Day: Jul 16, 2019

DVB Adds HDR Dynamic Mapping to Its Audiovisual Coding Specifications

Posted on by contentntek in Multimedia, News, Satellite & Transmissions

The solutions allow a receiver, such as a TV set, to adapt a High Dynamic Range video signal to the characteristics of the display. The revised specification was approved by the DVB Steering Board in Geneva on 3 July 2019.

ETSI TS 101 154 is one of the core DVB specifications. It sets out how video and audio coding are to be used in satellite, cable, and terrestrial broadcasting systems, as well as in broadband delivery. The addition of HDR DM provides content creators and device manufacturers with a means of adapting video content so that it replicates as closely as possible the intended appearance, as produced in a reference viewing environment.

“DVB has provided the industry with the specifications needed to deploy UHD services with confidence,” said Peter MacAvock, chair of DVB. “HDR Dynamic Mapping is an important element of the ecosystem, helping broadcasters and other content providers to ensure their video looks as good as it possibly can on a given display.”

Three HDR DM Systems
DVB’s audiovisual coding specification includes two means of providing HDR video content, namely Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG10) and the 10-bit variant of Perceptual Quantizer (PQ-10). DM applies only to the latter.

There is significant potential benefit in being able to “map” the HDR, as graded using a reference monitor, to the lower-performance TV sets typical of the consumer environment. DM facilitates this functionality by way of Dynamic Mapping Information (DMI) inserted into the HDR video bitstream.

Three solutions for HDR DM have been included in the new version of TS 101 154:

  • SMPTE ST 2094-10 – Dynamic Metadata for Color Volume Transform — Application #1
  • ETSI TS 103 433-2 (SL-HDR2) – High-Performance Single-Layer High Dynamic Range (HDR) System for use in Consumer Electronics devices; Part 2: Enhancements for Perceptual Quantization (PQ) transfer function based High Dynamic Range (HDR) Systems
  • SMPTE ST 2094-40 – Dynamic Metadata for Color Volume Transform — Application #4
    The revised specification has been published as DVB BlueBook A001 and will be forwarded to ETSI for publication as TS 101 154 V2.6.1. DVB’s specifications for Service Information (DVB-SI) and Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DVB-DASH) have also been revised to support HDR DM. The changes will be reflected in the respective ETSI standards in due course.

Following approval of the specification, the DVB Technical Module working group on audio and video coding (TM-AVC) will proceed with verification and validation activities to aid implementation of the new solutions.

More info

Cox Media Group Chooses Veritone for AI-Driven Advertising Analytics and Online Content Curation

Posted on by contentntek in Multimedia, News

Veritone announced that Cox Media Group (CMG) has selected the aiWARE-powered Veritone Essentials suite of applications to use across its 60+ radio stations in 11 markets. CMG Radio is the latest major broadcast group to join leading broadcasters and thousands of stations in deploying Veritone’s applications to streamline content curation and demonstrate ROI for advertisers.

CMG Radio uses the Essentials applications to provide AI-powered analytics and insights for both its local direct-sales teams and its national advertising partners. Additionally, the CMG Radio content team leverages the Discovery application to generate insights more efficiently and choose which on-air content should be extended to digital mediums such as social media.

“Veritone’s industry-leading AI platform will help CMG offer better, more effective marketing solutions to our customers by providing data and insight that has previously not existed in the broadcast space,” says Tim Clarke, vice president of audience and content, CMG Radio. “Furthermore, our content teams are excited to leverage the tool to automate tedious processes and assist with content tracking, discovery, and archiving.”

In terms of audience reach, radio remains a leading advertising medium in America and is highly effective at driving results, but broadcasters must substantiate its effectiveness with empirical data and analytics. That’s what Veritone Essentials is designed to do. The Veritone platform’s unparalleled combination of features and applications allows CMG Radio to demonstrate success, enabling it to better compete for share of ad spend and retain existing spend. Just as importantly, thanks to AI, CMG Radio can now automate workflows such as campaign recapping, quantifying earned media, tracking native and influencer campaigns, and selecting on-air content to be distributed online — all processes that were previously 100% manual.

Built on the aiWARE platform, Veritone Essentials is a set of intelligent applications for content ingestion; management; search; and distribution of audio, video, and still images. Veritone can easily ingest and index live or archived broadcast content, then immediately make it available for search, curation, and sharing. Essentials applications augment and accelerate existing analytics workflows, helping broadcasters jump-start their AI journeys and transform and extend their data in a fraction of the time. aiWARE is flexible and extensible, currently boasting 18 cognitive classes over AI engines, which enables organizations to evolve their use of AI continuously and future-proof their investment.

“As advertising has become more data-driven, it has become ROI-driven. That means advertisers expect to see concrete evidence that it’s working. Now Cox Media Group sales reps can supply that evidence quickly, accurately, and with far less effort than it used to take, thanks to the AI ecosystem behind Veritone Essentials and its easy-to-use application interface design,” said Veritone President Ryan Steelberg. “Station groups throughout the country are turning to Veritone to be more competitive and automate and super-charge internal workflows that have been resource-intensive.”

More info

ATG Danmon Upgrades to New HQ

Posted on by contentntek in News

“This relocation comes at a time of increasing demand for our systems integration and technical support services both in the traditional broadcast market and across the rapidly expanding media sector,” says ATG Danmon Managing Director Russell Peirson-Hagger.

Exterior_of_new_ATG_Danmon_HQ

“After 15 years at our former building, we believed it was time to modernise our facilities. This move has proved a great opportunity to achieve exactly that, enabling us to operate more effectively at every level from project planning and design right through to system construction, testing and commissioning. We have completed the transition successfully and without any disruption to our business.”

 

“Our new offices have plenty of on-site parking for customers arriving by car and are within easy walking distance of the Letchworth rail link with London.”

ATG Danmon’s new address, effective now, is Unit 5, Oakfield Business Corner, Works Road, Letchworth SG6 1FB. Central and direct-dial telephone numbers remain unchanged along with all other contact details.

More info

Mediaproxy leads the path to next generation logging and monitoring with LogServer at IBC 2019

Posted on by contentntek in Event, News

Mediaproxy will be highlighting recent upgrades to the LogServer IP logging, monitoring and analysis system during IBC 2019 on Booth 7.B44 in Amsterdam’s RAI Centre from 13 to 17 September.

IBC is a major showcase for the latest and most innovative broadcast technology. Mediaproxy is a regular exhibitor not only because of this but due to the conference that runs alongside the exhibition focusing on the emerging topics in TV and streaming.

Interactivity is now a major consideration for broadcasters and service providers, particularly as social media is now how many people access video. Outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have different specific requirements for how material is prepared and Mediaproxy has incorporated dedicated tools for this into LogServer. These include features for cropping the image and altering the aspect ratio to make it better suited to mobile devices, in addition to the capability for inserting ad bumpers.

LogServer also supports SMPTE standards ST 2022-6 and ST 2110 (uncompressed media over IP formats). Both of these have been deployed in the field to service the growing use of new uncompressed IP formats. Mediaproxy is offering end-users greater flexibility using those formats even in virtual environments and at scale.

LogServer also now fully supports the Ember+ control protocol, which further enhances monitoring automation and offers increased redundancy. Another upgrade is the ability to work with Mediaproxy’s Monwall IP interactive multiviewer.

Another new feature for LogServer, in addressing the needs of network operators running multiple stations and playout streams, is a live source comparison tool. This identifies mismatched content in real-time and can compare one or more live sources using video material. An alert is sent to operators immediately if irregularities are detected.

“IBC is an important show for us as well as for the industry in general,” Otto says, “As an engineering-drive company we lead through innovation. Mediaproxy is to-date one of the few companies that are able to work with uncompressed IP formats on virtualized platforms. LogServer has become the trusted solution by broadcasters worldwide to ensure that the right content is at the right place at the right time and complies with the latest standards and regulations.”

More info

MEDIAPRO LABS closes call for proposals with over 500 ideas of an extraordinary creative talent

Posted on by contentntek in News, Production & Post Production

Participation in the first MEDIAPRO LABS request for proposals has been overwhelming, both in numbers and in quality. Content creators have responded to the call with more than 500 ideas submitted to this laboratory of ideas launched by THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO in December 2018, to identify audiovisual talent with which to associate and produce new suggestions and formats.

mediaprolabs_javis.jpg

Innovative projects, alternative discourse, short fiction, transmedia content, vertical formats and the most unusual, atypical and novel stories come together in this blend of in excess of five hundred projects that make up a real talent pool.

The directors of MEDIAPRO LABS, Javier Calvo, Javier Ambrossi and Maya Maidagan, director of digital content at THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO, have selected the most innovative projects for their creativity, storyline originality and their connection with current issues.

MediaPro-Labs-3-1920

The selected proposals are multi-themed: factual, dramedy, young adult, road movie, medieval sitcom, mockumentary, 80s nostalgia, drag visibility, post-kokes, trap, vertical fiction and the stories that move the digital public told by themselves.

Among the 22 projects chosen, highlights include:

  • La luna en tu mirada, (The Moon in Your Eyes) by Tomás Peña: road movie a petty thief-fantasy with a tremendous almost outlawed love affair and nighttime cliffs (antilados nocturnos).
  • Shine, by Victoria Martín de la Cova and Nacho Pérez-Pardo (Living Postureo): post-modern sitcom about an it-girl, a business environment and the  heartaches of life.
  • Código Alfa, (Code Alpha) by Alberto Flores: a tour-de-force through the atypical history of videogames in Spain, from BUP students up to the new generations.
  • Indie Odissey, from Juan Carlos Saloz: an intermediary formula between sitcom and non-fiction about entrepreneurial millennials, dreams to chase and programming challenges.
  • Tú también fuiste joven, (You Were Young Once Too) by José M. Climent (Fortfast): a portrait of the millennial generation from the perspective of one of the most influential youtubers on the Internet, Fortfast. Love, feminism, politics, future, fortune: worries, opinions and reflections from the youngest members of our society.
  • Aventura en tacones, (Adventure in High Heels) by Rubén Errebeene: a drag-themed reality show: challenges and confessions from some of the most high-profile drag Queens in Spain. An initiative to entertain and give visibility to the collective.
  • Haciendo amigos, (Making Friends) by Penny Jay and Gakian: video podcast for Instagram with the most delirious current affairs, most outlandish sections and most militant feminism. Uncensored and unhinged.

More info