62 TVBEurope Forum Automated QC
Should the checking of metadata be part of the QC process? If so, how is this accomplished successfully?
Fabian: Absolutely. Rohde & Schwarz DVS is a strong believer of metadata. One of our central products, the data manager Spycer is excellent when it comes to checking the required metadata. Our broadcast solution system Venice equipped with Spycer accomplishes the metadata issue with ease. Gupta: Yes, checking of
metadata should be part of he QC process. Baton QC comes with the option of comparing system level metadata with the user-defined parameters or with the values as interpreted by the system after analysing the underlying essence. One such example is when system metadata may indicate field order of the content, as a Top Field first, but after analysing the baseband video signal, field order is deduced to be Bottom field first. This kind of discrepancy, when reported can help broadcasters to catch errors much before content is broadcast or delivered.
Kandell: The metadata should be checked and compared against the media itself as a QC test. However, the metadata by itself should not be trusted as accurate and thus the need for automated QC. For example, the metadata may say that Track 3 is in Spanish, but it is actually in Portuguese. Nexidia QC can listen to the audio track and report back that the language is not as expected and that the actual language heard was Portuguese. Millis: Metadata is essential to the entire package of material. For a growing number of items there are specifications and standards. Metadata is often set up in its own discrete tracks or interleaved with the video tracks in some specified way. There is still a great deal of metadata that needs more standardisation both in format and location, but this is a problem that the EBU, SMPTE, ARIB, the ITU and other standards bodies are all working on in concert with vendors and broadcasters.
Robert Millis: “The most important step for file-based QC is standardising testing profiles and the results”
Patel: Metadata is very important to us at Emotion Systems. We have always taken utmost care to ensure that we do not damage it in any way. We will shortly be releasing our Dolby E options for eFF loudness compliance. Here, metadata becomes particularly important, particularly when our loudness compliance work is combined with Dolby E encoding or decoding. Walker: Our ContentAgent
product can ask clips a number of questions to check that technical metadata are correct. If it’s wrong, the system will perform a correction. For example, if the wrong frame rate is present, ContentAgent can frame rate convert the file automatically. If user defined metadata is not present or incorrect the system can inform the user via an email.
www.tvbeurope.com September 2013
“Auto correction as well as auto QC is available and will become more important” — Simon Begent, VidCheck
Finally, what will be the next innovation when it comes to Automated QC procedures?
Ackroyd: That would be telling! Seriously, this is likely to be focussed on attempts to standardise required QC data into formats/file locations that can be checked efficiently and quickly to aim at 100% — rather than random — QC. Begent:Auto correction as well as auto QC is already available and will become more and more important. Recent systems like VidFixer can QC, correct and transcode to different formats all at the same time and all in the one product. Faster throughput and more comprehensive checking particularly of small video drops and glitches which are challenging to find — for example, is that a small visual artefact in a tiny part of the frame or is it part of the scene? Devlin: It’s already here. Multi-
stage QC where you propagate the results and signatures from upstream to be used downstream. Remember my milk analogy? An AmberFin QCML report is the summary information of multiple stages applied in a way that you can see a simple red/amber/green indicator for management, or
Owen Walker: “The next leading innovation in QC processes will be to analyse creative decisions”
drill into any parameter from any stage of the workflow for the post-mortem engineer. Millis: The most important
step for file-based QC is standardising testing profiles and the results so that digital asset management and associated business systems can manage workflows with less human interaction. The EBU’s QC working group, of which we are members, is handling the lower level specifications. The EBU’s FIMS is working the higher level interoperability issues. Singhal: There are scenarios
where Automated QC is not fully automated. One of the primary reasons is cognitive nature of checks in such scenarios. Achieving true automation in these difficult scenarios requires the next level of innovation. This is an uphill task and QC systems need to make continuous improvements in handling these faults. Walker: The next leading
innovation in QC processes will be to analyse creative decisions such as misspelled titles and clips being incorrectly framed — and report these as problem areas. In some cases these errors could be corrected automatically. However, the QC tool should allow a customer the choice to auto correct or not — I am sure some customers will prefer to manually fix such errors!
www.amberfin.com www.dvs.de www.emotion-systems.com www.harrisbroadcast.com www.interrasystems.com www.nexidia.com www.omnitek.tv www.root6technology.com www.veneratech.com www.vidcheck.com
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