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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ORPHEUS (Object-based broadcasting â€“ for European leadership in next generation audio experiences)

Teaser

Summary

The production and distribution of broadcast content in the future will be object- and IP-based. The content will be get enriched with additional information, the metadata. Already today, consumers access media content in different environments (3D loudspeaker setup at home, mobile in the car, on personal devices with binaural headphone reproduction on the go). The audience will expect the adaptability of the audio reproduction and additional information to these different situations and requirements.
The ORPHEUS project does not handle single spots in this changing media eco-system. It considers the complete audio broadcast chain, from the capturing, through production and distribution until reception by the end-user. Only by bridging all technical gaps, the media chain can be completed and the full system can work properly.
Different specific use cases developed out of existing broadcast formats show new opportunities and the enriched experiences for end-users. These can be realized with ORPHEUSâ€™ newly defined pilot architecture, showing the adaptability of existing broadcast technology to object-based production. By defining and publishing the details how to setup such a broadcast chain as reference architecture, other broadcasters and broadcast industry suppliers can set up similar chains and contribute with compatible solutions. Using open international standards, the compatibility of this and future solutions will be assured, as well as obstructing and expensive industry standards are avoidable.

Work performed

Within the first year of the project, the different experience and knowledge of the partners got exchanged among the ORPHEUS partners and common ideas and detailed project targets were built up. The definition of use cases specified detailed targets and defined a lot of technical details and envisioned user experiences. This process includes ongoing international standardization activities by several partners on the ADM metadata format, MPEG-H audio format and a reference renderer for object-based audio.
Several pre-requirements like format evaluation and selection as well as choosing necessary parts/tools for the broadcast chain were accomplished. The definition of the pilot architecture of the broadcast chain was achieved. The newly standardized object-based audio codec MPEG-H, its encoder, decoder, and various production tools (including the renderer) have been delivered by FHG to the partners. Work on the metadata file format ADM and the streaming format DASH was successfully started. The integration of these components into the IP Studio software of the BBC, the digital audio workstation (DAW) Sequoia of Magix, the iPhone App from ECandy and the audio video receiver (AVR) of Trinnov was launched. Plugins for capturing multichannel microphone recordings and transforming them for different loudspeaker layouts have been developed by B<>COM and FHG. An object-based reverberation algorithm has been developed by IRCAM. A detailed study on user interface design for an iPhone radio app is completed.
The architecture of the pilot, the test first setup of the object-based radio broadcast chain, has been defined. To implement and evaluate all the different software parts from the different partners and perform radio broadcast pilot, BBC has setup a studio, including all necessary hardware: recording devices, computers, routers, screens and 7+4 loudspeaker setup.

Final results

Already with the first presentations and demos of the project, e.g. at Tonmeistertagung Cologne 2016, demonstrating the new possibilities of object-based broadcasting received broad attention. More Workshops and demos are planned at the EBU, BBC and at the IBC convention.
Three more European broadcasters (Swedish Radio, TV France and Radio France) have already joined or will join affiliate to the project as associate partners without extra grant. This shows the great interest and impact of ORPHEUS.