The Broadcast Knowledge

Video: AES Immersive Audio Academy 2: MPEG-H Audio

Posted on 17th June 2021 by Russell Trafford-Jones

MPEG-H 3D Audio is an object-based audio coding standard. Object audio keeps parts of the audio as separate sound samples allowing them to be moved around the soundfield, unlike traditional audio where everything is mixed down into a static mix whether stereo or surround. The advantage of keeping some of the audio separate is that it can be adapted to nearly any set of speakers whether it be a single pair or an array of 25 + 4. This makes it a great cinema and home-theatre format but one which also works really well in headphones.

In this video, Yannik Grewe from Fraunhofer IIS gives an overview of the benefits of MPEG-H and the way in which it’s put together internally. The major benefit which will be noticed by most people is immersive content as it allows a better representation of the surround sound effect with options for interactivity. Personalisation is another big benefit where the listener can, for example, select a different language. Under-appreciated, but very important is the accessibility functionality available where dialogue-friendly versions of the audio can be selected or an extra audio description track can be added.

Yannik moves on, giving a demo of software that allows you to place object objects within a room relative to the listener. He then shows how the traditional audio workflow is changed by MPEG-H only to add an authoring stage which ensures the audio is correct and adds metadata to it. It’s this metadata that will do most of the work in defining the MPEG-H audio.

Within the MPEG-H metadata, Yannik explains there is some overall scene information which includes details about reproduction and setup, loudness and dynamic range control as well of the number of objects. Under that lie components such as a surround sound ‘bed’ with a number of separate audio tracks for speech. Each of these components can be made into an either-or group whereby only one can be chosen at a time. This is ideal for audio that is not intended to be played simultaneously with another. Metadata control means you can actually offer many versions of audio with no changes to the audio itself. Yannik concludes by introducing us to the MPEG-H Production Format (MPF)

Finally, Yannik takes us through the open-source software which is available to create, manage and test your MPEG-H audio setup.

Watch now!
Speaker

Yannik Grewe
Senior Engineer – Audio Production Technologies,
Fraunhofer IIS

Video: Ad-Supported Streaming Takes Over?

Posted on 16th June 2021 by Russell Trafford-Jones

FAST, SVOD and AVOD are all different ways to bring programming to viewers with different costs to the viewer. All delivered over the internet, FAST is a service that unites live, linear TV with a VOD service whereas AVOD only has video on demand. Both FAST and AVOD are free to watch thanks to adverts whereas SVOD is usually advert-free as this is subscriber VOD where you pay monthly. This video from Streaming Media discusses the rise of FAST and its importance in the market.

‘Is niche content key?’ askes moderator Chris Pfaff to Damian Pelliccione from Revry. Damian distances his service from niche as it serves the over 5% of the US population who identify as LGBTQ+ or similar, Despite not being niche, in common with niche channels, Revry’s content is not typically provided by the mainstream and has a very deep meaning to those watching. because they are working with an underserved demographic, they feel FAST is much more appropriate than SVOD as equal access is important. However, Damian is at pains to point out that, in reality, the service is a ‘tribrid’ of FAST, AVOD and SVOD. Revry’s marketing has moved to buying hero units to position itself on smart TVs and STBs in pole position and also aligning its brand outside of the streaming market such as associating with pride festivals. One advantage of FAST is the cost of user is far lower than SVOD which can be in the realms of $9 per user.

One of the motivators for Sony to start its BRAVIA brand of smart TVs was, Nick Colsey explains, to enable people to access niche streaming services to supplement the mainstream linear channels. This was done through a menu of apps, much like mobile computing, each one a window into a different walled garden. Now, Sony integrates streaming services into the same EPG as linear which shows that convergence continues unabated, in common with ATSC 3.0’s indifference to delivery method. Nick views Sony as a ‘Switzerland’ of content aggregation as it has no conflict of interest given it doesn’t run a rival service.

Chris Yates from Redbox says that FAST channels work well for them as they site well alongside customers’ other SVOD bundles remaining highly accessible. Finding customers, Chris states is harder than it used to be and now the gatekeepers are increasingly equipment manufacturers. Getting yourself on Sony TVs or Samsung equipment is a major vector for exposure but is not always practical. Chris says that rather than competing with youtube, it’s more general than that, he sees Redbox competing for leisure time. Asked later in the session, Chris says he sees consolidation on the horizon for both studios and streaming services.

Amagi’s Srinivasan KA is pleased to claim that they deliver up to 45% of all content on FAST platforms. He sees FAST as growing because it’s more demographic than cable without the need to get 100 services when only 2 would do. And those 2 channels can go much deeper into a topic than mainstream channels would. Not only can you go into a topic deeper, but with more choice of topics, you can go deeper into discovering, understanding and following up your own interests.

Philippe Guelton from Crackle explains their efforts to create programmes differently whether live drama or close-to live. He feels innovation is important and is one way to deal with companies who are spending ‘too much money on streaming, implying they are loss-leaders and therefore ripe for acquisition.

Watch now!
Speakers

	Srinivasan KA Co-founder, Amagi
	Chris Yates General Manager – On-Demand Redbox
	Damian Pelliccione Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Revry
	Nick Colsey Vice President, Business Development Sony Electronics Inc.
	Philippe Guelton EVP, Online Networks, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment President, Crackle Plus
	Moderator: Chris Pfaff CEO, Chris Pfaff Tech Media

Video: Insight into Current Trends of IP Production & Cloud Integration

Posted on 15th June 2021 by Russell Trafford-Jones

When we look at the parts of our workflows that work well, we usually find standards underneath. SDI is pretty much a solved problem and has been delivering video since before the 90s, albeit with better reliability as time has gone on. MPEG Transport Streams are another great example of a standard that has achieved widespread interoperability. These are just two examples given by John Mailhot from Imagine Communications as he outlines the standards which have built the broadcast industry to what it is today, or perhaps to what it was in 2005. By looking at past successes, John seeks to describe the work that the industry should be doing now and into the future as technology and workflows evolve at a pace.

John’s point is that in the past we had some wildly successful standards in video and video transport. For logging, we relied on IT-based standards like SNMP and Syslog and for control protocols, the wild west was still in force with some defacto standards such as Probel’s SW-P-08 router protocol and the TSL UMD protocol dominating their niches.

The industry is now undergoing a number of transformations simultaneously. We are adopting IP-based transport both compressed and uncompressed (though John quickly points out SDI is still perfectly viable for many). We are moving many workloads to the cloud and we are slowly starting to up our supported resolutions along with moving some production to HDR. All of this work, to be successful should be based on standards, John says. And there are successes in there such as AMWA’s NMOS specifications which are the first multi-vendor, industry-wide control protocol. Technically it is not a standard, but in this case, the effect is close to the same. John feels that the growth of our industry depends on us standardising more control protocols in the future.

John spends some time looking at how the move to IP, UHD, HDR and Cloud have played into the Live Production and Linear Playout parts of the broadcast chain. Live production, as we’ve heard previously is starting to embrace IP now, lagging playout deployments. Whereas playout usually lags production in UHD and HDR support since it’s more important to acquire video now in UHD & HDR even if you can’t transmit it to maximise its long-term value.

John finishes by pointing out that Moore’s law’s continued may not be so clear in CPUs but it’s certainly in effect within optics and network switches and routers. Over the last decade, switches have gone from 10 gig to 50 to 100 and now to 400 gig. This long term cost reduction should be baked into the long-term planning for companies embarking on an IP transformation project.

Watch now!
Speaker

John Mailhot
CTO,
Imagine Communications

Video: Free-to-Air Broadcasters’ Strategic Insights

Posted on 14th June 2021 by Russell Trafford-Jones

There is a lot of change underway as broadcasters not only update their distribution models to match the changing viewership but also position themselves to stand up to the increased competition from the internet giants. To find out what’s happening in the markets, Dataxis invited DR’s Peter Rosberg, Jan Vlcek CEO of Czech broadcaster Nova and Nuno Sanches of Kaltura to speak to Monique van Dusseldorp

From Peter’s perspective, Denmark’s broadband has been very good for a number of years which has led to a very fast uptake of digital platforms compared to other markets. It’s no surprise that he finds the 3 to 45 year old demographic is much more amenable to streaming rather than broadcast channels. He does, however, mention that DR no longer has a broadcast channel catering to young and older children. Peter says there will be a tipping point for them soon when they’ll find their broadcast numbers beaten by streaming.

Jan says that, for Nova, ‘local content is king’ which is a sentiment we’ve heard before in the ongoing attempt to carve a stable position among the global brands such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. Jan says that Netflix has produced some Croatian-language programming, but they can’t compete with Nova and other in-country broadcasters when it comes to producing enough, good quality content. Monique asks about forcing Netflix and others to have local content to which Jan says that those who have the best content will win. A global player can’t work locally in every market, there are too many.

On the flip side, broadcasters continue to find a global audience for their content and the internet makes getting it to their customers easier. Nuno says that Kaltura has seen a lot of these global trends. Many broadcasters find that the ex-pat market is big enough to be a useful demographic to deliver to either directly or via third-party streaming platforms. DR has a number of internationally received TV series such as ‘The Bridge’ but Peter says these are not made for an international audience, quoting a former head of drama saying ‘you have be local to go global’.

Marketing has changed with the diversification of distribution. When a linear channel moves to OTT such as the BBC’s BBC Three, the inherent promotion of the linear channel is lost. Broadcasters rely on the programme before to bring viewers into the current programme. When every single programme needs to be deliberately selected by viewers, the thumbnail needs to be right, the name and metadata need to be there but most importantly, people won’t click on something they don’t know, notes Peter. This means that a lot of work needs to go into ensuring viewers know about programmes and have the context they need to press play. Jan comments that the linear TV channel Nova helps raise awareness off their online platform, but for individual programmes, social media is the best promotion.

Looking to the future, Nuno says that last year everyone was discussing launching SVOD channels, this year it’s much more about freemium live channels and this will change again next year. Technologically, he feels that metadata layers in apps will be the future where products present in the scene will be called out in the viewing interface with an ability to immediately buy or find out more for instance booking a test drive for James Bond’s car.

Watch now!
Speakers

	Peter Rosberg Head of Digital & Linear Broadcasting Danish Broadcasting Corporation
	Jan Vlcek Executive Director & Co-CEO Nova Group
	Nuno Sanches General Manager Media & Telecom Kaltura
	Monique van Dusseldorp NEXT Curator, International Programme Director

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