation using both ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 transmission.

DigiCAP VP and Fellow, Joonyoung Park, said: "The challenge was to design a small in-home device that could receive, store, and serve educational content delivered by ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 broadcasters. It also had to be manufactured inexpensively and be simple enough for students to self-install and operate. Despite the worldwide chip shortages and manufacturing hold ups caused by the pandemic, we were able to adapt our manufacturing pipeline to meet these challenges and deliver the badly needed devices that were intricately important to the overall success of the EduCast system."

Educators access the EduCast™ service using their existing Learning Management System (LMS) and tools, including access to the rich library of public television educational content. They do not need to follow a separate workflow or take extra efforts to reach their students. Students receive a customized package of content that includes only their own classes, lessons, and assignments that is based on their login credentials programmed in the in-home receiver. Educators can also target content to individual students.
In a student’s home, the DigiCAP receiver connects to a simple TV antenna that is used to receive the broadcast signal and the IP content it carries. The receiver establishes a Wi-Fi hotspot in the home that students connect to with their Chromebook, tablet, laptop, or smartphone. The receiver stores up to 128 GBytes of educator-curated content. This can include videos, presentation slides, worksheets, interactive documents, and images.