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Datacasting (data broadcasting) is the broadcasting of data over a wide area via radio waves. It most often refers to supplemental information sent by television stations along with digital television, but may also be applied to digital signals on analog TV or radio. It generally does not apply to data which is inherent to the medium, such as PSIP data which defines virtual channels for DTV or direct broadcast satellite systems; or to things like cable modem or satellite modem, which use a completely separate channel for data.

Overview[link]

Datacasting often provides news, weather, traffic, stock market, and other information which may or may not relate to the program[s] it is carried with. It may also be interactive, such as gaming, shopping, or education. An electronic program guide is usually included, although this stretches the definition somewhat, as this is often considered inherent to the digital broadcast standard.

The ATSC, DVB and ISDB standards allow for broadband datacasting via DTV, though they do not necessarily define how. The overscan and VBI are used for analog TV, for moderate and low bandwidths (including closed captioning in the VBI) respectively. DirectBand and RDS/RBDS are medium and narrow subcarriers used for analog FM radio. The EUREKA 147 and HD Radio standards both allow for datacasting on digital radio, defining a few basics but also allowing for later expansion.

The term IP Datacasting (IPDC) is used in DVB-H for the technical elements required to send IP packets over DVB-H broadband downstream channel combined with a return channel over a mobile communications network such as GPRS or UMTS. The set of specifications for IP Datacast (phase1) was approved by the DVB project in October 2005.

Datacasting services around the world[link]

North America[link]

Ambient Information Network[link]

Ambient Information Network, a datacasting network owned by Ambient Devices presently hosted by U.S.A. Mobility, a U.S. paging service and focuses on information of interest to the local (or larger) area, such as weather and stock indices, and with a paid subscription Ambient will provide a particular device with more personalized information.

RBDS[link]

A slight variation of the European Radio Data System, RBDS is carried on a 57kHz subcarrier on FM radio stations. While originally intended for program-associated data, it can also be used for datacasting purposes including paging and dGPS.

DirectBand[link]

DirectBand, owned by Microsoft, uses the 67.65 kHz subcarrier leased from FM radio stations. This subcarrier delivers about 12 kbit/s (net after error correction) of data per station, for over 100 MB per day per city. Data includes traffic, sports, weather, stocks, news, movie times, calendar appointments, and local time.

MovieBeam[link]

The now-defunct MovieBeam service used dNTSC technology by Dotcast to transmit 720p HDTV movies in the lower vestigial sideband of NTSC analog TV. The set-top box stored the movies to be viewed on demand for a fee. This was distributed through PBS's National Datacast.

TV Guide On Screen[link]

TV Guide On Screen is an advertising-supported datacast sent by one local station in each media market. It supplements or replaces the limited electronic program guide sent by each TV station, which is already mandated by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

ATSC-M/H[link]

ATSC-M/H is yet another mobile TV standard, although it is transmitted and controlled by the broadcasters instead of a third party, and is therefore mostly free to air (although it can also be subscription-based). From a technical standpoint, it is an IP-encapsulated datacast of MPEG-4 streaming video, alongside the ATSC MPEG transport stream used for over-the-air HDTV/SDTV broadcasting. Heavy error correction, separate from that native to ATSC, compensates for ATSC's poor mobile (and often fixed) reception.

UpdateTV[link]

UpdateTV is a service used by some brands of TV sets and other ATSC tuners to update their firmware via over-the-air programming. This is also transmitted on PBS stations via National Datacast.

Australia[link]

Australian broadcast infrastructure company Broadcast Australia undertook a three year trial in Sydney of a datacasting service using the DVB-T system for use in Australia.

The trial consisted of a number of services on one standard 7MHz multiplex, collectively known as Digital Forty Four.

The collection included:

• A combined program guide for the free-to-air broadcasters (Channel 4)
• ABC news, sport, and weather items (Channel 41)
• Channel NSW (link) Government and Public Information, including real time traffic information and life surf webcam images (Channel 45)
• Australian Christian Channel (Channel 46)
• Expo Home Shopping (Channel 49) and
• Federal parliamentary audio broadcasts.

More recently a near-Australia wide broadcast of a datacasting channel called MyTalk commenced on April 13, 2007. Broadcasting as part of the multiplex on Southern Cross and Southern Cross Ten stations, it provided news, weather and other information, available free to anyone able to tune in. The stream consisted of text applicable to the viewer's location and a 4:3 video window of broadcast TV from the relevant Southern Cross/Southern Cross Ten station.

On February 25, 2008, MyTalk ceased broadcasting. Digital Forty Four was shut down at exactly midnight on the night of April 30, 2010.

Malaysia[link]

Malaysian multi-channel pay-TV operator, MiTV Corporation Sdn Bhd has launched its IP over UHF service in September 2005. The full digital broadcast capacity is being used to deliver IP services which such as multicast streaming and datacasting.

South Africa[link]

Mindset Network has developed an IP satellite datacast platform for the distribution of educational and health content to sites around South Africa and increasingly throughout the rest of Africa as well. The model is a forward and store model allowing users of the platform to view content in an on-demand fashion. Content distributed in this way includes video content, print-based content (in the form of PDF files), as well as interactive computer-based multimedia content.

Significantly, the model also includes access to a GPRS network that allows the receiving sites to communicate back to the Mindset central server. Communications include statistics about the physical health of the machine (e.g. power status, disk drive usage) as well as usage statistics indicating what content has been viewed.

The model also includes a distributed deployment of the Moodle LMS, allowing users to take assessments and then have the results transmitted via GPRS to the Mindset server for accreditation.

United Kingdom[link]

Teletext is used extensively on analogue channels; a type of Datacasting using the Overscan on analogue transmissions. Teletext Limited and Ceefax are the main providers. Within Digital television the Digital Teletext name is used extensively although the technology used to provide this service is unrelated and uses the MHEG-5 UK profile.

See also[link]

• Interactive television
• DVB-H
• Multimedia home platform
• UDcast
• MPEG Multiprotocol encapsulation
• MPEG Unidirectional Lightweight Encapsulation

External links[link]

• Digital Forty Four (Official Site)
• PBS National Datacast (NDI)

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Kurt Kelly
Member of the Florida House of Representatives from the 24th district
In office June 26, 2007 – November 16, 2010
Personal details
Born	June 16
Political party	Republican
Profession	Business Owner

Kurt Kelly is an American politician, businessman, and a native of Ocala, Florida. He was a member of the Florida House of Representatives from the 24th district and is the President/CEO and founder of 3-D Background Screening, a full service pre-employment background search company.

Personal[link]

Kelly has been married for 25 years to his wife Sally, a teacher at Madison Street Elementary School of the Arts. Kurt and Sally have two children: Kala, Junior at Florida State University, and Keenan, Junior at Trinity Catholic High School in Ocala.

Education[link]

He holds a Master’s of Science in Education from the University of South Florida and a Bachelor’s of Science from Florida State University. Kelly is a graduate of Central Florida Community College and Ocala Vanguard High School.

Career[link]

Kelly served 6 years on the Marion County School Board. He was elected to the Florida House of Representatives from District 24 on June 26, 2007 in a special election and has subsequently been re-elected.

Kelly serves on several leadership boards such as Children’s Alliance, Success by Six, Ocala Kiwanis, Central Florida Symphony Orchestra, and Child Evangelism Fellowship of Marion County.

During his first Legislative Session, Representative Kelly spearheaded legislation that supported victims of dating violence called the Barwick/Rucshak Act, strengthened early childhood learning, called to the United States Congress to fund Alzheimer research and services, and encouraged the building of “green” schools. Kelly also worked with a state agency to develop statewide plan on drinking water.

During the 2009 Legislative Session, Kelly focused on improving Florida’s economy, creating jobs, and protecting and strengthening Florida’s public education. He was placed by leadership to be on the House Full Appropriations Council on Education and Economic Development. He is also a member of the Economic Development Policy Committee; Energy and Utilities Policy Committee; State and Community Colleges and Workforce Policy Committee; PreK-12 Appropriations; and State and Community Colleges and Workforce Appropriations. Kelly is the Chair of the Digital Divide Select Council and the Vision Caucus. He has transformed the Vision Caucus into the largest Caucus in the Florida Legislature.

Kelly was recognized as the 2008 Freshman Legislator of the Year by the Florida Association of Counties, the Florida Water Conservation Champion of 2008, the Central Florida Community Arts-Spirit of International Art Award for 2008, and the 2007-2008 PACE Marion County Champion for Girls award.

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Kurt Kelly's Official Website^{[dead link]}
• Marion County, Florida Supervisor of Elections [1]
• Official Bio for Representative Kelly