EBU - Technical Review

Web 2.0

310
MMR07 – the EBU's annual Multimedia Meets Radio event
Michael Mullane (721 KB)

Multimedia Meets Radio is an annual conference organized jointly by the EBU Radio and Technical departments. The 2007 edition – the fourth in the series – was held on the 29th and 30th March at EBU headquarters in Geneva. It looked at the impact of Web 2.0 on radio, and topics on the agenda included podcasting, blogging, peer-to-peer distribution and user-generated content.

The event was open to EBU member organizations only. Over 100 delegates from 24 countries attended, including content-makers, journalists, editors, new media managers, programme directors, engineers, analysts, podcasters, webcasters and bloggers.

Webcasting

308
RawFlow — using P2P to create virtual "multicasts"
Ingjerd Straand Jevnaker (379 KB)

RawFlow is one of several emerging technologies for streaming audio and video content over P2P networks. The Danish public-service broadcaster DR has been using RawFlow for streaming its online radio since 2003 and will shortly start streaming video with this technology. TSR, the Swiss national broadcaster, trialled RawFlow video streaming during the Tour de Suisse cycling race earlier this year and the Estonian public broadcaster, Eesti Radio, is also experimenting with it.

A broad overview of RawFlow is given in this article along with some results from its use by DR over the last three years.

308
Prix Europa — results of the 2006 media streaming trial
Franc Kozamernik and Marco de Giorgi (374 KB)

The Prix Europa 2006 opening concert was given on 14 October 2006 in Berlin by a Portuguese World Music group called Gaiteros de Lisboa. On the occasion of this one-hour long concert, the EBU organized a technical experiment to distribute multichannel 5.1 audio – coded in HE AAC (High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding) over the internet using a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology from Octoshape.

This experiment is significant because, for the first time, an event was “broadcast” live in 5.1 multichannel format across the Internet, potentially addressing large audiences with high-quality surround sound.

306
EBU Seminar report — From P2P to broadcasting
Franc Kozamernik (221 KB)

As more and more broadcasters use the Internet to webcast their programmes, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) is becoming an interesting transport mechanism to convey these programmes to the general public, more efficiently than any traditional internet methods.

This article reports on the Seminar "From P2P to broadcasting" which was held at EBU headquarters in Geneva on 14 and 15 February 2006. It was jointly organized by the Technical and Training departments of the EBU, with the involvement of the Radio, Eurovision and Legal Departments.

304
An introduction to Internet Radio
Franc Kozamernik and Michael Mullane (727 KB)

This article – based on an EBU contribution to the WBU-TC Digital Radio Systems Handbook – introduces the concept of Internet Radio (IR) and provides some technical background. It gives examples of IR services now available in different countries and provides some guidance for traditional radio broadcasters on how to adapt to the rapidly changing multimedia environment.

303
Introducing Octoshape — a new technology for large-scale streaming over the Internet
Stephen Alstrup and Theis Rauhe (399 KB)

The popularity of live streaming over the Internet is growing. The number of private Internet connections are rapidly expanding and consumers may today go online from almost any location using wireless technologies. However, live streaming over the Internet was born with two problems: scale and cost.

The challenge is to transmit a signal to many users simultaneously and to do so without the transmission cost rising in proportion to the audience size.
In this article, we will walk through various technologies for transmitting live streaming, including the more traditional ones, to see how the problems of scale and cost occur. Then, we will look at how some of these technologies partially solve these problems. Finally, we will present and explain GridCasting – which offers a solution to both problems – and then look at how Octoshape takes advantage of it.

301
Subjective quality of internet video codecs — phase II evaluations using SAMVIQ
Franc Kozamernik, Paola Sunna, Emmanuel Wyckens and Dag Inge Pettersen (1157 KB)

In order to evaluate the performance of video codecs for the internet, EBU Project Group B/VIM has developed a new subjective evaluation methodology called SAMVIQ (Subjective Assessment Methodology for Video Quality). This new methodology was used recently during B/VIM’s Phase 2 subjective evaluations of four codecs designed for internet use: Envivio MPEG-4, QuickTime 6, RealNetworks 9 and Windows Media 9.

This article gives a short description of SAMVIQ and summarizes the main findings of the Phase 2 subjective evaluations.

293
Broadcasting over the Web
Kari Bulkley (684 KB)

There are several different ways of distributing audio and video content over the Internet. You can encode it offline in any number of formats (Windows Media, Real, QuickTime etc) and host it on a web server for people to watch at their leisure. There may also arise a situation where you would want to do a live broadcast over the Internet, somewhat like a conventional television broadcast.

There are many factors to consider when setting up for a live Internet broadcast – beginning with the available “live” encoding technologies. This article covers some of the many products available that will enable you to present a live audio and/or video broadcast over the Internet, with varying levels of complexity.

292
Media streaming over the Internet — an overview of delivery technologies
Franc Kozamernik (302 KB)

This article reviews the basic concepts of media streaming over the Internet, particularly those associated with Internet Protocols (IP) and server technologies. The article concentrates on the delivery aspects of audio and video over the Internet but does not cover audio and video compression schemes nor media capturing/authoring/publishing tools in any detail. These aspects will be covered in future editions of EBU Technical Review.

291
A snapshot of the EBU's webcasting activities
Franc Kozamernik (274 KB)

The EBU recently carried out a survey of its Members to establish the extent of their Internet and webcasting activities. The results are reported here and offer a valuable snapshot of the webcasting activities of EBU Members in late 2001.

283 EBU listening tests on Internet audio codecs
Gerhard Stoll and Franc Kozamernik (445 KB)

The advent of Internet multimedia has stimulated the development of several advanced audio and video compression technologies. Although most of these developments have taken place outside the EBU, many members are using these low bit-rate codecs extensively for their webcasting activities, either for downloading or live streaming. To this end, the EBU Project Group, B/AIM (Audio in Multimedia), was asked to carry out some tests on several low bit-rate audio codecs that are now available on the commercial Internet market.

This article gives the results of the subjective evaluations undertaken by B/AIM in late 1999 and early 2000. These EBU tests are the first international attempt at comparing the different audio compression schemes used on the Internet. In addition, prior to conducting these tests, no internationally-agreed subjective method was available for carrying out evaluations on very low bit-rate, intermediate-quality, codecs. In order to overcome this problem, the group was instrumental in devising a novel test method to evaluate specifically these low-quality audio codecs. The new method is now known as MUSHRA. Both the EBU and ITU-R have now adopted MUSHRA as a standard evaluation method.

283 An introduction to MPEG Layer-3 (MP3)
K. Brandenburg and H. Popp (111 KB)

MPEG Layer-3, otherwise known as MP3, has generated a phenomenal interest among Internet users, or at least among those who want to download highly-compressed digital audio files at near-CD quality. This article provides an introduction to the work of the MPEG group which was, and still is, responsible for bringing this open (i.e. non-proprietary) compression standard to the forefront of Internet audio downloads.

282
Webcasting — the broadcasters' perspective
F. Kozamernik (198 KB)

This article is based on the work carried out by the former EBU Webcasting Group. It provides an update on the extremely fast developments in the area of webcasting that have occurred since the publication of the Group’s document, “BPN 022 – Practical Webcasting”. It also outlines some of the opportunities and challenges provided by webcasting and gives some indication of the future prospects.

In particular, the article explores the impact of the Internet on the broadcasting sector. We are witnessing the process of convergence between the Internet and the emerging digital terrestrial and satellite broadcast systems. The convergence of the PC and digital broadcast terminals is bringing about the delivery of new services as part of the multi-channel offerings from digital radio and television broadcasters.

XML Technologies in Broadcasting

288
DVB-HTML — an optional declarative language within MHP 1.1
P. Perrot (293 KB)

This is the fourth and final article in our current series on the use of XML technologies in broadcasting. The other three articles were published in the June 2001 issue of EBU Technical Review.

Here, we present an overview of the DVB Multimedia Home Platform, version 1.1, which provides additional functionality over the earlier version 1.0.1. In particular, the article provides a description of the optional DVB-HTML application format.

287
XML — if we ignore it, will it go away?
D. Rivers-Moore (279 KB)

Kicking off this series of four article on XML technologies in broadcasting, the author offers us an introduction to the eXtensible Markup Language, which was the subject of an enthralling EBU Seminar in Geneva earlier this year (EBU members can access the proceedings at http://www.ebu.ch/ptech_xml_sm01.html).

287 NewsML — enabling a standards-led revolution in news publishing
A. Allday (548 KB)

NewsML has been developed and ratified as an open standard by the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC), for the structuring of multimedia news. This article provides an introduction to NewsML, which is a derivative of the rapidly-spreading XML standard.

287 SMIL 2.0 — repurposing broadcast content for the Web
D. Bulterman (495 KB)

As end-user bandwidth increases to a level where the (re)distribution of audio/video material via the Internet becomes attractive, XML-based standards that help broadcasters migrate their existing content to the Web are becoming richer and more powerful. SMIL 2.0 – developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) – is the newest version of the Web’s most popular multimedia format.

This article provides an introduction to the concepts and facilities of the SMIL 2.0 language, in the context of the work flow requirements for taking existing broadcast content and making it available for a Web-centric audience.

Published quarterly by the European Broadcasting Union ISSN: 1609-1469

Editeur Responsable:	Philip Laven
Editor-in-Chief:	Mike Meyer
French Editor:	Eric Piraux

Reproduction of articles in EBU Technical Review is authorized only with the prior consent of the Editor-in-Chief.
The responsibility for views expressed in articles published in EBU Technical Review rests solely with the authors.


Web 2.0
310	MMR07 – the EBU's annual Multimedia Meets Radio event Michael Mullane (721 KB)
	Multimedia Meets Radio is an annual conference organized jointly by the EBU Radio and Technical departments. The 2007 edition – the fourth in the series – was held on the 29th and 30th March at EBU headquarters in Geneva. It looked at the impact of Web 2.0 on radio, and topics on the agenda included podcasting, blogging, peer-to-peer distribution and user-generated content. The event was open to EBU member organizations only. Over 100 delegates from 24 countries attended, including content-makers, journalists, editors, new media managers, programme directors, engineers, analysts, podcasters, webcasters and bloggers.

Webcasting
308	RawFlow — using P2P to create virtual "multicasts" Ingjerd Straand Jevnaker (379 KB)
	RawFlow is one of several emerging technologies for streaming audio and video content over P2P networks. The Danish public-service broadcaster DR has been using RawFlow for streaming its online radio since 2003 and will shortly start streaming video with this technology. TSR, the Swiss national broadcaster, trialled RawFlow video streaming during the Tour de Suisse cycling race earlier this year and the Estonian public broadcaster, Eesti Radio, is also experimenting with it. A broad overview of RawFlow is given in this article along with some results from its use by DR over the last three years.

308	Prix Europa — results of the 2006 media streaming trial Franc Kozamernik and Marco de Giorgi (374 KB)
	The Prix Europa 2006 opening concert was given on 14 October 2006 in Berlin by a Portuguese World Music group called Gaiteros de Lisboa. On the occasion of this one-hour long concert, the EBU organized a technical experiment to distribute multichannel 5.1 audio – coded in HE AAC (High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding) over the internet using a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology from Octoshape. This experiment is significant because, for the first time, an event was “broadcast” live in 5.1 multichannel format across the Internet, potentially addressing large audiences with high-quality surround sound.

306	EBU Seminar report — From P2P to broadcasting Franc Kozamernik (221 KB)
	As more and more broadcasters use the Internet to webcast their programmes, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) is becoming an interesting transport mechanism to convey these programmes to the general public, more efficiently than any traditional internet methods. This article reports on the Seminar "From P2P to broadcasting" which was held at EBU headquarters in Geneva on 14 and 15 February 2006. It was jointly organized by the Technical and Training departments of the EBU, with the involvement of the Radio, Eurovision and Legal Departments.

304	An introduction to Internet Radio Franc Kozamernik and Michael Mullane (727 KB)
	This article – based on an EBU contribution to the WBU-TC Digital Radio Systems Handbook – introduces the concept of Internet Radio (IR) and provides some technical background. It gives examples of IR services now available in different countries and provides some guidance for traditional radio broadcasters on how to adapt to the rapidly changing multimedia environment.

303	Introducing Octoshape — a new technology for large-scale streaming over the Internet Stephen Alstrup and Theis Rauhe (399 KB)
	The popularity of live streaming over the Internet is growing. The number of private Internet connections are rapidly expanding and consumers may today go online from almost any location using wireless technologies. However, live streaming over the Internet was born with two problems: scale and cost. The challenge is to transmit a signal to many users simultaneously and to do so without the transmission cost rising in proportion to the audience size. In this article, we will walk through various technologies for transmitting live streaming, including the more traditional ones, to see how the problems of scale and cost occur. Then, we will look at how some of these technologies partially solve these problems. Finally, we will present and explain GridCasting – which offers a solution to both problems – and then look at how Octoshape takes advantage of it.

301	Subjective quality of internet video codecs — phase II evaluations using SAMVIQ Franc Kozamernik, Paola Sunna, Emmanuel Wyckens and Dag Inge Pettersen (1157 KB)
	In order to evaluate the performance of video codecs for the internet, EBU Project Group B/VIM has developed a new subjective evaluation methodology called SAMVIQ (Subjective Assessment Methodology for Video Quality). This new methodology was used recently during B/VIM’s Phase 2 subjective evaluations of four codecs designed for internet use: Envivio MPEG-4, QuickTime 6, RealNetworks 9 and Windows Media 9. This article gives a short description of SAMVIQ and summarizes the main findings of the Phase 2 subjective evaluations.

293	Broadcasting over the Web Kari Bulkley (684 KB)
	There are several different ways of distributing audio and video content over the Internet. You can encode it offline in any number of formats (Windows Media, Real, QuickTime etc) and host it on a web server for people to watch at their leisure. There may also arise a situation where you would want to do a live broadcast over the Internet, somewhat like a conventional television broadcast. There are many factors to consider when setting up for a live Internet broadcast – beginning with the available “live” encoding technologies. This article covers some of the many products available that will enable you to present a live audio and/or video broadcast over the Internet, with varying levels of complexity.

292	Media streaming over the Internet — an overview of delivery technologies Franc Kozamernik (302 KB)
	This article reviews the basic concepts of media streaming over the Internet, particularly those associated with Internet Protocols (IP) and server technologies. The article concentrates on the delivery aspects of audio and video over the Internet but does not cover audio and video compression schemes nor media capturing/authoring/publishing tools in any detail. These aspects will be covered in future editions of EBU Technical Review.

291	A snapshot of the EBU's webcasting activities Franc Kozamernik (274 KB)
	The EBU recently carried out a survey of its Members to establish the extent of their Internet and webcasting activities. The results are reported here and offer a valuable snapshot of the webcasting activities of EBU Members in late 2001.

283	EBU listening tests on Internet audio codecs Gerhard Stoll and Franc Kozamernik (445 KB)
	The advent of Internet multimedia has stimulated the development of several advanced audio and video compression technologies. Although most of these developments have taken place outside the EBU, many members are using these low bit-rate codecs extensively for their webcasting activities, either for downloading or live streaming. To this end, the EBU Project Group, B/AIM (Audio in Multimedia), was asked to carry out some tests on several low bit-rate audio codecs that are now available on the commercial Internet market. This article gives the results of the subjective evaluations undertaken by B/AIM in late 1999 and early 2000. These EBU tests are the first international attempt at comparing the different audio compression schemes used on the Internet. In addition, prior to conducting these tests, no internationally-agreed subjective method was available for carrying out evaluations on very low bit-rate, intermediate-quality, codecs. In order to overcome this problem, the group was instrumental in devising a novel test method to evaluate specifically these low-quality audio codecs. The new method is now known as MUSHRA. Both the EBU and ITU-R have now adopted MUSHRA as a standard evaluation method.

283	An introduction to MPEG Layer-3 (MP3) K. Brandenburg and H. Popp (111 KB)
	MPEG Layer-3, otherwise known as MP3, has generated a phenomenal interest among Internet users, or at least among those who want to download highly-compressed digital audio files at near-CD quality. This article provides an introduction to the work of the MPEG group which was, and still is, responsible for bringing this open (i.e. non-proprietary) compression standard to the forefront of Internet audio downloads.

282	Webcasting — the broadcasters' perspective F. Kozamernik (198 KB)
	This article is based on the work carried out by the former EBU Webcasting Group. It provides an update on the extremely fast developments in the area of webcasting that have occurred since the publication of the Group’s document, “BPN 022 – Practical Webcasting”. It also outlines some of the opportunities and challenges provided by webcasting and gives some indication of the future prospects. In particular, the article explores the impact of the Internet on the broadcasting sector. We are witnessing the process of convergence between the Internet and the emerging digital terrestrial and satellite broadcast systems. The convergence of the PC and digital broadcast terminals is bringing about the delivery of new services as part of the multi-channel offerings from digital radio and television broadcasters.

XML Technologies in Broadcasting
288	DVB-HTML — an optional declarative language within MHP 1.1 P. Perrot (293 KB)
	This is the fourth and final article in our current series on the use of XML technologies in broadcasting. The other three articles were published in the June 2001 issue of EBU Technical Review. Here, we present an overview of the DVB Multimedia Home Platform, version 1.1, which provides additional functionality over the earlier version 1.0.1. In particular, the article provides a description of the optional DVB-HTML application format.

287	XML — if we ignore it, will it go away? D. Rivers-Moore (279 KB)
	Kicking off this series of four article on XML technologies in broadcasting, the author offers us an introduction to the eXtensible Markup Language, which was the subject of an enthralling EBU Seminar in Geneva earlier this year (EBU members can access the proceedings at http://www.ebu.ch/ptech_xml_sm01.html).

287	NewsML — enabling a standards-led revolution in news publishing A. Allday (548 KB)
	NewsML has been developed and ratified as an open standard by the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC), for the structuring of multimedia news. This article provides an introduction to NewsML, which is a derivative of the rapidly-spreading XML standard.

287	SMIL 2.0 — repurposing broadcast content for the Web D. Bulterman (495 KB)
	As end-user bandwidth increases to a level where the (re)distribution of audio/video material via the Internet becomes attractive, XML-based standards that help broadcasters migrate their existing content to the Web are becoming richer and more powerful. SMIL 2.0 – developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) – is the newest version of the Web’s most popular multimedia format. This article provides an introduction to the concepts and facilities of the SMIL 2.0 language, in the context of the work flow requirements for taking existing broadcast content and making it available for a Web-centric audience.