A test run for a new television broadcast standard got the OK from the Federal Communications Commission and will take place at a Baltimore station, B&C reports in an exclusive story by our friend John Eggerton.

“According to a copy of the FCC document obtained by B&C, the FCC has granted Cunningham Broadcasting’s WNUV-TV Baltimore a six-month experimental broadcast license to use the CW affiliate as a test bed for a ‘next-generation’ broadcast standard that the station argues could help broadcasters be a player in the mobile, multiplatform and ultra-high definition of the video future,” the piece reports. “The company says other broadcasters, vendors and trade associations will participate in the WNUV test, according to the original petition for testing authority.”

Sinclair operates the station under a local marketing agreement, the report notes. Sinclair and WNUV did not comment for the report.

WNUV’s request for the testing authority pointed out that the current standard is designed for large-format video to fixed receivers, while, it points out, viewers are increasingly mobile and are viewing video on phones and tablets. As a result, it wants to test the Second Generation Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial (DVB-T2) OFDM transmission technology standard — already in use in some European countries — and succeeding iterations as a possible new standard for the U.S.

Among the things WNUV and Sinclair say they are looking for the testing to do are, according to Eggerton’s B&C story:

"Identify representative link budgets for a variety of use cases in different locations within the service area;

"Determine how a scalable Quality of Service offering combined with flexible transmission attributes might facilitate the simultaneous provision of television broadcast to multiple viewing devices;

"Provide data that may support the development of coverage and service contour matching techniques;

"Confirm the ability of OFDM to support Ultra High-Definition television within the existing 6 MHz channel assignments; and

"Explore technological capabilities that could lead to the ability to evolve a future broadcast standard."

We urge you to read all of the details of this important story by clicking on the link above, which will take you to Eggerton’s piece.