Russell Trafford-Jones, Author at The Broadcast Knowledge

Video: Versatile Video Coding (VVC) Standard on the Final Stretch

Posted on 10th September 2019 by Russell Trafford-Jones

We’ve got used to a world of near-universal AVC/h.264 support, but in our desire to deliver better services, we need new codecs. VVC is nearing completion and is attracting increasing attention with its ability to deliver better compression than HEVC in a range of different situations.

Benjamin Bross from the Fraunhofer Institute talks at Mile High Video 2019 about what Versatile Video Coding (VVC) is and the different ways it achieves these results. Benjamin starts by introducing the codec, teasing us with details of machine learning which is used for block prediction and then explains the targets for the video codec.

Next, we look at the bitrate curves showing how encoding has improved over the years and where we can expect VVC to fit in before showing results of testing the codec as it exists today which already shows improvement in compression. Encoding complexity and speed are also compared and as expected complexity has increased and speed has reduced. This is always a challenge at the beginning of a new codec standard but is typically solved in due course. Benjamin also looks at the effect of resolution and frame rate on compression efficiency.

Every codec has sets of tools which can be tuned and used in certain combinations to deal with different types of content so as to optimise performance. VVC is no exception and Benjamin looks at some of the highlights:

Screen Content Coding – specific tools to encode computer graphics rather than ‘natural’ video. With the sharp edges on computer screens, different techniques can produce better results
Reference Picture Rescaling – allows resolution changes in the video stream. This can also be used to deliver multiple resolutions at the same time
Independent Sub Pictures – separate pictures available in the same raster. Allows, for instance, sending large resolutions and allowing decoders to only decode part of the picture.

Watch now!

Speaker

Benjamin Bross
Product Manager,
Fraunhofer HHI

Video: User Requirements Beyond SMPTE ST 2110

Posted on 9th September 2019 by Russell Trafford-Jones

Work on ST 2110 continues although the main elements of it have been standardised for well over a year now, but many companies are thinking beyond ST 2110.

The EBU’s Willem Vermost presents the wider picture of next generation broadcast facilities charting the need and desires of public broadcasters in Europe. We look here at the need for many broadcasters to move buildings and the problems they face doing so – only one of them being implementing a ST 2110 infrastructure.

The talk then goes on to the problems that broadcasters face and the need for a way of working which defines some common approaches. This has arrived in the form if a document with the lengthy title JT-NM TR-1001-1:2018 which outlines many practical approaches to making ST 2110 work. Many are simple, such as using DHCP but without an agreed set of practices, incompatibilities will come in.

Willem talks about the interoperability tests for this, the results of which are publicly available rather than previous closed-door tests. And before rounding off the talk with questions, he looks at the increasingly well-known EBU Pyramid which shows the availability of different parts of the IP ecosystem; media transport being green, configuration and security being red.

For more information about JT-NM, look at this talk from SMPTE and Imagine Communication’s John Mailhot which covers it in much more detail.

Join Willem at IBC to find out more about ST 2110 at a panel from IET Media discussing ST 2110 and NDI. NDI provides video over IP and is more widely supported than ST 2110, yet major broadcasters seem blind to its benefits. Is this because NDI doesn’t meet the needs of these broadcasters or are there other reasons? What are the use cases where both can be used together?

Join Willem Vermost, The Broadcast Knowledge Editor Russell Trafford-Jones, Marc Risby CTO of Boxer and Liam Hayter from Newtek/NDI to find out more at IBC, IABM Theatre, Future Zone. Friday 13th 15:00-15:45.

Speaker

Willem Vermost
Senior IP Media &Technology

Video: The Future of SSAI on OTT Devices

Posted on 6th September 2019 by Russell Trafford-Jones

Whether it’s to thwart ad blockers or to compensate for unreliable players, server-side ad insertion (SSAI) has an important role for many ad-based services. Phil Cluff is here to look at today’s difficulties and to look into the future.

Talking at the August Seattle Video Tech meet up, Phil looks at how we got where we are and why SSAI came about in the first place. He then looks at the manifest-manipulation method of doing this before seeing how well OTT devices actually support it showing inconsistent support for DRM in DASH and HLS. Smart TVs are a big problem delivering consistent viewing with all being different and even the new ones being delivered into the market now are few compared to the older, 5+ year-old TVs.

One solution to levelling the playing field is to distribute Chromecasts which works fairly well in allowing any device to be come a streaming device. Another option is to use server-side sitting SSAI meaning the video stream itself has the advert in it. One problem with this approach is the impracticality to target individual users. HbbTV and ATSC 3.0 are other ways to deliver adverts to the television.

Beacons are a way of players singling back to the ad networks that adverts were actually shown so Phil takes a look at how these will change as time moves on before opening up to questions from the floor.

Watch now!
Speakers

Phil Cluff
Streaming Specialist,
Mux

Video: The Evaluation Process of Ultra Low-Latency Solutions

Posted on 5th September 2019 by Russell Trafford-Jones

Patrick Debois summarises the world of low-latency players from his perspective of wanting to deploy his own solution.

Low- and ultra low-latency is an emerging market in the sense that there are few standards and getting the solutions working at scale and across all platforms is difficult and is a ‘work in progress’. As such, selecting a player is a compromise and there are many issues at play.

Patrick covers the following aspects: