MEDIA TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION ISSUE- 47 • MARCHi 2021 Targeting cloud-based and remote production
Plus Multiplying the value of Europe’s newsrooms Frédéric Brochard (France Télévisions) on technology priorities Why broadcasters still need the DVB Project, and vice-versa and more...
tech-i | tech.ebu.chtech.ebu.ch/subscribe | March 2021 1 Issue 47 • March-i 2021 4 14 Cover story: The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the development of remote production solutions that take advantage of the cloud. This issue of tech-i includes an update on the activities of the new EBU Hybrid & Cloud Production Group (pages 8-9), including a recent technology test at the World Biathlon Championships in Antholz, Italy (pictured on the cover). You can also read about Yle’s development of a cloud-based radio studio and RTVE’s use of 7 16 5G technology with cloud-based production and distribution. Contents Cover photo © Biathlon Antholz / 3 Spearheading the renaissance of media innovation in Europe Manzoni / NordicFocus Antonio Arcidiacono on the need for Europe-wide collaboration on innovation Editor-in-Chief: Antonio Arcidiacono Managing Editor: Patrick Wauthier 4 Emmy Awards; SMPTE presidency Editor: Eoghan O’Sullivan 5 Discussing the future of European media R&D [email protected] Report on a panel discussion at PTS 2021 Design: Louise Tait 6 Yle works towards cloud-based radio production Printed on FSC certified paper by How Yle is creating a fully featured radio studio in the cloud Graphius (FSC CO14767) 7 A 5G journey through the cloud Pushing the boundaries of new production and distribution © European Broadcasting Union technologies at RTVE All rights reserved. The reproduction of articles in tech-i is authorized only 8 Live production in the cloud – learning through collaboration with the written permission of the The new EBU group on Hybrid & Cloud Production mounted a publishers. The responsibility for views pilot production at the Biathlon World Championships expressed in tech-i rests solely with 10 Strength in diversity: multiplying the value of Europe’s the authors. newsrooms Introducing the News Monitoring tool and the Recommendation Box 11 Eurovision News Monitoring: what’s under the hood How EuroVOX and PEACH provide the core functions TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION 12 Looking beyond the media technology horizon Get an edge A new report on how PSM R&D labs see the future media • Our goal is to be an incubator to landscape advance media technology. 14 Who needs conventional broadcast networks when you’ve got • We catalyse innovations so they the internet! Right? deliver for all players Roland Beutler recommends caution when relying on Big Tech • We stimulate active collaboration so that you get more than innovative 15 Sustainability Matters: Tackling climate change one technology – you get a real conversation at a time competitive advantage. A mobile app aims to make sustainability part of the day-to-day technology conversation at ITV Sign up to receive tech-i magazine, EBU Technology & Innovation 16 In my opinion: Finding new levers to meet the challenges of newsletters or event alerts: tech.ebu. tomorrow ch/subscribe France Télévisions CTO/CIO Frédéric Brochard
EBU Members are encouraged to 17 Partner Profiles: DVB Project follow and contribute to the work Still serving broadcasters, with more urgency than ever of our Strategic Programmes and 18 No single approach to sign-in dominates Communities of Practice. The latest research from the EBU Media Intelligence Service
Visit: tech.ebu.ch/ourwork 19 In the spotlight: Karl Petermichl Strategy and Governance Officer to the CTO, ORF
2 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 EDITORIAL Spearheading the renaissance of media innovation in Europe Antonio Arcidiacono, Director of Technology & Innovation, EBU
Consider, for a moment, the the first materialization of this differences between the US vision with the launch of the media landscape and our News Monitoring and the situation here in Europe. On the Recommendation Box projects other side of the Atlantic, we (see pages 10-11). AI find large and uniform markets technologies are leveraged to where content and platforms combine trusted news from can gain mass audiences and multiple EBU Members, made take advantage of considerable available to any journalist or economies of scale. citizen in their own preferred Europe, in contrast, is a language. This represents not multicultural, multilingual only a wider choice but also a patchwork of medium and unique democratic weapon (mostly) small markets: we are enabling comparison of more than capable of producing independent information interesting content and sources. technology products but are limited by the size of each OPEN TECHNOLOGY individual market. The potential the most obvious ones. These Part of our public service return on investment constrains technologies can be applied to mandate is also that of setting the amount of product help create an offer that can be the reference for technology development that can happen, consumed in all markets at a innovation. It is a role the EBU whether in production or sustainable production cost. has been fulfilling for decades, distribution. I see the potential for an driving innovation in media These constraints were less of enlarged content offer technology in collaboration with a problem before the age of combined with a common set of international bodies such as globalization. However, today products and distribution DVB, SMPTE, ITU, HbbTV, we see that the inability to services aimed at a mass 5G-MAG, ETSI, WorldDAB and compete, not only on European market – more than others. Our historical leadership production but also on R&D and 500 million people. With role was recently acknowledged innovation in general, leaves the individual countries having with the receipt of three door wide open for the large increasingly diverse audiences, Technology & Engineering OTT operators – mostly based the smart application of AI and Emmy Awards (see page 4). in the US – that can continue to data technologies can help The EBU remains today the invest in product innovation. identify the best opportunities largest structure coordinating With the exception of the for export. And the economies European media R&D&I anglophone native productions, of scale that arise will enable activities. It is the natural other European products often targeting of content and candidate to lead the find a natural resistance to distribution services in the other development of open export and consumption in four continents. technology solutions that markets other than their own So, the way to address this benefit EBU Members along national ones. challenge of Europe’s non- with the entire industry and uniform markets is in combining society at large. I want to see LEVERAGING AI & DATA original, high quality content the EBU leading a European How can we address these with technological innovation to hub of excellence in media constraints on investment? Can attract audiences, while technology development, we avoid wasteful replication of developing a sustainable set of driving innovation where efforts to develop distribution products in the long term. To technology and media creation solutions that are deployed only develop and maintain innovative come together. We must fight at a national level? The answers products we must join forces back to ensure we can leverage lie partly in new AI-based and and produce the required tools our own tools of production data technologies, including in both production and and distribution, so that citizens language management and distribution technology. get the most out of Europe’s smart recommendation among We have recently announced rich cultural heritage.
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 3 NEWS & EVENTS
SMPTE elects EBU T&I’s Hans Hoffmann as President The SMPTE standards organization has elected Hans Hoffmann, Head of Media Fundamentals and Production at the EBU, as its president for the 2021–22 term. On 1 January, Hoffmann became the first European in the history of the organization to serve in that role. EBU receives three Technology The appointment further strengthens the EBU’s ties and partnerships with the & Engineering Emmy® Awards wider entertainment industry. The Society The European Broadcasting Union has been awarded of Motion Picture and Television Engineers three Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for is based in the US and operates as a global excellence in engineering creativity, recognizing three key professional association of engineers, technologies that were collaboratively developed by the technologists and executives working in EBU and that have shaped or underpin systems widely the media and entertainment industry. Its used by the broadcast industry today. work underpins many of the technologies “These three Emmy Awards confirm that collaboration used by media organizations around the between organizations is key to successful innovation, world. and we will continue on this path”, says EBU Director “It’s an honour to be elected to this of Technology & Innovation Antonio Arcidiacono. “They leadership position at SMPTE,” said are proof of the power of collaborative, leading-edge Hoffmann. “I look forward to collaborating innovation to shape the future of technology and make with the fantastic SMPTE team in White a lasting, practical impact. We’re very pleased to have Plains, the SMPTE Board, and the SMPTE the work of the engineers and experts who drove those membership to identify the Society’s developments honoured in this way.” gravity points — strengths and areas The first Emmy Award recognizes the EBU’s role in the we need to develop to grow now and creation of the Advanced Authoring Format (AAF), an in the near future. We have a world of interchange file format that paved the way for cross- opportunity ahead of us, and we need to platform post-production workflows, the benefits of be agile in positioning the Society to delve which are still enjoyed by the industry today. into the areas that address the rise of the The second Emmy Award honours the standardization cloud, IP, remote workflows and media and commercialization of broadcast, hybrid electrical creation, artificial intelligence and machine and fibre optic camera cable and connectors, a design learning, software in place of hardware, for physical interconnect solutions that helped to and personalization and ‘immersiveness’ in accommodate the growing bandwidth requirements in media consumption.” digital media production systems and has since come to Hans Hoffmann was also recently be relied on by vendors, broadcasters and media creators awarded the FKTG’s Richard Theile Medal around the world. 2020 for outstanding services in television The final of the three Emmy Awards rewards the technology. The award recognizes his EBU’s contribution to work on Common Encryption, services in the development of HDTV a fundamental technology design that separates the and UHDTV television systems and his
encryption function from the content contribution or significant contribution to international distribution system and can accommodate the presence standardization committees. of multiple encryption or conditional access systems in parallel. The technology allowed industry participants Hans Hoffmann, EBU Head to deploy successive generations of increasingly of Media sophisticated conditional access systems as part of new Fundamentals
services on satellite and cable. and Production
Nominations are now being accepted for the EBU Technology & Innovation Award 2021 Visit: tech.ebu.ch/award
4 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR 2021 Discussing the future of European media R&D With the closure this year of one He pointed to the shorter the EBU has a role to bring of the world’s foremost R&D labs development cycles that have together the requirements and for broadcast technologies, the become the norm and noted that, views of the broadcasters. “We Munich-based Institut für while many Members were shouldn’t forget that it’s always Rundfunktechnik (IRT), it seemed working on similar projects, they important to be close to your own an apt moment for the EBU were usually at different points in audience and to have a look at Production Technology Seminar to the cycle. your local and regional needs and explore the state of media-related requirements and specifics. So, R&D. A discussion panel with a FUNDING GAP you cannot only rely on the big primarily European focus, but also Two institutes in the German players from the West Coast, including NHK STRL (Japan), Fraunhofer network were because they naturally have to brought the online conference to a represented in the discussion: have a global view.” close and pointed out several Harald Fuchs heads the media paths to future success. systems and applications GAIA-X POTENTIAL Gino Alberico, who leads the department at Fraunhofer IIS, Both of the German panellists research centre at Rai in Italy, said while Ralf Schäfer is responsible mentioned the cloud as an area a key question for broadcasters for the video division at ripe for development and today was “make or buy?”, where Fraunhofer HHI. Both stressed the collaboration. Once again it is important to find the right growing importance for the highlighting the European angle, balance. PTS 2021 had shown broadcast industry of EU-funded Ralf Schäfer saw the GAIA-X several examples of broadcasters projects. initiative as an opportunity to experimenting with available Ralf Schäfer pointed out that, as work on an open standardized technologies – he highlighted a public research institute, HHI platform. It might, he said, open Yle’s first steps in synthetic media has to work on topics where the path to additional European using a web-based tool – but funding is available. “One problem Commission funding for broadcasters would still need to is that in Europe we lost the collaboration, given that over- develop tools and infrastructure consumer electronics industry dependency on certain cloud to solve specific needs within and therefore it’s quite hard to providers could prove to be an their own organization. Avoiding get funding for consumer obstacle for collaboration. vendor lock-in should be a electronics or broadcasting The director of NHK’s Science & priority, he said. topics.” HHI continues to do Technology Research His counterpart at BBC R&D, relevant work, particularly on Laboratories, Kohji Mitani, Andy Conroy, said that EBU video coding, but also as an brought a perspective from Members can still play a vital role offshoot of applications for fields outside Europe to the discussion. in R&D: “We can bring our values; like medicine or security. Picking up on the need for that’s what distinguishes us, public Picking up on this point, Harald collaboration, which had also service media; we can bring our Fuchs said that European projects been identified by the other values to bear on the space.” continue to be important and that panellists, he mentioned personal data stores as an important topic for all countries and regions and thus one that was ripe for collaboration. When it came to personalized media services, “transparent and highly accountable technologies are required to enable our viewers to enjoy user-centred broadcasting services with peace of mind.” Overall, the discussion re- emphasized the need for strong media-related R&D capacity in Europe and the importance of collaboration, both between institutes and across disciplines. The EBU is seen as a natural Clockwise from top left: Andy Conroy (BBC R&D), Kohji Mitani (NHK STRL), Gino facilitator to coordinate such Alberico (Rai CRITS), Ralf Schäfer (Fraunhofer HHI), Harald Fuchs (Fraunhofer IIS). activities.
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 5 CLOUD-BASED PRODUCTION Yle works towards cloud-based radio production Yle’s Mikko Nevalainen describes how the Finnish broadcaster has created a fully-featured radio studio that runs entirely in the cloud.
Our vision for this project was that, equipped with nothing “A node that is to be used for the remote more than a microphone, a production of a full radio show might have laptop and a good internet connection, a Yle radio presenter several outside sources defined and set as could go on air with all of the inputs.” functionality and features they would have available in a typical radio studio. We delivered on this can be used stand-alone or in IP stream with the appropriate vision by putting everything in hybrid contexts. codec, bit rate and sample rate the cloud: the user can just Once everything has been for whatever service is targeted. browse to the appropriate URL, configured in the back end, the Once the user has logged in, login, and go live. software takes care of loaded the appropriate playlist The solution offers a simple connectivity, contribution and and configured their microphone, way to replace a studio delivery. When the user logs in, they can connect to the media environment remotely, a need the preconfigured settings are player. The connection uses that became all the more urgent loaded in the front end. They see WebRTC and the Opus audio during the past year. But it can all of the different sources that codec. also serve as a lightweight might be needed for a radio The output of the studio is back-up solution when you don’t show, such as regional news mixed and delivered as an IP have sufficient studio space studios, music libraries, stream that can easily feed available. programme jingles, etc. There is web-based players or audio-on- also the usual radio rundown and demand systems. FM delivery is USER-FRIENDLY audio monitors, while the also possible, simply requiring The main goals of this project provision of a talkback function is the stream to be routed to the were to prioritize ease of use in on the roadmap. correct place for playout. terms of the user interface and The system is based on a series the user experience. It should be of media nodes, each configured TOWARDS DEPLOYMENT accessible at any time from any according to what should be Having successfully delivered the location and should enable fast available. For example, a node proof-of-concept, we are now publishing to the web for audio- that is to be used for the remote exploring how to deploy this on-demand or podcasts. production of a full radio show service as easily as possible. The Importantly, it should be might have several outside aim is to use cloud-based platform-agnostic: available for sources defined and set as distribution with a repository deployment either on the public inputs. The node’s own output where we can set up docker or private cloud or on premise. It would in turn be configured as an images: you just spin up the machine and you have the studio environment up and running. Although the complete system is not yet used in production, the playout function is already being used daily on three national channels. A Lawo mixing desk is used to create the live feeds as AES67 streams to the media network and the media node player is controlled as a webpage inserted inside Lawo’s virtual UI known as VisTool. In this case the media node is running on a virtual machine with R3LAY Virtual Patch Bay as a soundcard interface, controlled with the A screenshot of the interface with a live (test) show in progress Ember+ protocol. 6 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 CLOUD-BASED PRODUCTION A 5G journey to the cloud and beyond RTVE has been pushing the boundaries of new production and distribution technologies on an innovation journey that will help define the future of broadcasting, writes David Corral.
To say goodbye to 2020 we decided to, in a way, Six different technologically challenge the distribution pandemic by doing a special channels were fed broadcast. We took the simultaneously opportunity of a concert from the cloud produced by Radio3, our national Below: station focused on music and Shooting at culture, to come full circle on an Madrid’s Casa innovation journey, both in terms América of the production techniques and how we distributed the content to all RTVE channels, from radio or streaming to conventional television. Technologies like AI and 5G have been on RTVE’s innovation agenda for several years. In the area of telecoms technology in particular, we have taken pioneering steps for the media sector as a partner in the European 5G-MEDIA project. American artists on stage at latencies, as well as graphics FIRST STEPS Madrid’s Casa América. Taking overlays and preloaded videos, This particular journey, however, the FM radio broadcast as a among other technical began in June 2019, at the 7th starting point, we used a multi- possibilities. Global 5G Event in Valencia, we camera signal mixed in the cloud Added to the system, mounted what was one of the to serve all of RTVE’s platforms, synchronized across the different world’s first stand-alone live 5G both conventional broadcast and connected devices, was footage broadcasts for television. Within digital, also providing vertical from three smartphones, a month of that trial, we had video where required. In what connected to a Wi-Fi network begun using a public 5G network was another first for Spain, we generated with a 5G router for news contributions. used a 5G backpack to achieve through the TVU Anywhere A further step forward was to this unique audiovisual coverage. application. mix several cameras in the cloud An audio feed taken from the The different video and audio and broadcast fully in 5G during mixing desk for the event was signals were mixed and a conference on advantages and fed in stereo over a cable to a simultaneously distributed risks of 5G in the audiovisual camera. This audio, the very directly to their destinations from sector, organized by the same that was enjoyed by the virtual mixer. So, having European Parliament. Then, as anyone listening to the FM radio started with a “simple” 5G part of 5G-MEDIA, a radio play broadcast, served as the unique broadcast 18 months previously, called La vida es sueño was reference for all devices and we completed the circle in mixed entirely using edge formats served by the leveraging native 5G and cloud computing. Other cases – and audiovisual coverage. broadcast techniques to steps forward on this journey – distribute through the six included the use of purpose-built CLOUD-BASED PRODUCTION outputs available on the system: mobile apps to enable 5G The camera receiving the audio in horizontal for YouTube, Twitter broadcasts and a pilot project to was a standard RTVE model, but and Facebook, via RTMP for the install a small 5G cell in the was now connected to a TVU RTVE website, SDI for our 24- Castilla-La Mancha parliament. One backpack, a unit with six hour television channel, and – as All of these previous steps modems, two of which are 5G a novelty – in vertical for prepared the ground for a truly and the rest 4G. The backpack Instagram. impressive operation. At the end signal was sent to a virtual mixer We hope that in 2021 we’ll be of November 2020, Radio3 put a system, TVU Producer, that able to go even further with this new generation of Latin allows remote operation with low technology.
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 7 CLOUD-BASED PRODUCTION Live production in the cloud – learning through collaboration From roundtables to hands-on tests, Paola Sunna explains how EBU Members and industry players have been working together on discovering and defining best practices for the fast- emerging field of cloud-based live production.
COVID-19 gave a boost to the use of the cloud for • A related topic that should not be underestimated media production. For post-produced content this is in terms of importance is intercom. Complex relatively straightforward. For live production it is a productions require a robust back-channel for serious challenge. team communication. Intercoms nowadays span While office workers and families at home have the whole space from dedicated (robust) become reasonably used to working, teaching and hardware devices to virtual phone apps. It is a learning via Google Meet, Zoom and the like, question of picking the right tools and professional live productions are much more difficult understanding what dependencies are introduced. to ‘cloudify’ because they require more real-time • Maybe the most important feature that users are interaction with strict timing constraints. Indeed, a asking for is being able to create and recall set-ups survey performed by the EBU Hybrid & Cloud easily. Given the potential complexity of the Production (HCP) group last September confirmed complete cloud-based set-up, it is essential to cloud production workflows to be the number one easily be able to go (back) to tested and trusted challenge for broadcasters. configurations. To address the need for cloud production best practices, the EBU HCP group adopted a multi- MARKET SOLUTIONS perspective approach: exchanging the latest user A second series of roundtables has put solution experiences, identifying market solutions and providers at the centre. In Q4 2020, the HCP group organizing hands-on testing. hosted sessions on Grabyo, Grass Valley’s AMPP, Kiswe Studio, Microsoft Azure, Simplylive, Sony’s USER EXPERIENCES Virtual Production, and VizRT’s Vectar Plus. Since September 2020, EBU Members have Solution providers can currently be divided into regularly exchanged cloud production experiences two main groups: cloud infrastructure providers and in biweekly group calls and dedicated roundtable providers of ‘applications’ that run on top of the sessions. In the latter, frontrunners present their cloud infrastructure. A further subset of the latter latest learnings, triggering a subsequent are companies with strong broadcast expertise, that conversation between the participating Members. are effectively creating the cloud equivalent of what The presentations are recorded, so those who used to be hardware products (like video switchers). missed a session can watch it later on. So far, At the other end of the spectrum we find ‘digital experiences from BR, RTBF, RTÉ, VRT and Yle have services’ companies, where the emphasis is more on been shared, providing insights into innovative interfaces and workflows. The business model for all production approaches for both television and radio. of them is a subscription and/or pay-as-you-use-it Several areas emerged quickly as requiring further model. exploration: • The first one is the choice of interconnect, HANDS-ON TESTING including decisions on bandwidth, video stream The third activity of the HCP group consists of a codec (and settings), and bitrate. SRT is a popular number of hands-on trials in which Members and choice for many current operations, but vendors test cloud-based live production set-ups. interoperability between applications and even The first one was organized last month, for the between dedicated SRT encoders and decoders Biathlon World Championships 2020 in Antholz. can be tricky to get right. More tests are being planned for 2021. • Minimizing latency is a key aim. Depending on the Learn, share, test! combination of tools and interconnects this can The EBU group on Hybrid and Cloud Production easily go up to seconds (for the round-trip), which has over 150 EBU Member participants. The group would rule out remote camera control and is led by Conrad Gouws (RTÉ) and Markus complicate two-way communication. Ostertag (SWR), with Ievgen Kostiukevych and • Mix-minus audio is high on the list as another point Frans de Jong of the EBU T&I team coordinating. to check. In practice, mix-minus returns for remote The group meets ‘in the cloud’ every second week. contributors can be created relatively easily with Besides continuing the roundtables series (with audio matrices and mixers, but for ease of use it is Members and vendors) and trials, the group is important to know how much of this functionality working on a report with use cases, requirements, is present and directly usable in the cloud-based etc. More at tech.ebu.ch/hcp tools.
8 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 Testing cloud-based production at the Biathlon World Championships
At the end of January 2021, the EBU, Eurovision Media Services, Finnish broadcaster Yle, Italian broadcaster Rai, Grass Valley, and Simplylive worked together to test cloud-based live production technology during the Biathlon World Championships in Antholz (Italy). For this test, the Yle, Finland focus was on the backhaul of six feeds: three different main programme feeds and three respectively, Simplylive and Grass Valley’s AMPP additional remote-controlled PTZ cameras at the production tools. The set-up was intended as the shooting range and an interview location. precursor to a larger trial where special attention The signals were received in Geneva, Helsinki will be paid to remote control of the cameras, and Turin, with Yle and Rai staff validating the audio, remote commentaries, and graphics reception in their broadcast centres using, integration.
Eurovision Media Services, Switzerland Rai, Italy
2020 Biathlon World Championships, Antholz, Italy Cloud-based production tests
RTP Stream
3 x production feeds
6 x SRT streams
Public internet Encoder
RTP Stream
3 x remote feeds
Sketch of the set-up for the first cloud production trial in Antholz.
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 9 TRANSLATION & RECOMMENDATION TECHNOLOGY Strength in diversity: multiplying the value of Europe’s newsrooms Justyna Kurczabinska, Head of the EBU News Exchange & News Strategy, introduces an innovative digital news collaborative project that gives journalists – and soon the audience – almost real-time access, in their own language, to news published across the EBU membership.
Public service media is Europe’s updated list of additional articles in the News Exchange, including largest newsroom, spending EUR on the same topic published by radio-only Members who wish to 5.5 billion annually and other sources, generated using integrate their content. This employing over 40,000 AI and machine learning expansion of the pilot has been journalists. There are 47 technology from the EBU possible thanks to the recent international all-news PSM PEACH project. For busy decision of the EBU News services active in 2020, and journalists, this means precious Committee to invest reserve many PSM are considered the time is not wasted searching for funds that had been earmarked most trusted news brands in their additional relevant content – for news in the monitoring tool, respective countries.1 they have what they need at as a strategic innovation project. PSM produce strong, trusted their fingertips. The tool has the potential to digital content and have trusted All articles are translated become an essential PSM hub of digital platforms. The problem is automatically into English, articles from all around Europe. that, today, we do not have thanks to another EBU project, As more Members join, the in-depth digital collaboration in EuroVOX. The user can perform diversity of views will increase. news, and we are thus not translations into additional 2021 will also see a move to leveraging our strengths to the languages at the press of a testing the public-facing vision, full. button. The tool currently displaying news from all around What if we could exchange supports Finnish, French, Europe on online pages where online content between PSM German, Italian, Portuguese, the participating news providers newsrooms in Europe? Spanish and Swedish, and more choose to integrate it as the languages can easily be added. Recommendation Box. This EBU NEWS PILOT News B2C project is now co- With this question in mind, in the EUROPEAN CITIZENS funded by the EU2 and has ten spring of 2020 the EBU and 14 of The PSM organizations participating Member its Members began to pilot a participating in the project are organizations as of February collaborative way of sharing convinced that impactful, fact- 2021. digital news content among based, and trustworthy news Each participating company themselves. It was initially only with public service values should will have full editorial control of for monitoring purposes be offered to the European all content published on its internally in their newsrooms, but audience more widely than services. All workflows and also with a vision to explore the today. This need is underlined by technical solutions will be possibility of publishing these internationally relevant topics news items in several languages like climate change, the refugee across the participants’ online crisis, tensions and polarization platforms in the future. in European politics, and, right At the time of writing, the now, the economic and social monitoring tool that emerged impact of the COVID-19 from this project is collecting an pandemic. average of more than 750 In the words of Eric Scherer, articles daily, offered through a co-chair of the Steering simple web interface. Committee, “This is a strategic The application allows editors project for all of us: for the EBU, to filter the content by for its Members and, not least, categories (sports, environment, for European citizens. This is a politics, science, etc.), by source, tool against populism, a tool and by date. Text queries can be against misinformation, a very entered to search for specific important tool.” keywords. At the end of every article, the NEXT STEPS user is offered a constantly February 2021 marked the roll- out of the monitoring tool to all 1 Public Service Media and News – EBU 2020 Media Intelligence Service the EBU Members participating
10 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 TRANSLATION & RECOMMENDATION TECHNOLOGY
designed to ensure this goal is achieved. Eurovision news monitoring Our value proposition lies in creating a first phase for an tool: what’s under the hood? innovative network of news platforms sharing stories of high Sébastien Noir, Head of Software Engineering in the EBU relevance and pan-European Technology & Innovation Department, describes the main interest. The approach is based technical building blocks of the tool. on using only high-quality content from respected public We designed the news review the steps taken: service brands on platforms that monitoring tool in close transcriptions can be corrected already have a significant consultation with editors and both in terms of text and timings audience in their own countries. journalists, incorporating their to make the content more This kind of news collaboration feedback directly in the accessible. Once done this makes is distinctive, novel, and in the development. The goal is a tool for a better translation, although long run might offer an that is easy to use, requires no the translation too can be edited important alternative to social training, and provides immediate if required. Finally, a video can be media platforms. value to the user. rendered from the translation Flexibility is an essential quality using a synthetically voiced PARTICIPATING MEMBERS of the project. Every EBU presenter, and optionally with The 14 participating EBU Member has its own tools and either burned-in or embedded Members are: Belgium – RTBF; workflows. We designed the pilot subtitles. Finland – YLE; Germany – BR, with solutions for all: content can PEACH uses machine learning Deutsche Welle, ARD/ be pushed to the tool’s API at and AI to provide ‘related article’ Tagesschau and ZDF; Ireland – time of publication, or the tool recommendations. It works by RTE; Italy – RAI; Portugal – RTP; can retrieve the newest articles converting each article into a Spain – RTVE; Sweden – SR; every few minutes on the vector representation using Switzerland – Swissinfo (SRG Member’s REST API. pre-trained deep-learning SSR); France – FTV and ARTE. Once articles are ingested into language models. The goal is that the system, they are converted to similar articles (semantically a standard format: every article is similar, even if different words are represented as a list of sections used) would be represented by 2 The EU funding has been awarded by the Directorate- (title, lead, headings, paragraphs, vectors that are similar. General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CNECT) as part of a project entitled images, media, quotes). The text The vectors used may have “Towards a European Public Sphere: Multilingual Programmes from across Europe”. In addition to the component of every section can more than 100 dimensions to EBU’s Recommendation Box, the funding provides then be translated. The audio and capture the semantics of support to the European Collection, a curated selection of documentaries, magazine shows and reports on video files are downloaded and sentences. To find similar articles current issues in European politics and society. The European Collection is coordinated by ARTE and draws sent to EuroVOX for transcription to a given article, we look up all on programmes produced by France Télévisions, Switzerland’s SRG SSR, and Germany’s ARD and ZDF. and translation. vectors representing each article The common selection is made available in five As soon as the text translation present in the hub and select the languages throughout Europe on the partners’ digital platforms. is available, the article becomes closest in the multi-dimensional visible in the web application. space. This process takes a matter of PEACH can also make use of minutes. The journalists therefore user data; approaches like have access to the news almost collaborative filtering will be in real-time. taken later, when the content is The translation of content is shown to end users. handled by EuroVOX. Developed The next iterations of the tool by the EBU and its Members, it is will provide automatic extraction an open toolbox for transcription, of topics from the articles. These translation and revoicing. It will be used to surface trending provides a single unified interface topics in real-time, so that to language tools from the major journalists can quickly identify cloud platforms (AWS, Microsoft what is happening now, from the Azure, Google, Speechmatics, perspective of EBU newsrooms. DeepL, etc) alongside the ability The user experience will also to plug in smaller vendors and evolve, to permit a more focused custom models. It also provides a exploration of the diverse web application that enables content produced by European easy transcription and translation PSM. of content. See tech.ebu.ch/eurovox Journalists and editors can and tech.ebu.ch/peach.
tech-techi | tech.ebu.ch-i | tech.ebu.ch | December | March 2020 2021 11 RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Looking beyond the media technology horizon A recent report from a group of public service media R&D labs presents an ambitious vision of the future media landscape. Hans Hoffmann and David Wood here summarize the three broad trends identified.
The EBU Broadcast Technology 1. TOMORROW’S USER experience, including using Futures (BTF) group, which EXPERIENCE more sophisticated voice brings together senior staff from The rise of what can be termed activation and digital assistants. public service media R&D labs, ‘ambient media’ will have an The options may be chosen has recently published a report impact in two domains: the user’s by the user or be triggered with their insights on the future control and the user’s sense of automatically by the local technologies that may be part reality. environment or by the user’s of, and help shape, the media In the future users will have needs. environment in the coming ever greater control over In addition to this increased decades. what is before them – greater personalization, users will have This article is a taster, with personalization. Services can a greater sense of reality. This much more detail in the full include elements that provide will include more realistic images, report, available from additional information about the sound that can reproduce tech.ebu.ch/btf2020. current viewing experience, help width, height, and depth, and The report concludes that new to find content of interest for the multimodal presentations that media technology will arrive user, recommend content, and may include haptics (technology as component parts of three more. that stimulates the senses of broad trends, related to user The next decades may touch and motion). ‘Space- experience, content production thus bring more options sharing’ content viewing may be and content delivery. The trends for personalizing the media possible, through which people in may impact at the same time or separately, and one may be Ambient media consequent on another. Exactly Greater personalization what arrives, and when, will and sense of reality depend on local contexts and User what is developed. There will be Experience a ‘right time’ for the introduction and success of a range of new technologies, but it will not be the same in all countries. And the future will, of course, include developments that arise unforeseen today. If there is a common overall thread to the trends foreseen it may be greater convenience Delivery Production and flexibility for the user and the programme maker and, most importantly, that the customer experience and value proposition will be at the focus of Cooperative delivery Rich production innovations. Any user terminal; Greater flexibility; multi- broadcast and broadband platform content production
12 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
– separately or at the same time new content forms and user – targeting a range of different experiences will see media content formats, each serving services being available on a different markets or different wider range of different types of groups of users. receivers. The range of delivery The decades to come will bring platforms will remain terrestrial, programme production that satellite, cable, IPTV, wired and meets the needs of future user wireless internet and Wi-Fi, experiences in a multiformat but some will be limited in the world. Infrastructures will provide new kinds of services they can local, remote, and distributed provide because of bandwidth or production by using IP-based other limitations. networks, the cloud and The new wireless broadband serverless computing. Production systems 5G and eventually 6G resources will become more may have a significant role in ‘available on demand’. The new providing media services. An workflows that will become attractive option may be to possible will have a major impact combine broadband services on programme making. Metadata with broadcast services and Who is in Broadcast will continue to be a key enabler. create ‘intelligent concurrent Technology Futures group? AI and machine learning tools will networks’. • BBC, UK support editorial staff in a variety • EBU, Switzerland of tasks, including programme FACTORS SHAPING SUCCESS • IRT, Germany generation and detection of fake The technologies and services • NHK, Japan news. And both sustainability that will be successful in • Rai, Italy and content accessibility will be practice will depend not only • Yle, Finland strategic challenges for content on the novelty and capability • VRT, Belgium production. of the technology itself, but on The full report, again, goes a collection of success factors into detail on the points above, that include: the prevailing different locations may share the showing the ways in which societal and media climates; the emotions of the experience with content production may be desirability, affordability and each other. transformed. availability of equipment and The overall impact will be a content; the challenges then heightening of the sense of 3. TOMORROW’S MEDIA faced by media providers; the reality through more immersion DELIVERY need that the new development and increased image and sound The third trend detailed in the would fulfil; and others. quality. A further new experience report can be summarized as Can we go further and may be created by combining the rise of ‘cooperative delivery’. predict more precisely what will real or conventional media This will firstly be marked by the happen in the coming decades? content with digitally created emergence of a mixed delivery Unfortunately, the future will be worlds. The BTF report goes environment, where both determined not only by what into greater detail on all of these broadcasting and broadband is probable based on today’s aspects and more. – wireless or wired – provide knowledge, but also by ideas and media services. Each will have systems that emerge unforeseen 2. TOMORROW’S CONTENT their strengths, and different in the coming years. But while PRODUCTION combinations will be used in consequently we cannot predict The second trend foreseen different countries. 5G may be the exact shape the media will by the BTF group is the rise combined with satellite and/ take in the coming years, it of ‘rich production’ for media or terrestrial broadcasting in is reasonable to assume that content. Production facilities will intelligent cooperation. the trends and tendencies increasingly be arranged to allow This will be coupled with identified today by the BTF production locally or remotely the increasing availability of group and detailed in the report or a combination of both. This all services on any terminal, are accurate and will be among will include outsourcing some or including fixed TV or radio those that will happen. all of the production chain, and sets, portables, tablets or the use of the cloud (or, in fact, smartphones. Content providers Read the report and form multiple clouds). will, in each case, make use of your own judgement about A further aspect of this trend the specific capabilities of these what is at or beyond the will be increased production devices to reach and engage media technology horizon. It flexibility, whereby it will be with audiences. is available for download from: possible for content to be made The delivery to the user of tech.ebu.ch/btf2020
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 13 DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY
Who needs conventional broadcast networks when you’ve got the internet! Right? Roland Beutler (SWR), who chairs the EBU strategic programme on Distribution, recommends caution when it comes to relying on the Big Tech companies. Above all, PSM organizations must work together.
With the proliferation building their own of the internet and its network infrastructure apparently unlimited to connect the world. opportunities, many Facebook is launching a representatives of public global satellite network; service media (PSM) Google plans to deploy organizations seem its own undersea cable to be losing faith in between the US and conventional broadcast Asia. distribution networks. On top of controlling We see PSM focusing the physical internet more and more on infrastructure, Amazon, on-demand content Facebook, Google and and services, which Apple are major content require bidirectional providers through their communication. The latter, by reach, prominence, attribution, respective platforms. Google definition, cannot be offered branding, control and costs. and Apple have a dominant by unidirectional broadcast global footprint in mobile devices networks. However, broadband IN THE OLD DAYS using their respective operating networks, both fixed and mobile, The internet used to be a web systems, Android and iOS. They which may be the appropriate in the proper sense, meaning it are also now present in stationary option, are usually beyond the consisted of many independent devices such as smart TVs and control of PSM organizations. entities such as different core increasingly in cars, with Android They can make use of broadband and access networks, exchange Automotive and Apple CarPlay. networks only in the same way points and peering arrangements And finally, even though the as any other service provider between participants. Microsoft European Commission tries to who wants to deliver some primarily sold operating systems contain their influence, GAFAM data or communicate with and office software, Google was seem to operate outside national its customer base. Renting or a search engine and Amazon a or even supernational regulation. leasing dedicated capacity on bookseller. This is now a fading managed broadband networks memory. DANCING WITH THE DEVIL may quickly become a very The so-called GAFAM So, can the internet take care of expensive endeavour. companies (see image) set out to the distribution of our content It is not surprising, therefore, completely control the internet and services? In principle yes, but that there is massive hype about infrastructure end-to-end. PSM organizations should follow over-the-top (OTT) distribution Google and Amazon had built the advice of a popular German across the internet. It helps to huge server farms to cope with (actually Bavarian) song: “If you increase the reach of media their original services. These are want to dance with the devil, you offers, is undoubtedly very now also used to offer all kinds better wear good shoes!” flexible, and can in principle of cloud services to external It’s unlikely that PSM will be give access to content both customers. They are heavily able to buy good shoes off- at home and on the move. used by PSM organizations in the-shelf. Our only option is to Most importantly, it targets production, contribution and join forces to gain visibility in strategically relevant devices distribution of their media a GAFAM-dominated internet such as smartphones and tablets. services. world. This means defining our PSM organizations make use In the past, the deployment requirements and injecting of OTT distribution through of undersea cables or satellite them into the right bodies and their own apps and websites. networks was typically achieved standardization groups in a But they also utilize third-party through creating international timely manner. The currently platforms. Both ways have their consortia. Nowadays, Google widespread notion of being pros and cons when it comes and Facebook are pursuing these better off going one’s own way to fulfilling the requirements of kinds of network deployments will fail when trying to dance PSM organizations related to independently. They target with GAFAM.
14 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS
Tackling climate change one conversation at a time In January 2021, a new company-wide mobile app went live at ITV. Home Planet aims to make sustainability part of the day-to-day technology conversation at the UK broadcaster. Matt O’Shea tells the story.
We started the platform was how ITV Home Planet quickly we could iterate journey in November – we failed really fast! 2019. ITV was busy We’d implement ideas developing new 2030 as we thought of them environmental targets and when they didn’t and I had just taken on work, we’d row back. the role of Technology The no-code approach Lead for ITV’s Green made for rock-solid Team Steering Group, releases, so no need the group responsible for all the effort of for embedding change testing or release on the ground. management. I was thrilled and nervous – I still am! THE TEAM GROWS I’ve been working We had fantastic with technology for support from ITV more years than I Technology leadership. care to remember, The results of a and I understand how pilot were great. We serious climate change expanded our team is, but bringing the two to three – enter Anna! things together is tricky She added a much- and it’s new ground. There are individuals could compete, and needed creative touch to the two things working in my favour: great tips for sustainable living. application, turbo-charged our the issue of climate change Although convinced we had plans and made the idea of an is one that the ITV teams will a good idea, we hit our first ITV-wide roll-out a reality. engage with brilliantly, and the blocker: we had no funding At the time, the ITV Client people who work at ITV are a and there were only two of us! Strategy team was working on clever bunch. If we could raise On the upside, Marc is a great a commercial proposition called the profile of sustainable living technologist, and I had a sense Home Planet. There were clear and climate change, bring the of what good looked like. Hey synergies between their goals issue forward in the mind of presto, we were a two-person and ours, they loaned us their our technology teams, then the product team! branding (huge thanks Client plans would follow! We were going to need a Strategy!) and the product was low-cost, low-barrier-to-entry complete. GAMIFICATION (so no databases!), intuitive It’s early days but there are Discussing all this with Marc, a platform. A platform that signs of something good. colleague, we knew we needed anyone could use to build Sustainability is more a part of to get the issue of climate mobile phone applications. A the technology conversation change out there, and in the no-code platform. Marc quickly than ever, and the teams are right way. The engagement got to work testing no-code setting up to rebalance the should be fun; we wanted platforms, and I added tips for impact of technology on the to inform and to inspire living sustainably to a Google environment. conversation. It was decided, we Sheet. Marc found a platform Our no-code experience in would gamify sustainable living! that ticked all the boxes: Glide developing and releasing Home What would become ITV uses spreadsheets as a data Planet has shown us that the Home Planet was born – and source, it has a brilliant user days of monolithic programmes we had set our sights beyond interface, and (boom!) it has a are behind us. With today’s the technology teams. Our very free tier. Marc plugged Glide into technologies, the right idea and own mobile application would my tips spreadsheet, and we a small product team, our ideas be available to everyone at ITV, had ourselves a prototype! can be realized as swiftly as with leaderboards so teams and The great thing about the they can be communicated.
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 15 IN MY OPINION Finding new levers to meet the challenges of tomorrow The France Télévisions group of tomorrow will be free from the constraints of infrastructure and boosted by AI, writes CTO/CIO Frédéric Brochard.
Today, artificial intelligence already enables us to communication, and the development of collective increase our potential and supports our public intelligence assisted by AI. service remit by improving, for example, the Moreover, other innovations, such as the accessibility of our 24/7 news channel franceinfo development of open-source smart TV with the imminent deployment of semi-automatic technologies, or even 5G, are encouraged by the 24/7 subtitling intended for the deaf and hard of development of synergies through our hearing. collaborations and our sharing of experiences with other players from the French public service COLLABORATION & VIRTUALIZATION audiovisual sector and within the EBU. Due to changing contexts, illustrated by the major COVID-19 crisis, and new modes of programme ESSENTIAL ROLE FOR EBU consumption, a successful business transformation All European public service broadcasters face the requires us to be ever more mobile and scalable. same challenges – adapting to new uses, new Staying ahead of changes in collaboration methods competition, the proliferation of technologies and and business needs therefore becomes a distribution channels – while resources priority. The virtualization and flexibility of stagnate or even decrease in most cases. our technical ecosystem, far from signifying However, it is unthinkable to reduce the greater individualization, allows us to resources allocated to content creation, maintain proximity and increased so it becomes necessary to find new collaboration in all circumstances. The tools levers. This is where I see the role of the adapt and make it easier to ‘do it together’ EBU as critical in bringing together by abolishing distances and physical or experts and interested Members around geographic requirements. a topic. Offering virtualized and secure systems, However, it seems essential to me to incorporating the latest innovations focus energies on the most interesting available from ordinary laptops, activities and with the highest accessible with one click from added value for as many anywhere in the world, allows Members as possible. I am our specialists to focus on their convinced that CTOs are in the value-creating activities. The best position to determine the recent deployment of an office strategic axes to be followed suite as SaaS (Microsoft Office thanks to their scope of action 365), remote production, or within their company. I hope even the virtualization of the that, in the near future, we can entire news editing process convene a discussion among (Dalet Galaxy xCloud), are CTOs in order to help the only individual steps towards EBU’s Technology & greater sharing, facilitated Innovation department and the Technical Committee to direct the work towards the “It seems essential most strategic and significant projects. to me to focus The health crisis has energies on the confirmed the importance of our public service remits most interesting and the social ties that we activities and with have helped to maintain, through our education, the highest added information and culture value for as many offers. It is up to us to confirm that the ties that Members as possible.” bind our companies will FRÉDÉRIC BROCHARD enable us to meet the CTO AND CIO, FRANCE TÉLÉVISIONS challenges of tomorrow!
16 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 PARTNER PROFILES Still serving broadcasters, with more urgency than ever Hosted at EBU headquarters, the DVB Project has worked closely with broadcasters from the very start. DVB’s Head of Technology Emily Dubs explains why this mutually beneficial relationship has a renewed importance.
In the DVB Project, we have RELY ON DVB-I seen a slow but steady Our strategy is to optimize, decrease in the representation which is to say standardize, of broadcasters, with the this usage of hybrid manufacturers’ constituency networks, offering substantial gaining in prominence. This may opportunities for broadcasters, be partly due to broadcasters’ based on the overall DVB-I increasing use of external package. The latter, inter alia, technology providers. Our work, allows DVB services to easily however, is more than ever a key reach any type of IP device success factor for broadcasters. without requiring any specific And, virtuously, broadcaster application or integration. This involvement in DVB’s work is will greatly help broadcasters also essential for the relevance to secure their prominence in a of that work! cost-effective way, while offering DVB has long been recognized a seamless and unified hybrid for its widely adopted open experience to the users. standards, initially tailored by DVB’s internet-centric Emily Dubs, DVB’s Head of Technology and for the broadcast industry. solutions also promise new The flagship specifications DVB- prospects for broadcasters such T/C/S offer reliable delivery of as: television services to at least 1.5 • the possibility to offer tailored billion receivers worldwide. where a multitude of other user experiences; apps are installed. And from the • a means of offsetting the THE INTERNET CHALLENGE viewer’s point of view this leads drop in advertising revenues In parallel, the internet, often to fragmented and inconsistent through the use of targeted seen as a different universe, user experiences without the advertising (more valuable has definitely transformed the simplicity they are accustomed than traditional advertising); way we consume television: to with television. • a role to play in the 5G area, giving access to a much greater DVB sees the internet-driven with DVB-I as a common range of content, allowing transformation and the range media layer. consumption to be easily time- of innovative features it has In addition to optimizing shifted or personalized, and enabled as an opportunity for distribution costs, a range of bringing television to a much broadcast. We believe that an new opportunities will also greater range of devices that ideal media delivery landscape arise from the possibility to compete with the main living- is a world where intelligent use seamlessly switch the delivery room screen. OTT services rose of the unique characteristics of means and deliver OTT through on the back of a flourishing both broadcast and broadband satellite, for instance, to reach of innovation but they also networks enables a new wave remote areas. created a huge challenge for the of innovation and growth for DVB’s mandate today is thus television industry. both broadcast and broadband to deliver IP-centric solutions Most broadcasters have tried stakeholders. One could say that for unified and reliable media to adapt in order to secure the media industry’s future is all delivery serving the needs of their prominence within the about IP, but for sure it will be the entire television industry, connected TV environment: a very long journey and hybrid especially broadcasters more than 70% of EBU Members networks will be the norm for a struggling to serve all audiences now offer a streaming app and long time yet. This is why DVB in the face of increased PSM are increasingly involved is focused today on IP-centric competition and changing in SVOD. But apps come with a solutions where IP services are viewing habits. variety of downsides, ranging delivered seamlessly through We’d love to have your from expensive maintenance a variety of access networks involvement. Please get in touch! on multiple platforms to poor (classic DVB networks and any visibility on end-user devices form of broadband network). [email protected]
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 17 MEDIA INTELLIGENCE No single approach to sign-in dominates The EBU Media Intelligence Service recently published a detailed report on user behaviour and technology trends related to sign-in. Léa Besson and Dorien Verckist summarize some findings related to sign-in at EBU Members.
Sign-in has become more the rule rather than the exception for accessing online services. The feature is implemented by many (but not all) public service media (PSM) throughout Europe and its importance is expected to grow. However, implementing a sign- in system (and especially those based on social platforms) raises some questions. Through logins, online services and the companies behind them gain access to valuable first-party data. Such data can be used for a wide range of purposes; within PSM, our recent report shows, sign-in is mostly implemented to improve the user experience. Figure 1. Obligation to sign-in to access content, expressed as a % of Members Consequently, it is no surprise with a sign-in feature that 70% of EBU Members indicate sign-in development to be important. The implementation of sign-in differs between Members. Thirty- one percent of Members who have the sign-in feature require its use to access some of their content or services, while 38% have no plans to make sign-in mandatory. Members where sign-in is mandatory to access all content remain the exception, at 3% (Figure 1).
SOCIAL SIGN-IN Making sign-in mandatory could Figure 2. Availability of social sign-in, expressed as a % of Members with a have an impact on the users. sign-in feature With growing concerns over data privacy, users have become more Europeans when accessing online though two out of five Members the question including 32 Members who answered based on Members’ data, Source: reluctant to share personal data services. Among youngsters (15 continue to offer social sign-in, with companies. to 24 years old) the number rises 16% of Members have withdrawn One of the key accelerators in to 50%. This makes social the the feature, pointing to a this surge in privacy awareness second most-used log-in method. possible loss of popularity for was the Cambridge Analytica Despite its popularity, the approach among some EBU scandal, which concerned data EBU Members appear to be Members (Figure 2). obtained from Facebook users. ambivalent on the issue, with It will be interesting to see Accordingly, the debate on social debate presumably fuelled by which path EBU Members and log-in has become particularly the privacy-related objections. other companies choose over the prominent. Where social log-in is available, years ahead. Data from the European Facebook remains the leading EBU Members can access the Commission shows that social platform. complete report “The Power of log-in is used by 29% of According to EBU data, even Sign-in” by visiting: ebu.ch/mis
18 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 OUR COMMUNITY Conference videos on demand A selection of recent additions to our rich library of videos from EBU Technology & Innovation events, available to Members from: tech.ebu.ch/presentations
SUSTAINABILITY AND REMOTE VIRTUAL PRODUCTION MANIFESTO FOR AN PRODUCTION WORKFLOWS: THE RIPPLE AUTOMOTIVE USER CÉDRIC LEJEUNE EFFECT EXPERIENCE Assessing the environmental KATHRYN BRILLHART & ERIK MARTIN KOCH (AUDI) impacts of shifting to remote WEAVER (ETC) Creating a great radio work Using LED video walls and experience in the car game engines
IN THE SPOTLIGHT technological changes in the background are the usage of AI wherever possible, the transition to full Karl Petermichl IP media transport, and the adoption of virtualized, STRATEGY AND GOVERNANCE OFFICER containerized and highly abstracted applications and processes in the cloud. TO THE CTO, ÖSTERREICHISCHER RUNDFUNK (ORF) WHAT, FOR YOU, ARE THE BIGGEST WHAT ARE YOUR CURRENT RESPONSIBILITIES? CHALLENGES FOR EBU MEMBERS TODAY? I serve as “chief of staff” to the Chief Technical In a world of social media overload and highly Officer of the ORF. This includes responsibility for competitive private broadcasters, a world of fake governance processes and innovation management, news and challenges like global pandemics and coordination of workgroups and interdisciplinary climate change, it is all about maintaining our values projects, and alignment of our strategy and and at the same time staying relevant for our processes with finance, legal, programming and the audience, to fulfill an important duty within modern general management of the ORF. society and to help shape the future. All public broadcasters must operate highly efficiently, offer WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER AS YOUR FINEST the highest standards of accountability and ACHIEVEMENT SO FAR IN YOUR CAREER? transparency, adhere to EU regulations and media Over my 35 years in the company I have covered laws, and at the same time have to deliver for both various positions, from sound engineer to project new and legacy formats, care about sustainability, manager, from technical lead of 115 direct reports to and work towards diversification. Overall, I think it is my current position, so there is no single answer to the aspect of “managing complexity” between this question. In general, I am very happy that I am all those constraints and enablers that is well connected with all the different departments in the biggest challenge for all of us. the ORF, that I could be a mentor for many aspiring engineers over the years, and that I am part of the TELL US ABOUT SOME OF YOUR constant transformation of the ORF mission and INTERESTS AWAY FROM THE vision, products and services – to serve our audience WORKPLACE. now and in the future. As a teenager I wanted to become a professional jazz musician, on WHAT ARE YOUR PREDICTIONS FOR MEDIA Hammond organ and synthesizers. TECHNOLOGY IN THE FUTURE? During our rehearsals and concerts I The focus must be on the end user and how we can always was the “sound guy” – which deliver products that are wanted and consumed brought me to electronic engineering – media technology has to adapt to everything that and into the broadcast industry is necessary to achieve this. This means more eventually. Listening to music fragmentation in the production formats (from and participating in the smartphone to UHD quality), in the distribution cultural and creative scene methods (linear and on-demand, broadcasting and here in Vienna is still my main streaming) and in the delivery packages (from joy on weekends, as well as ultra-short to feature length and from audio and spending time with my family, video to virtual reality and data overlays). The hiking and boating.
Karl Petermichl was elected to the EBU Technical Committee in October 2020 Everything OTT 23–24 March 2021 tech.ebu.ch/events/broadthinking2021 online
Greener futures for media 22 April 2021 tech.ebu.ch/events/sustainability2021 online
Everything metadata 25–26 May 2021 tech.ebu.ch/events/mdn2021 online
Join us and the industry’s leading experts for technology updates, strategic insights and real-world use cases, plus demonstrations and networking. tech.ebu.ch/events20 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021