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Dennis Johnson: ATSC 3.0 unclear and costly; county sites facing heat and upgrade delays
Summary
Dennis Johnson, who said he works to extend broadcast television through Iron County, told the commission summer heat is stressing transmitter cooling systems, ATSC 3.0 may bring costly technical changes with unclear FCC requirements, and microwave upgrades are taking longer than planned.
Dennis Johnson, who said he works to extend broadcast television through Iron County, told the commission that summer heat has created problems keeping transmission sites cool and that industry changes to ATSC 3.0 present uncertain costs and technical risks.
"This heat this summer's brought some problems with air conditioning and keeping the sites cool," Johnson said. He described ATSC 3.0 as "a new broadcast format that has been discussed for years now by the FCC. It's still unclear whether this is gonna be a requirement," and added, "I don't see a big improvement to Iron County to go to this broadcast format. It does have the potential to create us conflicts and problems. It also has some potential for improvements, but, it's a big expense."
Johnson also reported ongoing work on the county's microwave network. "I'm still working, to do upgrades on the microwave system. This is taking a lot more time than what was planned, but it still seems to be going okay," he said. He did not provide cost estimates or a firm timeline for completing the upgrades. No formal funding request or vote followed the update; commissioners did not make a decision during this meeting.
