Ericsson Plans 5G Showcase at 2018 Winter Olympics

Streaming Media 

As the Next Generation Mobile Networks consortium works on 5G standards, with wide availability projected for a decade from now, Ericsson says it will highlight the technology at the PyeongChang games in three years.

http://www.streamingmediaglobal.com/Articles/News/Featured-News/Ericsson-Plans-5G-Showcase-at-2018-Winter-Olympics-105898.aspx

Not content with rolling out 4G LTE, mobile operators are switching their attention to 5G, the next global standard, and possibly the last major network upgrade.

Some operator plans are advanced, despite standardization having barely begun. Ericsson for example says it expects to “showcase some 5G-based scenarios during the summer and winter Olympics during this period. Not coincidentally, South Korean city PyeongChang hosts the 2018 Games in a country which is pumping $1.5 billion into a 5G network it will switch on in just two years time.

Initial work has started on 5G standards under the operator consortium Next Generation Mobile Networks  (NGMN). The NGMN has provided a consolidated operator view of 5G in its whitepaper and created several technical groups to flesh out the vision outlined in it. The NGMN will act as a feeder body for its requirements to the ITU Radiocommunications Sector (ITU-R) and third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) initially, and other consortia (e.g. TMF, IEEE) as the need to do work in these are identified.

Initial deployments of 5G-based solutions are expected around 2020, with trials in the 2018-2019 timeframe.

According to the UK's Digital TV Group, the 5G process is gaining global momentum and receives a strong political support and funding from governments and the European Commission.

The ITU is developing a set of requirements for IMT-2020 and will provide additional spectrum at the WRC conference in 2019.

“This would enable the first 5G-compliant equipment to be available around 2020,” says George Robertson, Principal IP Engineer of DTG and co-chair of the Mobile Video Alliance.

At the Mobile World Congress in March, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf said the biggest challenge the industry faces with 5G is the extreme number of use cases.

According to Ericsson, 5G is not simply a next-generation mobile technology upgrade (like the transition from 2G-3G-4G) “but an enabler for a whole range of scenarios affecting multiple industries from media and transportation to automotive, industrial, security, and so on.”

UK mobile operator EE is about to begin 5G trials of its own. Matt Stagg, EE's Principal Strategist, and a mentor for the 5GIC project at Surrey University, says “Bandwidth is not limited but 5G may yield a perception of limitless bandwidth because you will always have enough for your purpose. This could be the connected car, remote surgery, or holographic projection. 5G is not a new air interface. It is best understood as a ecosystem which a lot of people, not just mobile operators, are exploring.”

To make those concepts possible, the attributes of a 5G standard will likely include ultra-reliability and ultra-resiliency, GB throughputs, and latency as low as 1 millisecond.

“It means unicast with peak data of more than 10Gb/s, a more consistent user data rate of 100Mb/s at the cell edge and it means a massive increase of network capacity by moving to higher frequency ranges,” explains Dr Helmut Schink, head of telco standards at  Nokia Networks. 

The focus of 5G delivery is on edge computing, a transformation of the current architecture of the internet. It means transferring processing nearer to the application into local cells and away from centralising data in data centres or on cloud servers. This will free up the network which may otherwise be blocked by the sheer amount of traffic passing over it.

“We will see some big changes in content delivery from the cell side itself because it makes economic sense, it doesn't use backhaul, will lower latency, and frees up other parts of the network,” says Stagg.

One area 5G is not expected to address is broadcast. That's because the capabilities for mobile and video broadcasting are already possible with LTE Broadcast and will be further enhanced by the evolution of LTE in the next few years.

“Standards are being developed by 3GPP for LTE-based services for either unicast or broadcast distribution of TV programs,” states Ericsson. “5G is not essential for such services. Higher frequency spectrum bands in 5G and new radio beam forming technologies are expected to offer ultra-dense deployments at GB throughputs for applications that require such capabilities.”

Nokia's Schink agrees that “multicast and broadcast is not a key focus of 5G.”

According to Robertson at the DTG, the expected capabilities of 5G technology would “certainly be sufficient for the delivery of linear broadcasting to mobile devices” but it remains to be seen to what extent and when they will be deployed in the real networks.

“From the perspective of both the public service media and the commercial providers 5G will need to be assessed in a similar way as other delivery platforms,” he says. “That is, not only on the basis of its technical capabilities, but also reach, costs, market potential, and gatekeeping issues.”

For all the excitement, 5G is not likely to be a mainstream service until 2025.

V-Nova Gains Traction; Will Publish Performance Tests at IBC

Streaming Media

Perseus technology is in use for contribution feeds for Sky Italia; company says it accommodates greater color depth and higher dynamic range in addition to offering efficiency gains. 

http://www.streamingmediaglobal.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/V-Nova-Gains-Traction%3b-Will-Publish-Performance-Tests-at-IBC-105769.aspx

Compression specialist V-Nova says it will publish performance tests for its codec working on Ultra HD streams at IBC next month and says it has 8K compression tests in the works.

The London-headquartered developer, which came to prominence in April after five years of R&D, has generated considerable buzz with its claims of a technology that more than halves the bitrates necessary to deliver Netflix-style Ultra HD content to the home.

The company says it is working with a number of operators to trial and evaluate Ultra HD using its Perseus codec.

"The technology has incredible range from 8K to sub-SD and everything in between," said Fabio Murra, SVP Product & Marketing. "8K 120 fps is what will make the technology really stand out."

Streaming Media has requested twice to review Perseus, but the company hasn't agreed yet, so we asked V-Nova for baseline numbers claimed for the latency and bitrate of its compression scheme.

"Those numbers are difficult to give without the context," replied Murra, who spent seven years in product marketing at Ericsson before joining V-Nova last September.

"The headline is that our technology is capable of delivering UHD at HD rates and HD at SD rates and SD at sub-audio bitrates," he added. "This is correct, but it's a combination of factors, partly compression performance and partly the ability of our codec to behave fundamentally differently compared to existing standards."

He added, "We have re-written our codec from the ground-up."

At NAB and several demonstrations since, V-Nova has shown streaming of UHD 25p video at bitrates of 4-6Mbps for IP streaming applications.

"For a truly immersive experience, we have demonstrated the ability to do UHD 50p or 60p at 11-13Mbps," said Murra. This is about 50% the current benchmark set by HEVC live encoders, he claims, in reference to channels that are available and on air now.

"However, we are not saying that Perseus is 2-3x times better than HEVC in pure compression performance or under all conditions," said Murra.

Key to claims made for Perseus is what Murra calls its "continuous hierarchical adaptability." The "V" in the company's name is symbolic, he said, of an inverted pyramid representative of the core technology.

"Perseus' hierarchy means that it contains all levels of quality (LOQ) within a single stream and it can move between LOQs seamlessly, on a frame-by-frame basis," he explained. "This effect, which we call 'continuous hierarchical adaptability,' effectively eliminates the typical MPEG 'knee' and its nasty blocking artifacts for a more gentle, softer, pleasant picture degradation as bitrates are reduced. Operators can therefore move from extremely cautious operating points to lower ones, while maintaining a great user experience. It means, subjectively, the picture degrades a lot more gracefully, the picture doesn't break or block, so we can push the bitrate a lot lower."

In theory, what such a 'hierarchical architecture' means is that an operator can avoid simulcasting by carrying UHD, HD and SD at the same time and all at different frame rates if required, in the same stream.

"Every operator has to deliver SD, and HD and, in the future, Ultra HD," he continued. "They must simulcast these streams to different screens which becomes very inefficient. Having scrapped the single stream paradigm we are able to build a hierarchical structure which allows us to push the encoding envelope a lot harder. A Perseus UHD stream effectively carries the HD and SD feed, and HD streams include the SD equivalent. This effectively eliminates the need for simulcasting and its another important benefit beyond raw compression performance."

Sky Italia is the company's first deployment of Perseus in contribution, where feeds are brought back from stadiums from live productions to the broadcast centre at a latency measured at 3 frames, according to Murra, "and at a level of performance which is visually lossless and 30-50% better than an equivalent technology like AVC Intra or JPEG2000.

Middleware vendor Wyplay has also integrated Perseus into a STB for an unnamed European pay-TV operator.

"Things get better as data gets bigger—so there's a lot better performance with 4K," stated Murra.

V-Nova is currently testing its codec on 4K Ultra HD content ahead of publishing the results at IBC next month. "We are testing the delivery of 4K UHD content in visually lossless mode at 300Mbps," Murra said. "There is no benchmark out there, but if we can achieve this it means that all of a sudden we can route three UHD 4K feeds down a 1Gbps pipe to the home. It means delivery of Ultra HD content from a live event over IP becomes possible."

SD video could be delivered at 300Kbps, making it possible to provide mobile television over 2G networks.

Murra emphasises that Perseus fits within existing transport systems. "What comes out of our system is still wrapped around an MPEG2 transport stream. None of the infrastructure is really changing. It's just a software update at the encode and decode end."

If Perseus' qualities really do get better as things get bigger, the logical next step is surely 8K.

"Perseus is designed to support native 16-bit so it will already accommodate higher dynamic ranges and greater color depth," confirmed Murra. "Looking forward, 8K 120fps is what will make the technology really stand out. If we can get a 2x performance in HD, a 3-4x performance in 4K then one can only imagine the gains we can make for 8K. Again, there is no benchmark, but we are doing some experiments. The most difficult thing is getting hold of 8K content to work from."

An obvious tie-up might be with Japanese broadcaster NHK, which is experimenting using HEVC/H.265 for contribution and distribution.

One of NHK's partners in creating optical gear for Super Hi-Vision is Hitachi Data Systems, a partner shared by V-Nova. It provides V-Nova with server and storage systems.

"While we are experimenting with technology we are still very focused on solving real world problems for operators today," stressed Murra.

V-Nova's licensing adds to the potentially costly mix of proprietary codecs already competing in the market for HD and Ultra HD (including in the live video over IP domain the IntoPix' Tico Alliance; J2K; Sony Low Latency Video Codec; and the open source VC2).

"HEVC is a standard only because the industry decided to give a number and a name to it, but it includes single ideas from many different companies, many of whom are trying to monetise their piece," says Murra. "There are open source codecs which have no licensing but operators are nervous about adopting those because of intellectual property exposure. We offer the chance to licence one technology from one company, and we are trying to be as accommodating as possible. But we do have IP (intellectual property) and the codec is our business."

V-Nova was founded in 2011 by Guido Meardi (CEO), Luca Rossato (chief scientist), Eric Achtmann (executive chairman) and Pierdavide Marcolongo (angel investor).

OSN: The Battle with Digital Media is Over

IBC

The CEO of Dubai-based UAE pay-TV network OSN reveals OSN will launch an Ultra HD channel in 2016. He believes mainstream TV is far from dead and that OTT is not a threat but an exciting opportunity. 

“The battle with digital media is over,” he says. “We are delivery systems for content.”

David Butorac spoke to IBC ahead of his keynote at IBC2015. http://www.ibcce.org/page.cfm/action=library/libID=14/libEntryID=360/listID=2

At IBC2015 you are keynoting the topic 'Broadcasting in an era of Challenge'. How do you respond to that idea?

The industry is going through one of its most exciting phases ever. I am old enough to have lived through the day when the introduction of multi-channel shook-up TV. Sky pretty much revolutionised the UK landscape with multi-channel broadcasting in an era of four free to air channels (Butorac was a Head of Operations and Station Manager at BSkyB). As broadcast has evolved with digital technology our ability to distribute content to consumers has become an increasingly complex business. So I don't see challenges, I see only opportunities. As broadcasters we need to ensure the delivery of content to consumers and that hasn't changed. What has changed is that this is now driven by consumer demand rather than them being dictated to, as to how and when they watch.

OTT has previously been pitched as a threat to traditional broadcast, yet at IBC2015 it appears we have reached a tipping point where OTT is mainstream since broadcasters have embraced it.

I agree. But let's be clear: mainstream TV broadcast is nowhere near dead. Viewership on free to air across MENA, and certainly on our platforms, is increasing. TV is thriving and particularly so with massive investment going into creating spectacular content. 

When you have directors the calibre of Martin Scorsese creating TV shows like 'Boardwalk Empire' (for HBO) and the success of series like 'Game of Thrones' and 'House of Cards' there is an amazing amount of stunning content in the pipe.

The key is making sure the broadcaster is able to adapt to deliver that. OTT is not a threat. Quite the opposite. It is an opportunity. We developed two OTT platforms at OSN including OSN Plus HD for online viewing and OSN Play, our TV anywhere product which are going from strength to strength.

The concept of broadcast doing battle with digital media is long gone. Ultimately we deliver meaningful content to consumers and the technical means to distribute is just an enabler. We are delivery systems for content.

How important is it to reach consumers on mobile devices in MENA?

There are a number of key demographic and use patterns in MENA which have to be born in mind. One is that 65% of the population is under the age of 35. That's a huge, tech-savvy group. The second is that until after the first Gulf war there was very little international content broadcast in the region. Access to international quality content is still a relatively new thing. You couple that with an extremely tech savvy young demographic – most usage of mobile phones anywhere in the world is in Saudi Arabia – and it means a voracious appetite for content and information on devices.

The mitigating factor is that the level of broadband - wired or wireless - is relatively infant in this region and not universally available in terms of high bandwidth. There is a huge opportunity in this region for content over mobile and it's a space we need to be in, but the region has a content piracy problem and the consumer is still coming to terms with the concept of paying for content, as opposed to receiving it for free. 

You made headlines with your comments at IBC Content Everywhere MENA when you galvanised the industry into action on piracy. What efforts are being made to tackle the issue?

This is a problem the whole industry faces. We are tackling it fairly successfully with a consortium of international content supplier, satellite providers, broadcasters and others. Piracy manifests in many ways. On satellite, we've seen a reduction of 47 TV channels taken off air that were causing concern. There are also significant levels of overspill piracy where legitimate operations like Dish TV operate illegally by selling in this region and we are taking steps with regulators and judiciary to clamp down on that. There are piracy threats from OTT and IP providers outside the region going through Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), and piracy from bitTorrent use. We have to continue to clamp down on all of these and make the case that this is hurting not just our business as broadcasters but having an economic impact on the region. Piracy is a fight we will never finish fighting. 

When will OSN make a move into Ultra HD?

Ultra HD is the next step but we've no content at the moment. As much as TV manufacturers are selling UHD screens there is only HD to watch. But we are mindful of Ultra HD as an important new consumer experience and we will launch an Ultra HD channel in mid 2016. We are engaged in conversation with lead contractors for the creation of the platform and also with content providers. Like all new technology it is a chicken and egg situation. We need to have content available to drive the market. This region is unique in that all TV distribution is done on satellite, not just pay TV, but terrestrial is free to air too, so access to bandwidth becomes an issue. We will all need more bandwidth for Ultra HD.

How can the region's original content production for international sales be ramped up?

Content creation in the Arabic language has historically concentrated in Cairo and Beirut. Like other broadcasters in the region we invest in that content. Our number one channel and the leading channel one in UAE, is an Arabic language entertainment channel.

What the region has done is build world class facilities in Studio City and TwoFour54. The issue is the skillset. People don't go to Pinewood Shepperton just for the high-tech facilities but for the craft skills of talent in the UK.  That's what we need to focus on in MENA. There is investment in building up fresh and new content and indeed western studios are starting to invest in Arabic language content which is an indication of the sales potential for original content produced here.

Will OSN air the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar?

We have a strong sports portfolio including the Rugby World Cup, of which we will air every game. We also show cricket, having signed with the ICC for world cricket rights for the next 8 years and major golf.

One of the idiosyncrasies of this region is that we have sovereign backers of key broadcasters who pay an uneconomic amount for rights (such as Qatar's sponsorship of Al Jazeera). The amounts paid to air the FIFA World Cup, English Premier League, La Liga or Champions League are way in excess of those that can be returned because the broadcasters acquiring those rights are not doing it for economic reasons. I am not prepared to do that.

David Butorac is a keynote speaker at IBC2015 on Thursday 10 September ‘The Future Is Now – Broadcasting in an age of challenge.’

Ten things you need to know about IP before IBC

IBC

Video over IP for live production is set to be the most pressing issue at IBC2015 and the months beyond. At stake, a new methodology for transporting AV data from site to plant, in and around a studio and live to air. The reasons are many and include promised costs savings in a move to COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) technology, speed to spin-out new channels, a scalable path to resolutions of 4K and anything else the industry throws at it, and new techniques like remote production.

http://www.ibcce.org/page.cfm/action=library/libID=14/libEntryID=351/listID=2

IBC will be buzzing with video over IP. Here are some pointers which may help put the noise into context:

• IP reaches tipping point: IP will not just be hot news at IBC Content Everywhere Europe but across the wider IBC exhibits and IBC Conference, signifying that IP has reached a turning point. IP workflows already impact storage, archive, contribution and distribution. The last step is live production. No longer an experiment, this is the most fundamental technical change to sweep broadcast in decades. Expect the first IP live technology ready to buy on the IBC show floor.
   
• Re-skilling is not to be underestimated. Ripping out base-band SDI is not for the faint-hearted. Who wants to move from a proven technology where everyone knows what a signal is doing, and where it is in the chain, to an environment that some people feel is as yet unproven and in which everyone understands new skills are required? “If you've been working in SDI for thirty years and all of a sudden it's based on servers, this requires different skill sets,” says Adam Cox, Head of Broadcast Equipment, Futuresource Consulting. “The lack of skill sets are a big barrier to IP live.”
   
• Does IP live switching work? Yes, says Imagine Communications: “We are saying that the interaction feels the same as it did when audio/video was run over SDI.” Not yet, says Quantel Snell.  “Where SDI routers were very reliable with straightforward verification of what was happening, IP systems are more opaque. This creates a lack of confidence.” The industry decides at IBC.
   
• SMPTE 2022-6 is a short-term solution: SMPTE 2022-6 is the first incarnation of realtime video over IP and the standard on which most manufacturer's starter IP kit is based. However, 2022 is a mirror of copper-wire SDI functions in Ethernet form and is a way of easing the transition to IP for broadcast engineers. If you want to freely mix and match different camera, metadata or audio streams – the prime advantage that IP offers - then a new standard is required. SMPTE and the Video Services Forum are among those working on it. Expect demonstrations from next year.
   
• The codec conundrum: While HD 1080p can fit snugly down 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections, working in 4K UHD will need mezzanine compression. But which to choose? Contenders include IntoPix' Tico Alliance; J2K; VC2 and Sony's Low Latency Video Codec. Using multiple proprietary codecs, however, might negate much of IP's supposed cost-savings.
   
• The net result is interoperability: Standards are either not common enough or are proliferating, neither of which is suitable for the cross-vendor interoperability with which IP should match SDI. For a successful implementation of IP it is important that one standard is adopted to allow interoperability between systems. The industry needs scale to reduce costs and that will not be achieved with closed vendor specific solutions.
   
• Weigh the velocity of Moore's Law: IP connections capable of 40GbE and 100GbE are already out of the labs and will eventually reduce in price. But where SDI routers are based on a price per port, IP routers are typically based on amount of bandwidth. You can put video over IP unconstrained in bandwidth but the cost of doing so quickly becomes an issue, especially at 4K. 
   
• Migration to IP is more compelling than Ultra HD. In practical terms there is a relationship between IP and 4K but a move to IP is not predicated on 4K. The increased bandwidth requirements of 4K production means choosing between the relatively clunky use of 3G-SDI bundles, looking towards higher bandwidth SDI (12G-SDI or above) implementations or moving to high bandwidth Ethernet technologies. Most organisations are using 3G-SDI as a stop gap while planning and evaluating the Ethernet options for the future. 
   
• SDI isn't dead: Broadcasters could still upgrade with SDI, the roadmap for which includes a 24G standard capable of 4K at 120 frames a second. It is likely that SDI islands will remain for at least a decade. After all it took 11 years since introduction of the first file-based media in 2003 for sales of tape to be erased in the professional European market.
   
• Broadcast vendors have a crucial role: Estimates of the broadcast routing switcher market run to about $300 million; the IP switch market exceeds $12 billion. Broadcast equipment vendors need to adapt their technologies to IT and not the other way around, but they are also set to play a crucial role as the interface between broadcast engineers and new IP methodologies.

Driverless cars, 8K and 4D haptics at the IBC Future Zone

IBC

A driverless car, VR from a single camera and tools to automate post-production are some of the eclectic highlights united at the IBC Future Zone, a unique gallery among IBC's main Exhibition Halls. To whet your appetite for a visit, we take a peak at this year's Zone which has been divided into three theme areas. http://www.ibc.org/page.cfm/action=library/libID=14/libEntryID=107/listID=2

What is Reality? 
This is where visitors can immerse themselves in the worlds of augmented and virtual reality video, experience the intensity of 360° news footage, and discover new sensations with synthetic touch (haptics) and ‘4D’ exhibits. 

San Francisco start-up LiveLike is present, showcasing a prototype application that delivers a 'best seat in the house' virtual reality experience for live event broadcasters who aren't keen on investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in new equipment.

LiveLike is showing its exclusive VR prototype developed with major international football teams. “Our product requires no special equipment, simply one fish-eye lensed camera. Even a Go Pro would work,” explains founder Andre Lorenceau.

BBC R&D will take you on a Oculus-based immersive tour to illustrate its approach to a future IP-based production infrastructure. IP provides an opportunity to make object-based media and entirely new content experiences.

Audio is a critical component of VR storytelling and navigation which is where Two Big Ears comes in. Imagine being able to hear a monster growling right behind your ears, or watch a music video where the singer’s voice reacts to where you are looking. 360 VR films allow you to look all around, not just in front, and the Scottish developer's technology ensures that the audio is equally interactive.

“We not only do spatial positioning of sounds, but also recreate important acoustic cues to give a better idea of the space the user is in, as well as other effects such as occlusion using geometry analysis of a virtual environment,” explains CEO Abesh Thakur.

International Innovations
Ground-breaking technologies that are changing the way consumers around the world are accessing and engaging with new content have been brought together into this exciting  area. And what can be more exciting than riding in a driverless car around the RAI while watching TV? That's in store for any visitor who visits automotive manufacturer Tata Elxsi.

Though passengers might have experienced fairly advanced infotainment systems in aircraft, the experience of a 'moving living room' is unique. The vehicle is much smaller, movement is much more perceptible, and the absence of a driver adds to the illusion of being in a home-like environment. What will you make of it?

The Connected Media EU cluster in the Future Zone is presenting the results of four projects that could shape the future of television. The SAM EU project aims to integrate social media, content syndication and digital marketing into a single, universal and open framework.  BRIDGET is developing an underlying architecture to enhance programmes with links to external interactive media elements; web pages, images, audio clips, free-viewpoint video clips, and synthetic 3D models. It calls these links 'bridgets'. LinkedTV aims to weave TV and web content into a single, integrated experience. It is watching news and getting background information on the stories; it is seeing a painting in a TV show and identifying the artist and the museum where it hangs. LinkedTV makes this possible - and cost-effective - with its platform which is the result of 42 months of R&D in pan-European, cross-company collaboration. 

The BBC launched a public facing audience testing platform called Taster earlier this year that gives viewers a chance to sample the sort of interactive and personal content that they could expect as mainstream in an IP-enabled broadcast environment. BBC R&D are ready to share the first results of the trial in the Zone.

Perfect Pixels 
Increased pixel resolution, faster frame rates, higher dynamic range, wider colour gamut ... what can these techniques really achieve in terms of picture quality and the consumer’s quality of experience? 

A pair of EC-funded projects will reveal the results of research into improving the efficiency of post-production workflows. 3FLEX is intent on streamlining 2D and 3D workflows by using depth information with the latest results demonstrated on Mocha and Mistika platforms; Autopost is all about improving the efficiency of labour-intensive visual effects tasks. “We are especially targeting small and medium sized facilities which may not have the resources to either develop their own in-house solutions or use very specialised and expensive green screen, motion capture or rotomation techniques,” says Project Manager, Monica Caballero.
The algorithms will be refined based on industry feedback ahead of delivering a market-ready solution. The project partners in each case are Eurecat, imcube labs, SGO, Imagineer Systems and Fraunhofer HHI.

A tour of the IBC Future Zone would not be complete without a visit to one the perennially popular exhibits. NHK returns to give visitors a chance to see and hear the latest developments in 8K Super Hi-Vision and 22.2 channel audio. These include sequences of tests shot at Wimbledon and the FIFA Women's World Cup this summer and a new High Dynamic Range (HDR) treatment of the format viewable on a new HDR-enabled 85-inch LCD panel.

If you thought 8K broadcasting by 2020 was mission impossible then think again. Japanese group NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation) has a R&D project that intends to establish media processing technologies that can transmit ultra-high-definition video surpassing even 8K - in five years time.

Specifically, it is investigating an immersive telepresence technology called Kirari!, which is a technique for directly transmitting not just the images and sounds of players at a live sports event but also the environment and therefore the 'emotions' in which the game exists.

Transport yourself to the IBC Future Zone and glimpse the future for content in our home, our car and our workplace and of the very latest ideas, developments and disruptive technologies in the industry. 

Blazing a trail for 4K live sport

Broadcast 

BT is taking a huge step forward with the launch of Europe’s first dedicated UHD sport channel, but its aim of delivering it live over IP remains some way off.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/features/blazing-a-trail-for-4k-live-sport/5091309.article?blocktitle=Production-Feature&contentID=38351

BT’s Infinity fibre-optic broadband provides the bandwidth necessary to distribute 4K to the home, but for a couple of years at least, live production for BT’s new Sport Ultra HD channel will be in 3G-SDI, which splits the 4K stream into four circuits of HD over conventional copper wire.

“IP (internet protocol) live infrastructure is not yet ready,” says BT Sport chief operating officer Jamie Hindhaugh. “We are looking at IP and attributes like high dynamic range and frame rates, and how that integrates into 4K. Our focus is on being trailblazers and staying out in front. For years the talk about 4K was stilted; now we are doing it and I think technology will follow our lead.”

The broadcaster has trialled 4K production over the past 18 months. In turning R&D into a live deliverable, the critical factor was commissioning and building a scanner, in partnership with Timeline.

“To build a 4K truck ready for 2 August [in time for the channel’s debut FA Community Shield broadcast], IP was never going to be viable for this project. But the next 4K truck we build for BT will almost certainly be IP-based,” says Timeline managing director Daniel McDonnell.

Key parts of the kit are able to be tuned to IP, including a Snell Kahuna vision mixer and Sony 4300 2/3-inch systems cameras. “We’re fairly confident we’ll be able to upgrade to IP,” says McDonnell. “The Snell Sirius router enables us to process all the audio and shuffle it around in the way we’d want to in IP, but IP video switching is still developing.”

Moto GP app

BT needed a mobile facility that could work in native 4K and HD. “That gives us lots of opportunities around cross-capture,” says Hindhaugh. “Instead of bolting on a 4K production, we can shoot in 4K and down-res to HD. This is crucial to our long-term success. You don’t want a similar model to 3D, which required dual live event workflows.”

However, there will be a period of adjustment as production teams work out the best editorial and technical approach. For 4K, this broadly means using more wide shots and fewer cuts between cameras. “You can show the natural flow of the game as if you were in the stadium,” says Hindhaugh.

Such a change is too big a risk for BT’s weekly HD English Premier League action, so for this season at least, its EPL coverage will be largely separate HD and 4K productions. Hindhaugh calls it “a hybrid 1.5 truck model”. Some 4K cameras will be down-res-ed to HD, while some HD positions, such as specialised overhead, wireless touchline cameras and Imovix superslo-motion, are boosted to 4K.

“I don’t want to cheat the system or the viewer,” Hindhaugh says. “Where we show HD, we will make it clear on screen or in commentary.”

However, two rights holders have already given BT Sport permission to capture and transmit in 4K and downres to HD for the world feed.

Game-changing tech

In its first six months, BT Sport UHD will also cover Aviva Premiership rugby, PSA squash, the NBA Global Games from the O2 and the MotoGP from Silverstone. Action will be shot at 50 frames a second, with the ambition to achieve 100fps within two to three years. “50fps is already a gamechanger,” Hindhaugh says.

The live 4K signals will be sent to BT’s Stratford headquarters over BT fibre. Signal test is made on Tektronix waveform units, with footage viewable on Sony PVM-X300 4K monitors and passed to Ericsson Broadcast & Media Services for transmission.

“The increased bandwidth requirements of 4K mean choosing between the relatively clunky use of 3G-SDI bundles, looking towards higher bandwidth SDI [12G-SDI or above] or moving to high bandwidth ethernet technologies,” says Steve Plunkett, chief technology officer at Ericsson subsidiary Red Bee Media.

Post-production for 4K programming will work from material recorded to EVS XT3 4K servers. “The amount of media is huge and we need to view it in 4K,” says McDonnell. “That’s complicated because there isn’t a 4K viewer available for edit suites at the moment.”

Consequently, Timeline and BT are developing a bespoke asset management system to work in 4K: “EVS IP Director will be able to handle 4K but we’re not there yet and we need a solution quickly to allow us to manage the huge amount of assets.”

IP: Live broadcast

Broadcast 

The technology to work with IP-based video in live production has been promised for years. We’re now at a tipping point, says Adrian Pennington

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/features/ip-live-broadcast/5091313.article?blocktitle=Features&contentID=42957

It is the most fundamental technical change in broadcasting for decades. Internet Protocol (IP) promises to reduce the ongoing capital spend on equipment at the same time as increasing flexibility to deliver more content to more outlets. The technology is also scaleable to adapt to future audiovisual enhancements in a way that is simply not possible today.

The revolution has been under way for some time in terms of storage, archive, contribution and distribution. Production studios such as ESPN’s Digital Center 2 and Disney/ABC’s global TV operations are entirely built on IP infrastructure.

However, the last link in the chain, live production, is only just coming on stream. With migration to video over IP seen as inevitable, the journey will not be without hiccups.

“Broadcasters know that they have to go down the IP route, but in many cases are unclear as to the best way,” says Tom Swan, sales and marketing director at systems integrator dB Broadcast.

Imagine Communications’ vice-president of strategic solutions management Glodina Connan-Lostanlen is equally cautious. “There’s no denying it will work, but broadcasters have to learn how to design and network a production facility in IP,” she says.

Grass Valley is one of many vendors introducing versions of existing routing, switching and camera hardware with an IP interface. Mark Hilton, vice-president of infrastructure products, believes it is possible to do a small production in IP over a couple of months: “It may not be as elegant as it could be, nor is it a simple plug and play, but you could do it.”

Meanwhile, Quantel Snell head of product marketing Tim Felstead states: “The industry isn’t able to transpose IP into a live environment today.”

SDI, in which digital video is transported serially line by line, frame by frame at a constant rate over copper wire, is being superseded by IP carried over ethernet cable, in which data is chunked into small packets, sent in non-linear fashion and reconfigured at the other end.

The problem with this method in a live environment boils down to timing. SDI has been note-perfect. Engineers can guarantee that video emanating from one source (a camera, for example) will arrive in sync at a particular end point (vision mixer). The same can’t be said of IP.

“It is much more difficult to see what is going on in IP as the control systems don’t exist yet,” says Felstead. “Where SDI routers are very reliable, with straightforward verification of what is happening, IP systems are more opaque. This creates a lack of confidence.”

The risk of on-air black holes or a missing advert will make broadcasters hesitant to invest unless the technology is proven. And since live production is fraught with on-the-fly changes – a late breaking news story with live link via satellite, for instance – it could be the best part of a decade before SDI is consigned to history.

Such conservatism is not unprecedented. The first file-based (XDCAM) camcorders arrived in 2003, but it was not until last year that sales of tape were played out in the European market, according to Futuresource Consulting.

Glastonbury: live IP trial

However, the benefits of IP are compelling and any new studio, facility or outside broadcast truck will have an IP core. Initially, this will be based on SMPTE standard 2022-6, on which most manufacturers’ IPenabled products are based.

A straight reproduction of the SDI standard 2022-6 enables uncompressed realtime video over IP but with no flexibility to switch between audio, video and metadata streams on the same wire – and therefore it does not open up the real potential of IP. SMPTE and other advanced standards that can do this are at least 18 months away.

Matters are more complicated when it comes to 4K UHD. The current standard ethernet connections that interface with equipment like cameras and connect them into the IP network are 10 Gigabit and cannot transport uncompressed 4K. The IP alternative is to compress the data, but the jury is out on exactly which compression route to take.

Contenders include IntoPix’s TICO Alliance, backed by Grass Valley; JPEG2000, on which ESPN’s facility is built; VC2, backed by Quantel; and Sony’s Low Latency Video Codec. London-based V-Nova is another option and claims its codec can deliver 4K picture quality at half current rates (just 78Mbps), with hints that this could be applied to production.

“One of the big wins of IP infrastructure is leveraging the cost savings of commodifi ed IT kit,” says Felstead. “To do that, we need to ensure interoperability, but there is no common standard between enough manufacturers to ensure this.”

Adam Cox, head of broadcast equipment at Futuresource, adds: “The holy grail is to use IT kit off the shelf, but not if there are no standards or if too many standards creates hesitation.”

This concern is repeated time and time again. “4K production will actually slow down developments for IP as the bandwidth requirements would be such that building a reliable IP infrastructure will be very costly and there will be reluctance to invest without a global standard,” says Peter IJkhout, chief technology officer of VidiGo, which is unveiling a live multi-camera cloud-based workflow at IBC next month.

Vendors like Quantel Snell are hedging their bets, incorporating a variety of IP standards into switching and routing gear. “You don’t want to be encoding and decoding at different points in the chain. That is inefficient, risks degrading the signal and, most importantly, it could be uneconomic if the industry needs to licence proprietary codecs,” says Felstead. Sony played a major role in developing the original SDI as a universal interface and is trying to do the same with its own IP connection. It has the support of a number of manufacturers but is unlikely to receive the blessing of rivals such as Panasonic.

“We need standards,” stresses Julian Knight, chief technology officer at integrator and consultant TSL. “Then to build confidence, we need to build islands of IP before we get to end-to-end solutions.”

The move to IP is hugely disruptive: not only does it rip and replace the technical fabric, but it also alters workflows and requires new skills. “If you’ve been working in SDI for 30 years and all of a sudden it’s based on servers, this requires different skill sets,” says Cox. “The lack of skill sets is a big barrier to IP live.”

Broadcasters could choose to upgrade in SDI, for which the roadmap includes a 24G standard capable of 4K at 120 frames a second. However, the IT industry is upping bandwidth at such velocity that technologies of 25GbE, 40GbE and even 100GbE are already emerging, and the cost is reducing every day. Imagine Communications, which is outfitting Disney/ABC with IP, says it has 20 “proofs of concept” in its labs with a 40GbE or 100GbE backbone.

The most attractive argument in favour of IP is that it’s a way to future-proof systems to accommodate 4K UHD, plus any variant that flows from future development like higher dynamic range, higher frame rates, next-generation audio and even 8K UHD. “

IP offers networks without a glass ceiling, so with all these incoming enhancements you can have a clear upgrade path,” says Cox. “The initial outlay may be expensive but it is worth its weight in gold.”

Remote IP Production Solutions 

Broadcasters are eyeing IP as a route to cutting costs in live production by controlling all signals, comms and metadata from cameras remotely from a central hub.

The BBC continues to trial IP live. At Glastonbury in June, HD feeds from six stages were transported back to London for web and red button services.

At IBC, Gearhouse Broadcast is demonstrating a remote production workflow by sending HD footage down a 10GbE fibre and cutting the pictures on an EVS IP-enabled switcher.

“Remote production is set to play a fundamental role in the future of our industry and customers are asking us about it,” says Gearhouse head of projects Ed Tischler.

“It’s still very early days, but new technology means we are now in a position to offer a workable solution.”