How Dolby and TVP Are Bringing Next-Generation Immersive Audio to Football Fans at Home

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How Dolby and TVP are bringing next-generation immersive audio to football fans at home

TVP trial live personalised Dolby Atmos audio Dolby AC-4 is an audio compression technology that offers the highest possible audio quality at low bandwidth. With the ability to carry channel and object- Innovations in broadcast technology are continually evolving the sporting based audio, the AC-4 codec can be used to create personalised experiences experience for fans at home. And during an incredible summer of football for viewers, and is one of the underlying technologies of Dolby Atmos. in Russia, Poland’s sole public TV broadcaster TVP tapped in an early goal as a champion of next-generation immersive audio technology thanks to Dolby Atmos is a next-generation immersive audio technology that was a Dolby-backed trial. Using Dolby’s AC-4 technology, TVP was able to show originally created for the cinema before being developed to work on home how all the action of the game, from the sound of a match-winning free kick cinema equipment. The idea is to give viewers a more realistic audio experience to the cheers of the crowd, can be brought to football fans at home, along with the sound appearing to come from every direction, even from above. with the commentary and sound format of their choice. Each audio element is treated as a separate object that can be moved and precisely placed around the three-dimensional space.

Making use of the immersive technology, TVP kicked off its latest trials in the summer of 2018 on the live feeds from four of the international football matches played in Russia. The idea was to transmit immersive, personalised Dolby Atmos to off-the-shelf home theatre products, making the test as realistic as possible.

Poland’s sole public TV broadcaster TVP tapped in an early goal as a champion of next-generation immersive audio technology thanks to a Dolby-backed trial.

1 “The pure audio from the stadium is like a free ticket for the stadium. The viewers hear exactly what they hear when they are at the stadium.”

Andrzej Bialczyk, audio specialist from TVP

“The goal of the trial was personalisation of the broadcast audio by viewers,” TVP is no rookie when it comes to experimenting with new broadcast technology. explains Andrzej Bialczyk audio specialist from TVP. “We broadcast core audio In June 2018, the broadcaster introduced its first trial UHD channel and also with additional audio components. This gave viewers the possibility of choosing carried out the world’s first free-to-air live transmission of Dolby Atmos by different audio formats from 2.0 to 5.1 and Dolby Atmos, adding Polish or a public broadcaster. English commentary, Audio Description, watching the match without commentary, or with pure audio from the stadium. The last case is like a free ticket for the In a test that paved the way for its subsequent live football broadcasts from stadium. The viewers hear exactly what they hear when they are at the stadium. Russia, TVP broadcast a friendly match on 12 June between Poland and Lithuania What is also very important for our viewers, is giving them control of the at Stadion Narodowy, Poland’s national stadium in Warsaw. Transmitted via enhanced dialogue for better intelligibility. Moreover, there was no extra work DVB-T, the broadcast was available to everyone in Poland, with record viewing involved in post-production.” numbers peaking at 7 million viewers. Viewers reaction was very positive and they praised the 3D audio, saying it sounds much more natural. The simulated ‘on air’ transmission was broadcast using a digital DVB-T signal. The resulting live football footage was tested using a variety of playback methods Andrzej Bialczyk described the process of tackling the innovative audio trials as at TVP’s lab, including an LG OLED E8 TV panel, a Samsung soundbar and a set- “fascinating”, adding, “we worked together with Dolby teams from Wroclaw and top box, along with a Transport Stream over IP to a Dolby Reference Player. Munich which provided devices for the experiments as well as engineer support during the tests. Close cooperation with the Dolby teams was important for Looking to the future, it is crucial to offer viewers more than HD’s surround implementing Dolby Atmos into the existing TVP infrastructure.” sound, giving them the option to choose their preferred audio track and format and control on the dialogue enhancement.

2 Transmitted via DVB-T, the broadcast was available to everyone in Poland, with record viewing numbers peaking at 7 million viewers. Viewers reaction was very positive and they praised the 3D audio, saying it sounds much more natural.

3 Live Source AC4 Bitstream UHD/embedded Audio Ateme Titan Live Dolby Atmos Audio Router Dolby DP591 Video Encoder DVB-T 1+2 5.1 Bed L/R Audio Encoder English Commentary Modulator 3+4 5.1 Bed C/LFE AC4 Pass-Through & Signaling Polish Commentary 5+6 5.1 Bed LS/RS 7+8 Height LFH/RFH 9+10 Height LRH/RRH 15 English Guide Commentary Metadata 16 Stadium PA

Dolby DP590 Local Source Object Authoring Tool Polish Commentary

It seems fairly easy and possible to simultaneously broadcasting future events using backwards-compatible stereo Dolby Digital Plus (Enhanced AC-3) as the main audio, and Dolby Atmos (AC-4) for immersive personalised audio on UHD channel.

“It is interesting to include Next Generation Audio for UHD services, as recommended in international standards,” said Andrzej Bialczyk.

The broadcaster’s pioneering football trials could pave the way for personalised audio becoming the norm for live sports. As well as giving home spectators a choice of which commentary to follow, the technology could eventually enable them to focus on a certain area of the pitch at a pivotal moment of the game, “It is interesting to include Next Generation such as when a penalty is being taken. Audio for UHD services, as recommended Dolby continues to cooperate with the leading broadcasters to help them in international standards.” deliver best entertainment to their consumers by using the latest available technologies. Andrzej Bialczyk, audio specialist from TVP