The EBU's senior elected technical body, the Technical Committee (TC), met in February 2011 at the EBU Headquarters in Geneva, chaired by Dr Alberto Morello (RAI). The TC reviews and manages the work of all the EBU groups that are actively working on technical matters.
A challenging meeting
There are two general categories of EBU technology groups. The first are the 'Expert Communities' where specialists in areas like audio, video, spectrum, and others come together to share knowledge. The second kind of groups are 'Strategic Programme Groups', which respond to the need for EBU policies or to specific problems. More on how they work is given here.
The meeting was a challenging one looking at issues that ranged from the developments in video compression options for HTML5, which will eventually be used by Members, to a much awaited guidelines document for receiver manufacturers on loudness, that will be finalised shortly.
Technical demonstrations
The Technical Committee also saw two demonstrations. The first was of one proposal for a '3D sound' system which may eventually be used for broadcasting. 3D sound systems go beyond surround sound and allow a sound image to be heard that includes a sense of the height of the sound source. The system demonstrated is called Ambisonics (video).
The Technical Committee also saw what may be a simple, but very significant demonstration - a system that could be used in a home or car, with a micro-sized unit receiving digital broadcasting off air and retransmitting this as WiFi signal, so that it can be seen by any WiFi enable handheld in the vicinity. Hey presto, we have television or radio on any handheld without needing the high power levels or dense transmitter networks we might otherwise need!
For more information on the topics addressed and the decisions taken at this meeting, contact the EBU TECHNICAL Programme Managers Dr Hans Hoffmann (production) or Peter MacAvock (distribution).