Hearty Named Chair of ATSC Standards Technology Group

The Board of Directors of ATSC, the broadcast standards association, has named Dr. Paul Hearty of Samsung Electronics as Chair of the ATSC technology group that oversees the ATSC 3.0 suite of standards.  Effective May 15, Hearty will succeed Sony’s Luke Fay, who has been ATSC Technology Group 3 Chair since 2019.
ATSC Technology Group 3 (TG3) develops and maintains Standards and Recommended Practices for ATSC 3.0 and beyond.  It works on advanced technologies for broadcast, the Internet and other transport systems.  Technologies considered may be improvements to current systems or entirely new systems.

“ATSC is fortunate to have many brilliant minds contributing to the growth of our standards activities, and Paul’s vast experience and technical expertise will advance our collective efforts that make certain ATSC standards remain the world’s most flexible and adaptable to changing needs of broadcasters.  We are indebted to Sony and to Luke for driving TG3 forward for five years, leading standards updates and capably steering the group through the initial launch of ATSC 3.0.  Building on Luke’s contributions, Paul’s leadership will help us keep pace with the changing technologies all around us,” says Madeleine Noland, President of ATSC.

“The next few years will be an interesting time for ATSC as we expand deployment, not just in terms of transmitters and markets, but also new features and service concepts, achieving the potential of NEXTGEN TV.  As we explore new service offerings, we will discover new needs and opportunities, leading to the next generation of ATSC technologies,” Hearty says.

Involved in the development and standardization of advanced television systems since the early 1980s, Hearty has worked with the International Telecommunications Union, in the FCC Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service (ACATS), and with various standards development organizations including ATSC, CTA, SCTE and SMPTE.  Currently Chief Standards Strategist in Samsung Research America’s Video Solutions division, Hearty leads the company’s standardization activities in ATSC and in other standards development organizations.

He previously served as a Vice President of Technical Standards at Sony, and began his professional career at the Communications Research Centre, Government of Canada.  Hearty founded the Advanced Television Evaluation Laboratory, which carried out tests on behalf of ACATS that led to the development of the ATSC 1.0 digital television standard. Later, as a Vice President at General Instrument/Motorola, he led in the deployment of commercial and direct-to-home satellite broadcast technologies, as well as digital compression technology for satellite and cable.

Hearty holds a PhD from Queen’s University Canada, has received a Technical Emmy award, and has been recognized for his contributions to four additional Emmy awards.

Hearty is the fifth chair of TG3, following in the footsteps of James Kutzner (2011-15), who retired from PBS, Dr. Richard Chernock (2015-18), who retired from Triveni Digital, Madeleine Noland (2018-19), who was then with LG Electronics, and Luke Fay (2019-2024) of Sony Electronics.