Versatile Video Coding for 3.0 Next Generation Digital TV in Brazil

In the past few decades, the video broadcast ecosystem has gone through major changes; Originally transmitted using analog signals, it has been more and more transitioned toward digital, leveraging compression technologies and transport protocols, principally developed by MPEG. Along this way, the introduction of new video formats was achieved with standardization of new compression technologies for their better bandwidth preservation. Notably, SD with MPEG-2, HD with H.264, 4K/UHD with HEVC. In Brazil, the successive generations of digital broadcasting systems were developed by the SBTVD Forum, from TV-1.0 to TV-3.0 nowadays. The ambition of TV-3.0 is significantly higher than that of previous generations as it targets the delivery of IPbased signals for applications, such as 8K, HDR, virtual and augmented reality. To deliver such services, compressed video signals shall fit into a limited bandwidth, requiring even more advanced compression technologies. The Versatile Video Coding standard (H.266/VVC), has been finalized by the JVET committee in 2021 and is a relevant candidate to address the TV3.0 requirements. VVC is versatile by nature thanks to its dedicated tools for efficient compression of various formats, from 8K to 360°, and provides around 50% of bitrate saving compared to its predecessor HEVC. This paper presents the VVC-based compression system that has been proposed to the SBTVD call for proposals for TV-3.0. A technical description of VVC and an evaluation of its coding performance is provided. In addition, an end-to-end live transmission chain is demonstrated, supporting 4K real-time encoding and decoding with a low glass-to-glass latency.

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.

HDR10+ Concepts, Principles, Capabilities and Advantages for the Next-Generation of Brazilian Broadcasting System (TV 3.0)

This paper aims to briefly introduce the current Brazilian DTV scenario towards the next generation DTT system (TV 3.0) as well as HDR (High Dynamic Range) principles, features and applications. Different HDR formats have been proposed along the history with different features and purposes. One of them is the HDR10+ technology that can provide powerful advantages and benefits related to picture quality and based on dynamic metadata system. HDR10+ is being adopted by major international digital terrestrial TV systems and other standardizations bodies. In this scenario TV 3.0 can take advantage of HDR10+ to improve the overall system from industry perspective, and consequently delivering a consistent user experience.

Practical tests with MMT and ROUTE/DASH on the transport layer of ATSC 3.0

The development of new technologies allowed television systems to evolve over time. For the transport layer, the Movie Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) developed several standards to deliver multimedia content, including the MPEG-2 Transport Stream (TS), which has been widely explored for years. However, it was developed before the spread of the internet, which led to the interest in a new standard that could fulfill the needs from a connected world. One of these standards is the MPEG Multimedia Transport (MMT), which has inherited some features from the MPEG-2 TS, adapting them to be compatible with the Internet Protocol (IP). The broadband systems also needed a new standard compatible with Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), resulting in the development of the MPEG-Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH). To deliver DASH on broadcast channels, it was combined with the Real-time Object delivery over Unidirectional Transport (ROUTE) protocol. The Advanced Television Systems Committee 3.0 (ATSC 3.0) adopted many technologies to attend the requirements for the next generation of television systems, including both MMT and ROUTE/DASH. This paper presents a historic background of these delivery methods, as well as a brief technical review, focusing on a practical setup to test the methods mentioned, analyzing the differences and similarities of their properties.

Future Vision of Interactive and Intelligent TV Systems using Edge AI

Recently the Brazilian DTV system standards have been upgraded, called TV 2.5, in order to provide a better integration between broadcast and broadband services. The next Brazilian DTV system evolution, called TV 3.0, will address more deeply this convergence of TV systems not only at low-level network layers but also at the application layer. One of the new features to be addressed by this future application layer is the use of Artificial Intelligence technologies. Recently, there have been practical applications using Artificial Intelligence (AI) deployed to improve TV production efficiency and correlated cost reduction. The success in operationalize and evaluate these applications is a strong indication of the interest and relevance of AI in TV. This paper presents TeleMídia Lab’s future vision on interactive and intelligent TV Systems, with particular focus on edge AI. Edge AI means use in-device capabilities to run AI applications instead of running them in cloud.

Fixed Reception Performance of FDM-based Transmission System for Advanced ISDB-T

With the aim of improving the quality and expanding the functions of digital terrestrial television broadcasting services, we have been developing an advanced transmission system that inherits key features of the current Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial (ISDB-T) system, which employs hierarchical transmission based on frequency division multiplexing (FDM) and a segment structure. The advanced ISDB-T system has a new signal frame structure that enables bandwidth to be flexibly allocated to multiple services for different reception scenarios, such as fixed reception and mobile reception, compared with ISDB-T. By introducing transmission technologies such as the latest forward error correction and modulation scheme, this specification has high spectral efficiency and transmission robustness, i.e., the transmission capacity increases by about 10 Mbps for the same required carrier to noise ratio (CNR) in comparison with the current ISDB-T system, or the required CNR can be reduced by about 7 dB for the same transmission capacity. We describe the channel coding scheme and evaluated the performance of bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) in simulations. This paper provides a BICM selection guideline based on the simulation results for fixed reception scenarios toward the practical application of advanced ISDB-T.

ATSC 3.0 for Future Broadcasting: Features and Extensibility

A recent development of Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 has made over-the-air services of a 4K ultra-high-definition and a simultaneous multiple high-definition soft-landed to reality. However, ATSC 3.0 is in essence designed to be forward compatible, and is hence able to provide better extensible features to enrich the next media era beyond this initial deployment. This paper introduces several selected features of ATSC 3.0 that could play a prominent role in the near future. This investigation encompasses the optional technologies defined in ATSC 3.0 physical-layer which can improve single frequency network integrity, enable additional features in other domains, or further widen the throughput capability. Majorly focused on the extensibility of ATSC 3.0, we also elaborate on possible inter-network cooperation with broadband and cellular systems.

BemTV: Hybrid CDN/Peer-to-Peer Architecture for Live Video Distribution over the Internet

Assuming that video streaming is now responsible for the absolute majority of the Internet traffic and considering that the audience uses WebRTC-enabled web browsers and mobile devices to access and retrieve content, this work proposes the development of a peer-to-peer overlay network to assist the delivery of video streaming events that use HTTP-based protocols without the need to install additional software. Using the peer-to-peer network, the client/server model becomes hybrid, where network nodes that are watching the same event can retrieve portions of the video content directly from the server or neighboring nodes. This approach has two main objectives; decrease the client/server traffic and consequently the economic cost of delivery while improving the quality of the users' experience, given that communication between neighboring nodes can support the flow of better quality videos between the points

TDS-OFDM based Digital Television Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcasting Standards

As the most popularly utilized broadcasting network, digital terrestrial television broadcasting (DTTB) can provide multimedia information coverage for the broad audience in a very efficient way because of its characteristic of wide-range coverage and mobile reception ability. After promulgating the first generation DTTB standard, digital terrestrial/television multimedia broadcasting (DTMB), in 2006, China began to research and develop the next generation DTTB standard, namely DTMB-advanced (DTMB-A), aiming to support higher spectrum efficiency and further improve transmission reliability. In 2019, DTMB-A was accepted by ITU as the second generation international DTTB standard (as System C). Similar to DTMB, time-domain synchronous - orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (TDS-OFDM) based multi-carrier modulation scheme is adopted by DTMB-A. Thanks to the more flexible frame structure, advanced error correction coding and improved constellation mapping, DTMB-A offers 30% higher transmission capacity than DTMB under the same transmission conditions. Thus, DTMB-A can support both fixed and mobile reception more efficiently, and provide users with higher quality services such as ultra-high definition television (UHDTV). This paper first gives details of key technologies at the transmitter of DTMB/DTMB-A and introduce core algorithms at the receiver. Both laboratory test and field trial results will then be provided and analyzed, especially for the application of 4K UHDTV and single frequency network (SFN).