32 Saturday 08.09.2012 theibcdaily The path ahead for DVB
Chair of the Technical Module (TM) of the DVB Project Nick Wells discusses opportunities, directions and challenges for DVB in the future
Firstly, one of the major strengths of DVB is its organisational structure with a Commercial Module working alongside the Technical Module, with the work of these two committees overseen by a Steering Board. The role of the Commercial Module is to determine the commercial viability and rationale for any work to be done by DVB and then to specify individual commercial requirements for each piece of technical work. It is the job of the TM to develop and write technical specifications that enable these commercial requirements to be met. This formal structure helps to ensure that the work of the TM is concentrated on systems and specifications that are commercially relevant and that are required by several members of the DVB Project. Another reason for the success of DVB is its collaborative culture together with the excellence of the technical expertise contributed by member companies and individuals. Within the working groups, the purpose of debate and discussions is to build consensus between all the participating companies around particular solutions that offer the optimum, state-of-the-art performance balanced against necessary commercial constraints. One of my key objectives is to foster and maintain this excellent spirit of
Nick Wells: A fundamental future activity for the TM is the maintenance of existing DVB standards in satellite,
terrestrial, cable and IP networks
ever increasing demand for TV services that require higher bit rates such as 3DTV and HDTV (and beyond), while the mobile telecom industry is now also competing for parts of the spectrum that have traditionally been assigned to the broadcasters. Inevitably, there will be pressure on all spectrum users to make the most efficient use that is possible of a limited spectrum resource. Similarly, there will inevitably be
collaboration for all the work done within the working groups of the TM.
A fundamental future activity for the TM is the maintenance of existing DVB standards in the areas of satellite, terrestrial, cable and IP-network distribution. This maintenance includes extending existing standards to meet new requirements that always continue to appear; for example the DVB-S2 standard is currently being extended to cover satellite channels that have a much wider bandwidth than current broadcast transponders.
In addition to maintaining
existing standards, there are many new challenges and exciting opportunities in the rapidly changing world of TV distribution (and contribution). In my opinion, the DVB Project has the potential to continue to contribute positively to developments and new standards in relation to these new opportunities in a way that maximises the benefits to all players in the industry.
Spectrum pressure For example, in the case of terrestrial broadcasting there is huge (and growing) pressure on limited spectrum resources. This pressure is coming from an
a requirement to use terrestrial spectrum to deliver TV to handheld devices. Although broadcasting TV to mobiles has not yet been a commercial success, it seems inevitable to me that there will be an unstoppable future demand to receive broadcast/multicast TV content on portable and handheld devices as the proliferation of smartphones and tablet computers increases. In this case, new solutions need to be agreed that will allow broadcast and traditional mobile applications to co-exist in the most effective and efficient manner. Another area that I think that DVB could definitely add value is in the specification of open interfaces that enable improved ‘accessibility’ to delivered content. For a significant minority of people the current methods for accessing content through traditional programme guide and conventional remote control are far from optimum. Many different ways to provide tailored solutions to improve
accessibility are possible and these would be aided by standardised and open interfaces in TVs and STBs. DVB is well placed to define such interfaces.
Need a companion? There has been much talk about ‘companion screens’ or companion devices. These could be used not only to provide a means to improve accessibility but also to provide simultaneous access to material that supports broadcast or streamed content. I think that this is an exciting and important area for development that could really enhance our viewing experience compared with the traditional single-screen delivery of programmes. There are several aspects of such a network and system that could profitably be standardised for providing ‘companion streams’ to ‘companion devices’, and again DVB is well placed to write helpful and relevant specifications. Finally, the distribution of TV content over the internet and IP distribution networks is becoming ever more prevalent. I would hope that DVB stays constantly vigilant as to where it can actively and effectively contribute in this area in helping to enable new market opportunities through open standardisation. In summary, I think that there
are many opportunities for DVB to continue to serve the TV broadcasting and distribution industry through using its very effective organisational structures, intellectual resources and culture to define standards that support and enhance TV distribution and consumption across the full range of distribution media and networks.
Edius gains 3D edit workflow plus cross-platform support
Grass Valley By David Fox
The latest version of Grass Valley’s Edius multiformat non linear editing software includes a comprehensive 3D workflow, the ability of its codecs to work on both PC and Mac, and numerous other improvements. Edius Pro 6.5 now has 3D
stereoscopic editing tools and 3D support across its editing peripherals, such as the Storm 3G and Storm 3G Elite editing hardware (with stereoscopic 3D I/O through a single 3G SDI
source and/or dual 3G SDI signals). Grass Valley is now making its intermediate codec technology freely available to third-party applications. In addition to the PC-based HQ/HQX codecs, a QuickTime version of its HQ and 10-bit HQX codec (for Windows and Mac platforms) is now available as a free download. Edius Pro 6.5 also
incorporates 10-bit colour correction, a new Flash exporter, improvements to the Layouter tool, native image stabilisation, a built-
Another string to its bow: Edius Pro 6.5 offers many improvements
in loudness meter, and closed-caption pass- through support.
A new systemised Edius
version, Edius Elite, takes full advantage of the proxy files created and stored on the K2 Summit 3G server. It also
integrates tightly with Grass Valley’s Stratus media workflow application framework, and includes audio bit stream (Dolby-E/AC- 3) pass-through support. With a simple software upgrade, K2 Summit production clients and K2 Solo servers can be used for 3D recording or replay, as a 2x or 3x slow-motion recording device, or as a server for recording from 2-6 simultaneous camera feeds with at least one channel reserved for playback. Edius Pro 6.5 costs $699, or $299 as an upgrade for existing Edius 6 users. 1.E02
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