JPEG 2000, from Master to Archive the Codec Provides Useful Features for Broadcasters
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TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION BEYOND THE HEADLINES JPEG 2000, from master to archive The codec provides useful features for broadcasters. BY JEAN-BAPTISTE LORENT AND FRANÇOIS MACÉ oday’s broadcasters are flexibility throughout the image pro- closely matches the production work- looking for the highest im- cessing chain. The codec provides flow in which each frame of a video is age quality, flexible delivery unique features that are not available treated as a single unit. In Hollywood, formats, interoperability in any other compression method. its ability to compress frame by frame Tand standardized profiles for interac- has made this technology popular tive video transport and workflows. JPEG 2000 under the for digital intermediate coding. If the They also have a vested interest in a spotlight purpose of compression is the distri- common high-end format to archive, JPEG 2000 is based on the discrete bution of essence and no further ed- preserve and monetize the avalanche wavelet transform (DWT) and uses iting is expected, long-GOP MPEG is of video footage generated globally. scalar quantization, context model- typically preferred. This is the story behind the rapid ing, arithmetic coding and post-com- adoption of JPEG 2000 compression in pression rate allocation. JPEG 2000 Broadcast processes the contribution chain. Standardized provides random access (i.e. involv- JPEG 2000 brings valuable features broadcast profiles were adopted in 2010 ing a minimal decoding) to the block to the broadcast process including in- to match current industry needs (JPEG level in each sub-band, thus making gest, transcoding, captioning, quality 2000 Part 1 Amendment 3 — Profiles it possible to decode a region, a low- control or audio track management. for Broadcast Application — ISO/IEC resolution or a low-quality image ver- Its inherent properties fully qualify a 15444-1:2004/Amd3), ensuring this sion of the image without having to codec for creating high-quality inter- wavelet-based codec’s benchmark posi- decode it as a whole. mediate masters. tion in contribution. JPEG 2000 is a true improvement Post-production workflows con- In parallel, these broadcast profiles in functionality, providing lossy and sist of several encoding/decoding have also filled the industrywide need lossless compression, progressive and cycles. JPEG 2000 preserves the high- for compression standards to archive parseable code streams, error resil- est quality throughout this process, and create mezzanine formats, allow- ience, region of interest (ROI), ran- and no blocking artifacts are created. ing transcoding to a variety of media dom access and other features in one Moreover, the technology supports all distribution channels. The ongo- integrated algorithm. (See Figure 1.) common bit depths whether 8, 10, 12 ing standardization process of the In video applications, JPEG 2000 bits or higher. Interoperable Master Format (IMF) is used as an intraframe codec, so it JPEG 2000 enables images to be by SMPTE based on JPEG 2000 pro- files brings the adoption full-circle. 4K 4K 4K The U.S. Library of Congress, Lower quality versions the French Institut National de (Auto-bandwidth adaptation) l’Audiovisuel (INA) and several Pure lossless Visually lossless Lossy Hollywood studios have selected the codec for the long-term preservation HD HD SD Spatial zone of a century of audio-visual contents. extractions JPEG 2000 is different from other (Auto-cropping, video codecs. MPEG and other DCT- 4K lossless pan and scan) JPEG 2000 based codecs have been designed to codestream optimize the compression efficiency 4K HD SD to deliver video to viewers via a pipe Lower resolution versions with limited bandwidth. JPEG 2000, (Auto-proxy, auto-scaler) with its wavelet transform algo- rithm, brings features not only for image compression efficiency, but to Figure 1. Many resolutions and different picture quality files can be derived from a give also the user better control and single JPEG 2000 master. 14 broadcastengineeringworld.com | June 2012 TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION BEYOND THE HEADLINES Several reasons make JPEG 2000 a codec of choice for audio-visual ar- chiving: • The JPEG 2000 standard can be used with two different wavelet fil- Figure 2. Support for lossless or lossy compression gives the broadcaster more options. ters: the 9/7 wavelet filter that is ir- reversible and the 5/3 wavelet filter compressed in lossy, and visually or it would be quite difficult to add the that is fully reversible. The 5/3 wave- mathematically lossless modes for var- necessary FEC and encryption to the let filter offers a pure mathematically ious applications. (See Figure 2.) Ad- data stream. Of all the compression lossless compression that enables a ditionally, its scalability allows a “cre- algorithms available in the market, reduction in storage requirement of ate once, use many times” approach to JPEG2000 is seen as one of the top 50 percent on average while still al- service a wide range of user platforms. contenders for the following reasons. lowing the exact original image in- The technology also enables im- JPEG 2000 is inherently more er- formation to be recovered. The 9/7 proved editing: Even at the highest ror resilient than MPEG codecs. The wavelet filter can encode in lossy or bit rates, its intrinsic flexibility makes codestream can be configured so the visually lossless modes. it very user-friendly on laptop and most important data (the lowest fre- • The scalability allowing proxy ex- workstation editing systems, with a quency data contains the most visual- traction, multiple quality layers, is of limited number of full bit rate real- ly significant information) is located huge interest to ease client brows- time video tracks. Improving com- in the front, while successively higher ing and retrieval or transcoding and puting hardware is certain to increase frequency, less important, data can be streaming. the number of real-time layers. placed in the back. Using appropriate • JPEG 2000 is an open standard Since JPEG 2000 is an intraframe FEC techniques, the lower frequency that supports every resolution, color codec, this prevents error propaga- data can be protected while less pro- depth, number of components and tion over multiple frames and allows tection can be applied to the higher frame rate. the video signal to be cut at any point frequency data, as errors in the higher • JPEG 2000 is license and royalty for editing or other purposes. frequency bands have much less effect free. Easy transcoding appeals to high- on the displayed image quality. end applications where workflows Also, similar to the contribution, the The future vastly benefit from transcoding to low latency of JPEG 2000 is something Several initiatives are pushing the an intermediate version. JPEG 2000 that would be practically impossible industry beyond today’s HD: NHK ensures a clean and quick operation for wireless systems using an MPEG Super Hi-Vision, also known as 8K when bit rate is at a premium. Profes- system based on long GOP coding. and UHDTV, the Higher Frame Rates sional viewers have labeled correctly in Cinema initiative by James Camer- transcoded 1080p JPEG 2000 files Long-term preservation on and Peter Jackson (up to 120fps), compressed at 100Mb/s as “visually The broadcasters and video archi- 16-bit color depth and the numerous identical” to the original 2K foot- vists are looking for long-term digital manufacturers that are now offering age. Furthermore, the wavelet-based preservation on disk. In most cases, 4K technology. JPEG 2000 compression does not in- the source material is not digital, but The need for efficient codecs has terfere with the final — usually DCT- film that needs to be scanned or high- gained significant attraction amongst based — broadcast formats. quality analog videotape. As such, a the industry. The future of JPEG 2000 Last but not least, several standards destination digital format must then is bright as it is an open standard that specify in detail how the JPEG 2000 be selected. requires less power, consumes less video stream should be encapsulated Key requirements often include space in hardware implementations in a number of widely adopted con- reducing the storage costs of uncom- and generally delivers greater scalabil- tainer such as MXF or MPEG-2 TS. pressed video while still maintain- ity, flexibility and visual quality than ing indefinite protection from loss other codecs. An increasing number Professional wireless video or damage. Moreover, the format of manufacturers, broadcasters and transmission should preferably enable digitized producers are using JPEG 2000 im- Wireless transmission is often chal- content to be exploited, which means plementations to adapt today’s indus- lenged to improve its robustness in providing flexibility — workflows try to these new challenges. BE broadcast. Uncompressed HD wire- again — and security. For these rea- less transmission is often seen as com- sons, several studies and user reports plex, for even if a 1080p60 transmis- claim JPEG 2000 to be the codec for Jean-Baptiste Lorent and François Macé sion (3Gb/s) were possible wirelessly, audio-visual archiving. are product managers at intoPIX. June 2012 | broadcastengineeringworld.com 15.