Immersive Audio Application Coding Proposal to the SBTVD TV 3.0 Call for Proposals

In July 2020 the Brazilian Terrestrial Television System Forum (SBTVD) has issued a Call for Proposals (CfP) for their next-generation digital TV system called TV 3.0. Fraunhofer IIS and ATEME have proposed the MPEG-H Audio system, based on the open international standard ISO/IEC 23008-3, MPEG-H 3D Audio, as a candidate technology for the Application Coding component of SBTVD TV 3.0. The submitted proposal specifies a new Application Programming Interface (API) enabling applications to make use of the nextgeneration interactivity features of the MPEG-H Audio system. This paper provides a detailed description of the proposed API, as well as the submitted JavaScript implementation, and the architecture of the prototype system. Additionally, the paper outlines the proposed evaluation process demonstrating how the MPEG-H Audio system fulfills the TV 3.0 Application Coding requirements for 3D object-based immersive audio interaction and emergency warning information delivery

MPEG-H Audio System for SBTVD TV 3.0 Call for Proposals

Under the name “TV 3.0 Project”, the Brazilian Terrestrial Television System Forum (SBTVD) has issued the Call for Proposals (CfP) for a next generation Brazilian digital TV system, in July 2020. The MPEG-H Audio system, based on the open international standard ISO/IEC 23008-3, has been proposed by Fraunhofer IIS, ATEME, the Digital Broadcasting Experts Group (DiBEG) and the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC). This paper provides an overview of the MPEG-H Audio system and the TV 3.0 Project requirements for the audio component. The TV 3.0 Project specifies a detailed test and evaluation procedure for verifying the fulfillment of the requirements. With wide industry support, the MPEG-H Audio system brings immersive sound, advanced interactivity, and accessibility options, as well as advanced features like hybrid delivery, consistent loudness after user interaction, connectivity options for external sound devices and seamless configuration changes. The MPEG-H Audio proponents have submitted a complete production and broadcast real-time chain to the SBTVD Forum which demonstrates the most advanced features.

DMFR 50thanniversary: Review article: Local cone beam CT: how did it all start?

The mathematical theory of computed tomography (CT) was proposed by J. Radon in 1917. It was declared that the projection of whole datasets was needed to reconstruct CT images. Therefore, according to J. Radon’s original theory, local cone beam CT (local CBCT) was impossible to achieve. In this paper, I discuss how local CBCT was discovered and developed. Its development required many technical elements, such as a turntable and X-ray television system, for basic experiments such as those on which narrow collimation theory and multifunctional panoramic tomography were based. These experiments endured many failures during development. Now, local CBCT is extremely popular in dental practice because local CBCT has a low radiation dose and high resolution. This paper introduces the technical elements and outlines the important stages during the development of local CBCT in the 1990s.

Television as a Cultural and Communicative System: Evolution Directions and Modern Boundaries

Russian science has not yet developed a stable understanding of the essence and generic affiliation of television, which continues to have a powerful multidirectional impact on the cultural and social processes of our time. The proposed characteristic of television as an independent cultural and communicative system allows highlighting its functioning as a separate cultural phenomenon that cannot be reduced to other forms of communicative activity. At the same time, in line with the system-cultural approach, the article substantiates the interaction of the main system-forming factors within the television system: those are artistic-entertaining, economic, informational, political, and technological. Constant consideration of all these factors when examining any aspect of television communication should become the methodological basis for studying television as a system.A system-diachronic analysis of television, revealing the main directions of its nonlinear development through the mutual influence of the system-forming factors, allowed drawing the following conclusions.Modern television is increasingly acting not so much as a means, but as a method of communication. This leads to a reduction in the significance of the content of a television utterance and, conversely, to the absolutization of the format, which determines both the content itself and the ritualized processes of television communication.Significant changes in television communication occurred in the first decades of the 21st century under the influence of Internet technologies: the individualization of television viewing and the spread of “out-of-studio” forms of television production, the improvement of image quality and the democratization of video recording technologies leads to the fact that television ceases to perceive itself as a utilitarian means of broadcasting off-screen reality, and is increasingly positioned as an independent cultural source.Television in the 21st century has expanded its boundaries, having absorbed the vast sphere of Internet and video communications. The modern television system can be understood as a set of audiovisual messages intended for public display and perceived in non-specialized everyday living conditions.

Canal+: from innovative newcomer to beleaguered brand

This article examines the advent, embedding, and problematic contemporary situation of Canal+ within the context of the French television landscape as a whole. The first section is devoted to the arrival of the new pay-tv channel in 1984 and its growth to maturity to become an integral part of the French television system. The second section concentrates on the challenges facing Canal+ in recent years and the company’s strategic response in an era of unparalleled expansion in the supply of both television and video content as well as radical changes in media usage by French audiences.

Upper hemisphere sound image control with horizontal-arranged loudspeakers based on parametric head-related transfer functions

The 22.2 multichannel sound system has been developed for an ultra high-definition television system. This system consists of twenty two loudspeakers and two sub-woofers called low frequency effects, and can reproduce three-dimensional sound image appropriate to the ultra high-definition television system. However, this system has a problem of high cost to install. On the other hand, the multichannel sound system with horizontal-arranged loudspeakers has lower cost to install than full scale one. However, this system cannot reproduce an upper sound image. Therefore, in this paper, we propose the upper sound image control with horizontal-arranged loudspeakers based on the parametric head-related transfer functions. The proposed method generates binaural signals to control the sound image elevationally based on the parametric head-related transfer functions in the median plane. Also, the proposed system uses the interaural level difference to control the sound image of binaural signals azimuthally. Finally, the proposed method generates output signals for horizontal-arranged loudspeakers from binaural signals by designing a multichannel inverse system based on multi-input / output inverse theorem. The experimental results show that the proposed method can control the sound image to elevation angle with the same accuracy as binaural lreproduction. The 22.2 multichannel sound system has been developed for an ultra high-definition television system. This system consists of twenty loudspeakers and two sub-woofers called low frequency effects, and can reproduce three-dimensional sound image appropriate to the ultra high-definition television system. However, this system has a problem of high cost to install. On the other hand, the multichannel sound system with horizontal-arranged loudspeakers has lower cost to install than full scale one. However, this system cannot reproduce an upper sound image. Therefore, in this paper, we propose the upper sound image control with horizontal-arranged loudspeakers based on the parametric head-related transfer functions. The proposed method generates binaural signals to control the sound image elevationally based on the parametric head-related transfer functions in the median plane. Also, the proposed system uses the interaural level difference to control the sound image of binaural signals azimuthally. Finally, the proposed method generates output signals for horizontal-arranged loudspeakers from binaural signals by designing a multichannel inverse system based on multi-input / output inverse theorem. The experimental results show that the proposed method can control the sound image to elevation angle with the same accuracy as binaural reproduction.

The end(s) of analogue: access to CBC/Radio-Canada Television Programming in an era of digital delivery

This dissertation studies the political economy of public television access in Canada as manifest in the country’s 2011 digital television/télévision numérique transition. Specifically, this dissertation scrutinizes the provision of access to television programming offered by Canada’s national public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Société Radio-Canada (CBC/Radio-Canada), and how CBC/Radio-Canada’s response to Canada’s 2011 digital television transition corresponds with its mandate under the Broadcasting Act to ensure that its programming is “made available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means and as resources become available for the purpose” (Canada, 1991). Drawing from research interviews conducted with disconnected analogue over-the-air (OTA) CBC/Radio-Canada television-viewing households and members of CBC/Radio-Canada Management involved with the public broadcaster’s response to Canada’s digital television transition deadline, this dissertation finds competing accounts of how public television delivery is linked to the provision of access to the public broadcaster’s television programming in the digital age. While interviewed members of CBC/Radio-Canada Management describe an inefficient analogue OTA public television delivery system that would be best superseded by more efficient modes of digital delivery, OTA CBC/Radio-Canada television-viewing households describe an analog OTA CBC/Radio-Canada television service that had been providing access to CBC/Radio Canada television programming and describe a digital disconnect following CBC/Radio Canada’s digital television transition. This dissertation questions the post-analogue public television delivery operations of CBC/Radio-Canada; mainly that public television delivery cost savings achieved as a result of CBC/Radio-Canada’s response to Canada’s digital television transition deadline have resulted in gaps in access to CBC/Radio-Canada television programming by some Canadian households as articulated through this dissertation’s Public Media Access Puzzle Sieve (Public M.A.P.S.) model. The Public M.A.P.S. model offers a means by which to both anticipate and assess levels of access to public media based on the model’s elements of access related to cost, availability, functionality, opportunities for à la carte service, and access to locally relevant feed(s). In the case of CBC/Radio-Canada, gaps in household access to the public broadcaster’s digital television programming as identified by the Public M.A.P.S. model help to underscore deficiencies in Canada’s post-analogue television system, the information communication technology (ICT) sector, and domestic spectrum management practices.

The end(s) of analogue: access to CBC/Radio-Canada Television Programming in an era of digital delivery

This dissertation studies the political economy of public television access in Canada as manifest in the country’s 2011 digital television/télévision numérique transition. Specifically, this dissertation scrutinizes the provision of access to television programming offered by Canada’s national public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Société Radio-Canada (CBC/Radio-Canada), and how CBC/Radio-Canada’s response to Canada’s 2011 digital television transition corresponds with its mandate under the Broadcasting Act to ensure that its programming is “made available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means and as resources become available for the purpose” (Canada, 1991). Drawing from research interviews conducted with disconnected analogue over-the-air (OTA) CBC/Radio-Canada television-viewing households and members of CBC/Radio-Canada Management involved with the public broadcaster’s response to Canada’s digital television transition deadline, this dissertation finds competing accounts of how public television delivery is linked to the provision of access to the public broadcaster’s television programming in the digital age. While interviewed members of CBC/Radio-Canada Management describe an inefficient analogue OTA public television delivery system that would be best superseded by more efficient modes of digital delivery, OTA CBC/Radio-Canada television-viewing households describe an analog OTA CBC/Radio-Canada television service that had been providing access to CBC/Radio Canada television programming and describe a digital disconnect following CBC/Radio Canada’s digital television transition. This dissertation questions the post-analogue public television delivery operations of CBC/Radio-Canada; mainly that public television delivery cost savings achieved as a result of CBC/Radio-Canada’s response to Canada’s digital television transition deadline have resulted in gaps in access to CBC/Radio-Canada television programming by some Canadian households as articulated through this dissertation’s Public Media Access Puzzle Sieve (Public M.A.P.S.) model. The Public M.A.P.S. model offers a means by which to both anticipate and assess levels of access to public media based on the model’s elements of access related to cost, availability, functionality, opportunities for à la carte service, and access to locally relevant feed(s). In the case of CBC/Radio-Canada, gaps in household access to the public broadcaster’s digital television programming as identified by the Public M.A.P.S. model help to underscore deficiencies in Canada’s post-analogue television system, the information communication technology (ICT) sector, and domestic spectrum management practices.