Test & Measurement Feature | Loudness Compliance
READY FOR MULTISCREEN 2.0
Nabil Kanaan, from RGB Networks, believes that loudness compliance, closed captioning and digital programme insertion offer a differentiator for video service providers.
As video service providers (VSPs) transition their networks from a traditional broadcast model to all-IP based adaptive streaming, there are many issues they must address.
Nabil Kanaan, RGB Networks
It is only a matter of time before the EU equivalent of CALM becomes legislation throughout Europe, and savvy broadcasters would do well to integrate corrective technological measures now.
Once the challenges of content delivery have been mastered, VSPs must ensure a complete transition of all necessary applications from the legacy delivery model to the new one.
Based on lessons learned in the field by the earliest TV Everywhere pioneers, a second generation of dynamic multiscreen technologies has been developed. Primarily, these ‘Multiscreen 2.0’ solutions ensure network efficiency while implementing new options for monetisation through advertising and ‘sticky’ revenue- generating services, providing a sustainable business model for TV Everywhere.
Secondarily, but still critical, these next-generation solutions enable an array of add-on services for the multiscreen environment, bringing new IP network services on par with those of the traditional broadcast model. They help VSPs to meet new and emerging regulations, and ultimately, ease the growing pains associated with the delivery of video services using the newer adaptive streaming technology in managed networks, serving both small screen devices, as well as large screen TVs.
Take regulatory concerns as a first example. In recent months, the powers-that-be have issued a series of compliance mandates to the operator community, most notably,
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the U.S. CALM Act. Growing consumer demand for relief from inconsistent and often disruptive audio levels finally forced the hand of regulatory bodies to bring about change. As of January of this year, cable and satellite operators in the U.S. must ensure that all commercials aired have the same average loudness as the programmes they accompany.
Of course, it is only a matter of time before the EU equivalent (‘R128’) becomes legislation throughout Europe, and savvy European broadcasters would do well to integrate corrective technological measures now to not only stay ahead of regulators and their fines, but to retain happy viewers. Integrating such technologies to work in tandem with existing encoding and processing equipment will ensure VSPs are able to not only solve audio challenges, but also continue to provide a superior video experience to their subscribers, both in the home and on the go.
Another application area European operators should move up the agenda is programme substitution. In order to address issues such as local blackouts caused by content rights rules, which represent lost revenues, or local/international time-sharing on an output to comply with regulatory requirements, VSPs need to implement digital programme substitution technologies so that specific outputs can be seamlessly switched between two different input programmes under the control of a standards-based scheduling server. Digital programme insertion (DPI) technology, also known as “splicing,” is mature and has been around for many years for MPEG-2, and recently deployed with H.264, but chunk- and manifest-based methods of performing programme substitution have been gaining interest in adaptive streaming environments.
Forward-thinking VSPs will also need to start seriously considering subtitling services, especially for pan- European programming which requires localisation of content, while North American VSPs need to deliver closed captioning as adaptive streaming- based services enter the mainstream of video delivery. Advanced technologies must be deployed to add subtitles and closed captioning, a challenge further complicated by the plethora of de facto adaptive streaming standards that are at different stages of being defined and launched on players resident on consumer electronics devices.
Furthermore, the delivery of closed captioning services on legacy settop boxes will need to be addressed as VSPs endeavour to maintain and indeed nurture their subscriber base. The multitude of devices currently in use, from older set-top boxes to new connected TVs, means a variety of formats will need to be supported in the cable network for some time to come – just like with video content itself. VSPs need to look to new, flexible multiscreen technologies to support this development, without triggering a costly upgrade of set-top boxes or the loss of service to those subscribers utilising closed captioning.
As the evolution of television continues, the logical step for VSPs is to introduce the appropriate technological measures now to future-proof their multiscreen service offerings and achieve compliance with an array of industry standards and regulations—both those on the books now, and those on the horizon.
By taking such a holistic approach, operators will not only be able to satisfy regulatory, as well as consumer requirements, but crucially differentiate their offering from the competition.
Nabil Kanaan | RGB Networks
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