Welcome to the e-mail digest of DVB Scene Issue 48 where we usher in a new era with Peter MacAvock at the helm as the new Chairman of DVB.
DVB Scene provides the latest news and information from the DVB.
Here is a selection of extracts from just some of the articles in this issue.
Your copy of the complete issue is now available for download as a PDF. You can also access our online magazine format.
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Virtual Reality & The Hot Dog
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David Wood,
Chair, DVB Study Mission Group - Virtual Reality
Every fan at the ball game knows the important decision he or she has to make - which end of the 'Hot Dog' to bite? We face a parallel situation in Virtual Reality. There are two "ends" to the VR Hot Dog - but for this game it is essential to bite both ends at the same time in concert.
Unless there are agreed VR standards, the multiplicity of proprietary systems may mean that the VR ship never leaves the harbor, or at least remains as just an occasional pleasure boat. But there are, all at the same time, a huge number of issues to resolve before we can set down on paper the technical requirements or the best standards for VR that will last. This is a complex world.
DVB established a study mission to suggest what steps DVB should be taking in VR. How (in a manner of speaking) do things look in VR?
At one end of our VR Hot Dog are a multitude of options for combinations of technologies for making and delivering VR content. We need to establish which will be the practical and useful.
David Wood explains the options that are being considered.
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DVB-S2X - Empirical Findings
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Vittoria Mignone, Rai
The DVB-S2X standard was published as ETSI EN 302 307 Part 2 in October 2014. It offers improved flexibility and features for the core applications of DVB-S2, including Direct-To-Home (DTH), contribution, VSAT and DSNG, as well as for emerging markets, such as airborne, rail and other mobile forward links, with configurations capable of coping with deep transient atmospheric fading. The availability of professional equipment implementing S2X features followed shortly thereafter.
Recently Rai Research carried out
laboratory tests of DVB-S2X implementations
to verify the real hardware performance, in comparison to ideal simulations of EN 302 307.
Rai's Vittoria Mignone reveals the excellent performance of DVB-S2X that makes the DVB standard a top system not only in theory, but also in practice.
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Live Broadcast over in-home IP Networks
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Thomas Wrede, SES
TV is still the predominant device to consume broadcast content in the home, however, new devices such as tablets and smartphones are gaining in popularity for live TV. To address this trend, DVB will have to offer a technical solution to also reach these devices.
SAT>IP is an ideal complement to the DVB suite of broadcast standards (DVB-T2, DVB-C2, DVB-S2 and DVB-S2X) and facilitates the delivery of live broadcast (based on transport stream technology) onto IP networks in a very cost efficient manner, long before the broadcast industry has moved to native IP transmissions. DVB is in discussion with the SAT>IP Alliance to provide future extensions of the SAT>IP specification. It is assumed that such cooperation can be approved this autumn. This cooperation will also include common marketing activities for Sat>IP. A first step in this direction will be a demonstration at IBC on the DVB booth (1.D81) where the technology will be used to deliver satellite and terrestrial content to handheld devices.
Thomas Wrede provides an overview of the initiative.
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LiveIP - A Practical Exploration
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Willem Vermost, EBU
Today's digital environment has a clear impact on audiences. Consumers want to be able to consume more media at anytime, anywhere and on any device. This obliges media organizations to provide new formats and to package their content for different media delivery platforms.
For years it has been taken for granted that the future of content production lies with 'IP', with all its benefits. The exciting news is that we are now passing from theory to practice. One of the major proof-of-concepts trials has been that of the Belgian national broadcaster VRT, LiveIP. This project is a practical exploration that was made possible by building and operating a live TV production studio with state-of-the-art IP-enabled equipment using available interoperable open standards. It is the result of great collaboration between VRT, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and a group of innovative broadcast technology partners including Axon, D&MS, Dwesam, EVS, Genelec, Grass Valley, Lawo, Nevion, Tektronix and Trilogy.
EBU's Willem Vermost, shares his experience of the exciting project.
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Italian Style - Implementing DVB-T2 with HEVC
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Alberto Morello, Vice-Chair, DVB-TM
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Alberto Morello
Vice Chair, DVB-TM |
The discussion about transferring part of the UHF television frequencies (the so-called 700 MHz band) to mobile broadband services, on a date between 2020 and 2022 rages on in Europe.
In Italy, broadcasters are carefully planning for this 30% reduction of spectrum resources through the adoption of technical standards offering greater efficiency (MPEG-4/AVC, HEVC, DVB-T2), with the aim of maintaining the current number of television services and, at the same time, improving the video quality towards high definition (HD). In this scenario, the introduction of High Dynamic Range (HDR) combined with HD 1080p is considered to be important, since it offers a further step in the user experience without requiring the huge bandwidth expansion of 4K UHD.
Alberto Morello, Director of Research and Technology Innovation Center at Rai gives us a report how Italy is preparing for the future.
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The Next Phase of DVB-UHDTV Over IP
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Thierry Fautier, Harmonic
Following the definition of the DVB UHD-1 Phase 2 Commercial Requirements for broadcast, which were published in November 2015, DVB decided that the Commercial Requirements would also cover IP delivery using the DVB-DASH extended specification. This decision will lead to the upgrade of the DVB-DASH specification that today only supports resolutions up to UHD (UHD-1 Phase 1).
In addition to updating the DVB-DASH specification to support UHD-1 Phase 2, DVB is also working on a new initiative called "ABR Multicast." This initiative has been created to deliver adaptive streaming for live applications in a scalable way using multicast techniques over any IP network. For the time being the initiative is still at the requirements stage in the Commercial Module.
DVB has defined a complete framework that can accommodate all the different network deliveries
and is now preparing for live scaling -
Thierry Fautier takes us through the paces of the work in this article
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A New Era - Subtitling For UHD
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Peter Cherriman, Chair, DVB TM-SUB
New subtitling standards tend to appear rarely and the existing standards have a long life. There are two DVB subtitling standards in common usage today; both are around 20 years old.
In 2014 DVB started looking at commercial requirements for subtitles for Ultra High Definition TV (UHDTV). The existing subtitle specifications were now quite old, technology had moved on and a more efficient and flexible subtitle system was desirable for both current and future broadcast systems.
The commercial requirements produced required a bitrate efficient system suitable for use with SD, HD and UHD services. The solution needed to support compositing of subtitles which may be defined in a different color-space to the video. The solution also needed to support downloadable fonts via broadcast or the internet. The downloadable font feature enables receivers to acquire fonts "in the field" rather than having the fonts preinstalled.
Peter Cherriman tells us what his Group has been up to.
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African Progress - Digital Switchover
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Marcello Lombardo, EBU
The Digital Broadcasting Africa Forum 2016 was organized by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO) and held 11-13 May in Lagos, Nigeria. The central theme of the three day conference was the switch-off of analog terrestrial television and the full roll-out of digital terrestrial television in Africa, where many countries missed the initial deadline of 17 June 2015 set by the ITU. The event was officially opened by the Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
The forum was an occasion to share knowledge and expertise on the topic and the EBU contributed by giving insights on the public service broadcasters' perspective as well as the benefits that African countries can get by investing in this broadcast distribution platform.
The EBU's Marcello Lombardo attended and reports on the event.
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