2023 BEITC Proceedings

  • How AI Can Reduce Energy Consumption and Drive Sustainability in FM Radio Broadcasting - $15

    Date: April 14, 2023
    Topics: ,

    With energy costs soaring across the globe, reducing energy consumption is increasingly a top priority among radio broadcasters, to reduce operating costs as well as to meet the world’s growing need to implement greener solutions. In the broadcasting chain, the transmitter represents the most impactful device from an energy-usage perspective, as it continuously delivers a fixed output power to the antenna. In the FM chain, transmitters go from a few watts to dozens of kilowatts depending on the coverage area, landscape and radio listeners’ profile. To support broadcasters in meeting their sustainability goals and economic challenges, a technique called SmartFM is described in this paper that enables up to 40% lower energy consumption.

    Daniel Werbrouck | WorldCast Systems | Bordeaux, France



  • How NextGen Broadcasting Improves Public Safety and Community Security by Providing Advanced Emergency Information Service - $15

    Date: April 14, 2023
    Topics: ,

    Broadcast television has always done an excellent job of entertaining, educating, and informing us; however, the recent technological advancements in broadcasting that now brings consumers content via multiple platforms and devices can also be leveraged to provide critical, lifesaving emergency information in real time during local, state, or federal crisis situations. The ATSC 3.0 television standard, powered by NextGen Broadcast deployment, combined with its new Internet Protocol functions, can provide first responders and emergency managers with advanced methods to deliver dramatically improved interactive content and targeted Advanced Emergency Information (AEI) alerting to citizens, not just on their televisions, but also to any other device within range of a broadcast television signal or connected to the Internet.

    First responders and emergency managers have always battled an array of emergency scenarios, but today they are coming quicker and with much greater intensity whether it be the result of a natural disaster, a technological disaster (e.g., railroad derailment with chemical spill) or a pandemic. Complicating today’s task of providing critical messaging and information during emergency events is the challenge of reaching an ever-shifting population demographic that now receives its information from a growing variety of sources and devices. This paper explores how ATSC 3.0 and NextGen Broadcasting enhancements can significantly improve how this task is performed for the betterment of community safety.

    Niem Dang | Sinclair Broadcast Group | Hunt Valley, Maryland, United States
    Kevin Wong | Sinclair Broadcast Group | Hunt Valley, Maryland, United States



  • Immersive & Interactive AR Graphics & Environments for Broadcast Applications - $15

    Date: April 14, 2023
    Topics: ,

    This paper presents a Mixed Reality Toolkit solution for visualisation and interaction with broadcast AR graphics, with a multi-camera spectator camera solution so that the audience can see the same graphics that the presenter is interacting with. This solution was developed by Disney Star’s R&D Lab, Star Lab. The purpose of the toolkit is to provide a more immersive experience for both audiences and presenters and to aid in storytelling around sports data in cricket broadcast programming.
    This paper describes the background and inspiration for the project which started with the Hololens demos by Epic Games and Microsoft. It then goes on to describe the technical specifications and workflow of the system. There is an evaluation which details the technical roadblocks encountered by the team and steps taken to solve them and/or possible future solutions that will provide improvements to the system. The evaluation also details the results of a subjective user test from both presenter and audience points of view. The paper concludes with a summary of the state of the industry in the field of broadcast augmented reality graphics and how our product is novel in its capabilities and approach and plans for its next stages of development, as well as an outlook for the future of interactive AR graphics and virtual sets.

    Caroline Stedman Mishra, MA., BSc. | Disney Star | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
    Saurabh Ranjan, Btech. | Liminal | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
    Sanjyot Dale, BE. | Liminal | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India



  • Integral Broadcast Filter Switch - $15

    Date: April 14, 2023
    Topics: ,

    In a typical television or radio RF system, a switch is introduced between the transmitter output filter and transmission line, isolating the external part of the system (transmission line and antenna). The switch provides the capability to proof the transmitter into an RF load or troubleshoot if a problem exists in the transmission line or antenna. In this paper, a new filter technology that allows the integration of the switching into the filter itself will be discussed. There are potential benefits offered by this technique that can be expanded upon to contribute to simplified systems.

    Anthony Travaglini | Dielectric LLC | Raymond, Maine, United States



  • Media and Entertainment Sustainability on the Cloud - $15

    Date: April 14, 2023
    Topics: ,

    Media and Entertainment (M&E) companies are committing to become more sustainable for their employees, customers, and communities. At the same time, M&E companies are seeking to enhance and re-invent their business using cloud computing (the on-demand delivery of compute power, database, storage, applications, and other IT resources via the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing). Fortunately, the goals of improving sustainability and cloud adoption can be synergistic, as enhanced business efficiency via cloud can also drive sustainability. Cloud providers, through scale and focus on innovation, can achieve higher resource utilization and greater energy efficiency than is possible for typical on-premises or collocated data centers. This paper will examine why M&E companies are seeking sustainability, basic sustainability terminology, M&E sustainability organizations, published sustainability goals of M&E companies, and how M&E companies have actually enhanced their sustainability on the cloud.

    Thomas Edwards | Amazon Web Services | Seattle, Washington, United States
    Jason O’Malley | Amazon Web Services | Seattle, Washington, United States



  • Perceptually Aware Live VBR Encoding Scheme for Adaptive AVC Streaming - $15

    Date: April 14, 2023
    Topics: ,

    Currently, a fixed set of bitrate-resolution pairs termed a “bitrate ladder” is used in live streaming applications. Similarly, two-pass variable bitrate (VBR) encoding schemes are not used in live streaming applications to avoid the additional latency added by the first-pass. Bitrate ladder optimization is necessary to (i) decrease storage or delivery costs or/and (ii) increase Quality of Experience. Using two-pass VBR encoding improves compression efficiency, owing to better encoding decisions in the second-pass encoding using the first-pass analysis. In this light, this paper introduces a perceptually-aware constrained Variable Bitrate (cVBR) encoding Scheme (Live VBR) for HTTP adaptive streaming applications, which includes a joint optimization of the perceptual redundancy between the representations of the bitrate ladder, maximizing the perceptual quality (in terms of VMAF) and optimized constant rate factor (CRF). Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT)-energy-based low-complexity spatial and temporal features for every video segment, namely, brightness, spatial texture information, and temporal activity, are extracted to predict a perceptually-aware bitrate ladder for encoding. Experimental results show that, on average, Live VBR yields bitrate savings of 7.21% and 13.03% to maintain the same peak PSNR and VMAF, respectively, compared to the reference HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) bitrate ladder Constant Bitrate (CBR) encoding using x264 AVC encoder without any noticeable additional latency in streaming. Additionally, Live VBR results in a 52.59% cumulative decrease in storage space for various representations, and a 28.78% cumulative decrease in energy consumption, considering a perceptual difference of 6 VMAF points.

    Vignesh V. Menon | Christian Doppler Laboratory ATHENA, Alpen-Adria-Universität | Klagenfurt, Austria
    Prajit T. Rajendran | CEA, List, F-91120 Palaiseau, Université Paris-Saclay | France
    Christian Feldmann | Bitmovin | Klagenfurt, Austria
    Martin Smole | Bitmovin | Klagenfurt, Austria
    Mohammad Ghanbari | Christian Doppler Laboratory ATHENA, Alpen-Adria-Universität and School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering | Klagenfurt, Austria and University of Essex, United Kingdom
    Christian Timmerer | Christian Doppler Laboratory ATHENA, Alpen-Adria-Universität | Klagenfurt, Austria



  • Pop-Up 5G Standalone Non-Public Networks (SNPNS) For Live Broadcast Production - $15

    Date: April 14, 2023
    Topics: ,

    A portable, pop-up private standalone 5G network has been developed and deployed around the world in a series of successful proof-of-concepts for outside broadcast production in remote locations. The flexible software-defined radio (SDR) allows us to rapidly customise the network to the environment and requirements, with low-latency configurations and heavy uplink biasing in the bi-directional RF channel to support multiple wireless camera feeds. We used shared spectrum available in the n78 and upper n77 bands (3.3 – 4.2 GHz) in UK, Ireland, Kenya and New Zealand to deliver live-to-air footage. We explored the use of bonding multiple low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites and cellular backhaul, which allowed us to broadcast the Pitlochry Highland Games live from rural Scotland into the IBC 2022 show in Amsterdam. This paper will discuss the critical technical capabilities of the pop-up private 5G network and how broadcasters have rapidly deployed the technology to support historic and sporting events, including the final journey from Scotland of Queen Elizabeth II and the Danish parliamentary elections. We will also explore how to configure connectivity for optimum performance.

    Samuel R. Yoffe | Neutral Wireless Ltd. and StrathSDR, University of Strathclyde | Glasgow, Scotland
    Malcolm Brew | Neutral Wireless Ltd. and StrathSDR, University of Strathclyde | Glasgow, Scotland
    Douglas Allan | Neutral Wireless Ltd. and StrathSDR, University of Strathclyde | Glasgow, Scotland
    Kenneth Barlee | Neutral Wireless Ltd. and StrathSDR, University of Strathclyde | Glasgow, Scotland
    Dani Anderson | Neutral Wireless Ltd. and StrathSDR, University of Strathclyde | Glasgow, Scotland
    Odianosen Ighagbon | Neutral Wireless Ltd. and StrathSDR, University of Strathclyde | Glasgow, Scotland
    Cameron Speirs | Neutral Wireless Ltd. and StrathSDR, University of Strathclyde | Glasgow, Scotland
    Robert Stewart | Neutral Wireless Ltd. and StrathSDR, University of Strathclyde | Glasgow, Scotland
    Ian Wagdin | British Broadcasting Company, Research & Development | London, United Kingdom
    Morten  Brandstrup | TV 2 Danmark | Copenhagen, Denmark
    Jack McGill | QTV | Glasgow, Scotland
    Gareth Gordon | QTV | Glasgow, Scotland
    Don Mullane | RTÉ | Dublin, Ireland
    Liam Murray | RTÉ | Dublin, Ireland
    Mark Smith | IBC | London, United Kingdom
    Muki Kulhan | IBC | London, United Kingdom
    John Canning | AMD | Santa Clara, California, United States
    Aaron Behman | AMD | Santa Clara, California, United States
    Matt Stagg | BT Sport | London, United Kingdom
    Jonathan Hale | Warner Bros. Discovery | London, United Kingdom



  • Real Radio Hosts Working Virtually: How Real Humans Work with Containerized Broadcast Systems - $15

    Date: April 14, 2023
    Topics: ,

    Some radio broadcasters are anticipating their deployment of broadcast software as part or most of their virtualized studio and broadcast infrastructure. A few radio stations and radio networks have already moved to a largely virtualized infrastructure while others are beginning the process now. The virtues of virtualization have been the topic of several dozen professional presentations ranging from manufacturers’ revelations to scholarly presentations.

    With several systems on-air now, it’s time to ask, “How is working with virtualized broadcast systems either different from or similar to traditional broadcast gear?”

    This NAB BEITC presentation asks that question and presents answers from broadcast engineers, broadcast IT professionals, and on-air talent.

    Kirk Harnack | Telos Alliance | Nashville, Tennessee, United States



  • Reconfigurable Manifold Combiner - $15

    Date: April 14, 2023
    Topics: ,

    Traditionally, when looking at expanding a filter system for the addition of new channels, the use of a Constant Impedance Module (CIF) would be used. This paper will examine a new combiner technology that allows for expansion without the use of the CIF and showcases additional attributes that make it a viable solution for broadcasters moving forward. The groundbreaking technology helps pave the path for future channel combiners, especially when space and economics demand something other than the CIF.

    Derek Small | Dielectric LLC | Raymond, Maine, United States



  • Redefining the Control Plane - $15

    Date: April 14, 2023
    Topics: ,

    NEP is engineering a global media platform as the convergence of technology rapidly changes all the rules. This paper is a real world look behind the challenges and solutions to modern broadcast architecture that led to the development of TFC (Total Facility Control), NEP’s proprietary platform controller. These are unprecedented times as the industry is disrupted throughout the value chain. Consumer technology has exploded the demand for content and is revolutionizing the ways in which it is consumed. Broadcast technology continues to respond, driving faster innovation and more cost-effective solutions. These forces converge at the inevitable embrace of software defined workflows, established IT technology and a growing trend towards COTS hardware. Yet how ready is the industry for this change? The collapsing of the traditional control layer and decentralizing of processing, creates serious burdens for any enterprise efforts. Building a scalable, automated, and secure control plane requires a new approach.

    This paper explores NEP’s approach to modern broadcast architectures and applies the real-world experience gained in the development of TFC and deployments worldwide for some of the biggest sporting events and broadcast facilities.

    Dan Murphy | NEP Group | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States