Services

LOTG provides strategic counseling to NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), the independent public broadcaster of Japan, and NHK’s affiliated companies, on all aspects of NHK’s international broadcasting operations, including:
  • Designing, building, implementing, and maintaining global video networks using satellite, fiber, cellular, cloud, and internet-based infrastructure;
  • Negotiating and contracting with an array of video industry players, including:
    • Network infrastructure providers, including international and regional satellite operators, fiber companies, telcos, IP-based content delivery networks (CDN), and major POP/switching centers around the world;
    • Content aggregation platforms operating in over 160 countries worldwide, including DTH satellite operators, cable TV and IPTV providers, over-the-top (OTT) distribution platforms, non-commercial and commercial terrestrial broadcast stations, and hotel TV platform aggregators;
    • Video equipment vendors, including codec manufacturers, network gateway and switch suppliers, and conditional access system (CAS) technology providers;
    • Captioning and subtitling vendors, including transcoding software and hardware developers, captioning data service providers, auto-translation and speech-to-text service engines;
    • Electronic Program Guide (EPG) service providers, for the enrichment of content metadata and the accessibility of media content;
    • Direct-to-consumer OTT service providers, including App developers, E-Commerce vendors, and viewership analytics services;
    • Mobile IP newsgathering vendors, for the capture and delivery of contribution video over blended IP networks.
  • Counseling on compliance with media and communications regulatory regimes around the world, including:
    • FCC regulation in the United States governing spectrum policy and utilization; transition to the ATSC 3.0 broadcasting standard; must-carry and cable retransmission; licensing of fly away antennas; rules governing closed captioning, underwriting messages on PBS stations, and children’s programming requirements;
    • European regulation under the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), as implemented in Luxembourg, France, and various EU countries;
    • OFCOM regulation in the United Kingdom governing free-to-air satellite channels and cable retransmission;
  • Participation with NHK on the Planning Committee of the World Broadcasting Unions - International Media Connectivity Group (WBU-IMCG) (formerly known as WBU-ISOG) for over 25 years, to address common technical challenges for broadcasters in the international transmission of video, including:
    • Moderating panels of industry experts at WBU-IMCG’s international forums, addressing topics on content piracy, OTT video distribution, HDR and compression technology, subtitling and localization, designing global distribution networks, and innovations in satellite technology;
    • Creating and leading programs to test the interoperability of MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and HEVC codecs from the leading international codec manufacturers.
  • Advice on copyright and other media content licensing issues and practices, including music performance rights and combatting international piracy;
  • Counseling on the transmission of video using MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (H.264), and HEVC (H.265) compression standards, and on evolving video technologies utilizing high dynamic range (HDR), wide color gamut (WCG), and 4K and 8K ultra-high definition (UHD) video;