Unlike analog-based television sets, today’s digital televisions are chock full of complex software.  Like computers, digital televisions have high-speed processors with operating systems and system-level software to make them run.  While the digital and high-definition technology advancements result in ultra-crisp picture quality and sound, digital televisions are a lot less stable than analog TVs.  And also just like a computer, digital TVs will inevitably require software updates to fix bugs and support the latest changes in the still maturing DTV products.

Digital television devices contain many different software programs stored within several micro-processors.  These devices even have an operating system inside.  In fact, everything which occurs in a digital television device is controlled by software.  Software stacks determine how to pick up the television transmissions on channels 2-62, broadcast in various forms of digital and high definition, display the video resolution, format the close captioning information, change the channels, show the emergency alert message, adjust the volume, power on/off the set, and more.  All these software programs interact and are linked together by the operating system (typically Linux), which fundamentally controls the digital television device.  Analog television devices only needed a little software to work – digital television devices do not work without a lot of software.

Take, for example, the soon-to-be available advanced digital cable-ready television sets which have integrated hardware and software capable of receiving video/audio from a bi-directional cable network.  These sets have complex software that has taken many years to develop.  Of course the software has been thoroughly tested by quality assurance teams but like any software technology, there will be bugs.  Furthermore, the lack of commercially deployed bi-directional networks to test against limits the scope of the testing possibilites.  Unfortunately, this could cause products to ship with unknown and untested bugs.

Even in the digital sets which do not include bi-directional capability, such as today’s popular LCD and Plasma DTV devices, there are software issues.  Several manufacturers have been forced to deliver firmware updates to their consumer customers already.  Today, manufacturers deliver updates to a consumer’s TV by mailing out media devices, such as USB drives, or by sending technicians to a person’s home.  These methods are costly - $30 for a mailing and $150 for a visit - and result in negative brand image for both manufacturers and cable companies.  They also require user interaction – plug the media device into the TV or wait for a technician to arrive.

The DTV software support problem is industry-wide and not specific to just a few manufacturers.  In fact, industry standards were written by a collective and cooperative group of manufacturers, cable operators, and semiconductor suppliers.  More specifically, back in 2003, members of the Advanced Televisions Systems Committee (ATSC) recognized the need to create a specification to define how to deliver software data to digital televisions and created a working group subcommittee T3/S13.  At the same time, and not by coincidence, a company was formed by to implement the technology and relationships necessary to provide a service for software data delivery to digital televisions.  Two years later, in November 2005 the A/97 specification was approved.  As an independent company, UpdateLogic, has worked diligently to create a solution, called UpdateTV, which consists of a network for both terrestrial and cable distribution of software updates in the United States. 

UpdateTV is based on the ATSC A/97 Software Data Download Service (SDDS) standard.  The A/97 standard was defined through the cooperative efforts of DTV manufacturers and broadcasters, and leverages many other methodologies developed by the ATSC organization since its inception.  A/97 specifies a data service that may be used to download software to a device using an MPEG2 transport stream.  The service may be used to deliver upgrades of firmware, operating system software, device driver software, or any other type of software that resides in a DTV device.

The SDDS standard is based on the “2-layer carousel scenario” of several previously written ATSC standards, including the DSI, DII, and DDB messaging protocols.  Top-level signaling is accomplished via a new service VCT (defined by A/65) type.  Announcement is accomplished via schedule information added to the DSI (originally defined by A/90) and the DII is used for some parts of the module signaling.  In all cases, a software data download shall be signaled and contained within the ATSC television broadcast transport using technology called a “virtual channel”.

Specifically with UpdateTV, UpdateLogic uses ATSC-compliant terrestrial broadcast bandwidth from Public Broadcasting System (PBS) stations nationwide as the point of entry for distribution to maximize the reach of the UpdateTV network.  Terrestrial broadcast allows direct access to DTV receivers with antennas and direct entry to cable networks without the need for additional cable infrastructure.  The A/97 standard was created primarily for one-way networks (terrestrial and uni-directional cable products – UDCP), however, the software update data can also be efficiently delivered across bi-directional cable networks, where there is an even greater need for software updates due to the increased complexity of the bi-directional cable DTVs. 

To enable the terrestrial network, UpdateLogic will place data insertion servers and other related equipment at major terrestrial stations in the PBS network throughout the U.S.  UpdateLogic has a relationship with National Datacast, a subsidiary of PBS, for distributing software update data over PBS station bandwidth.  Through a network operations center owned and operated by UpdateLogic, data is delivered to all terrestrial servers simultaneously.  These UpdateTV Servers then reformat this software patch in accordance with ATSC A/97 specifications and insert the data into the broadcast stream for terrestrial distribution.  The terrestrial signal is then received by UpdateTV enabled receivers with antennas.  

Just as the PBS television content is re-broadcast and transmitted across cable networks, so to will UpdateTV.  The UpdateTV data is part of the television broadcast signal which cable operators receive from PBS stations.  Cable operators will allow UpdateTV across one-way and two-way network environments.

Combined, the PBS broadcast and the cable distribution allow the UpdateTV signal to reach any digital television device connected to an antenna or a cable feed.  Therefore television sets, cable boxes, digital to analog converter boxes, personal video recorders, and other consumer electronic devices (also known as “customer premise equipment”) can benefit from receiving certified software updates direct from the manufacturer via UpdateLogic.