The Media Technology Futures (MTF) group is an alliance of non-industrial R&D and Innovation Labs at EBU Members organizations. Our aim is to share knowledge and experience in order to develop the future of media technologies; create Innovation Hubs, share innovation projects, and, where appropriate, to undertake collaborative studies. The group is also active in reaching out to EU and other partnership activities.
We are focusing on the evolution in the next decades of:
- Content creation: Greater flexibility, greater multi-format production, and distributed production.
- Media delivery: New content forms and user experiences available on any reception device. A combination of delivery platforms
- User experience: Greater personalisation options and control for users and a geater sense of reality.
PAST EVENTS
NHK STRL OPEN HOUSE 2023
1 - 4 June 2023 - NHK STRL, Tokyo, Japan
MTF Member NHK STRL hed its annual open house in its premises, this year with the theme of “Empowering the media, creating the future”. This exciting event was a show-and-tell of the research carried out by NHK in media technology and did not require advance booking.
More information on the event's page!
THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF INNOVATION HUBS 3
07 Dec 2022 - Google Campus, Zurich, Switzerland
The Broadcast Technology Futures group hosted its 3rd workshop on the 'Encouragement of Media R&D and Innovation Hubs' – this time at the Google campus in Zurich.
Find out more on the event's page!
PERSONALIZED SOUND EXPERIENCE WORKFLOWS
07-09 Nov 2022 - European Broadcasting Union, Geneva, Switzerland
In this workshop organized by the EBU PSE group, we explored the production and distribution of personalized sound experiences, using end-to-end workflows provided by Dolby and Fraunhofer IIS.
Find out more on the event's page!
USING LED WALL VIRTUAL PRODUCTION CREATIVELY
02 Nov 2022 11:00-12:30
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LED walls allow producers to virtually create natural-looking sets with dynamic lighting conditions and actors to focus on acting in a realistic environment rather than pretending in front of a green screen. This workshop provided an intensive introduction to the technology and possible production approaches.
Find out more on the event's page!
DEMYSTIFYING WEB3.0, METAVERSE, XR AND NFTS
13 Oct 2022 9:00-17:00 - EBU, Geneva, Switzerland and online (hybrid)
There are many confusing terms for the Metaverse, WEB3.0, XR, and NFTs. This workshop clarified the topics from a Public Service Media point of view, with the goal to develop a common understanding and potential concrete activities between EBU Members.
Find out more on the event's page!
THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF INNOVATION HUBS
27 Sep 2022 - online and at BBC Research & Development, The Lighthouse, London, UK
In this BBC R&D-hosted follow-up to our recent workshop on Creating Successful Innovation Hubs, we continued to look into concrete steps and inspiration for setting up Innovation Hubs.
Find out more on the event's page!
SIGN LANGUAGE AVATARS ANIMATED IN REAL-TIME
05 July 2022 - online
Image courtesy of SwissTXT
This Tech Roundtable held by the EBU's CG (Computer-Generated) animation group invited EBU Members representatives to discuss and learn about real-time workflows for sign language avatars.
Find out more on the event's page!
CREATING SUCCESSFUL INNOVATIONS HUBS
04 July 2022 - VRT / Karabiniersplein, Brussels, Belgium
We organised a workshop on steps that can be taken by EBU Members to unlock their technology innovation potential. The workshop looked at the learnings of, and practices established by, the highly successful Innovation Hub activity established by VRT and RTBF in Brussels, Belgium. Participants also looked into ‘hot topics’ for innovation by EBU Members, and approaches to realising these innovations.
More information on the event's page!
CONTENT CREATION
The next decades will bring programme production that meet the needs of future user experiences in a multiformat world. Infrastructures will provide local, remote, and distributed production by applying IP, Cloud and serverless computing. Production resources will become more ‘available on demand’. New ‘workflows’ will become possible and they will have a major impact on programme making. Metadata will continue to be key enablers. AI and ML tools will support editorial staff in a variety of tasks, including programme generation and detection of fake news. Sustainability and content accessibility will be strategic topics for content production.
MEDIA DELIVERY
New content forms and user experiences will be delivered to users. Media services will also be available on a wider range of different types of receiver: TV sets, tablets and smart phones. The range of delivery platforms will remain as terrestrial, satellite, cable, IPTV, Wired and Wireless Internet and Wi Fi, but some will be limited in the new kinds of service they can provide. The new 5G and 6G wireless broadband systems may play a significant role in providing media services. An attractive option may be to combine broadband services with broadcast services and create intelligent concurrent networks.
USER EXPERIENCE
More options for ‘personalising’ the media experience will emerge, including using ‘voice activation’ and ‘digital assistants’. The options may be chosen by the user or triggered automatically by the local environment or the user’s needs. The sense of reality may also be heightened by more ‘immersion’ and increased image and sound quality. A further new experience may be created by the combination of the real or conventional media world with digitally created worlds.
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LED VIRTUAL PRODUCTIONInvestigating the use of LED technology for Virtual Production ►
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ADM TOOLSDeveloping tools to work with ADM and S-ADM (Serial-/Audio Definition Model)
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CG ANIMATIONCollaborative real-time pipelines for animation without mocap suits ►
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Find out what our Members are currently up to:
BROADCAST TECHNOLOGY FUTURES GROUP 2020
Report
[PDF]