Report on the MPEG-H demos given at the EBU Workshop in November 2022.
During the "Personalized Sound Experience Workflows" workshop organized by the EBU on 7-9th. November 2022 in Geneva, Fraunhofer IIS together with its industry partners showcased an MPEG-H Audio system in an end-to-end broadcast workflow, from production to consumer's living room.
The MPEG-H Audio system incorporates unique solutions for delivering its metadata across the entire broadcast chain, in both SDI based and IP based workflows, to bring personalized sound experiences to viewers at home. It has been designed to enhance broadcast and streaming applications with features that enable broadcasters and content producers to create and distribute interactive and immersive audio. Content personalization based on object-based audio provides new accessibility features for content producers, broadcasters, and users. It enables advanced dialogue enhancement (DE), audio description (AD), multi-language audio and dynamic range control (DRC) features, where its universal delivery architecture renders the content suitably for each type of playback device and listening environment. These features were presented and showcased at the Workshop in Geneva.
The system is already deployed and supported in devices across existing broadcast chains, from Authoring and Monitoring Units for live content production, A/V contribution and emission encoders for broadcast and streaming platforms through to consumer devices such as TV receivers, immersive soundbars and AVRs.
The MPEG-H Audio system has already been adopted by ATSC, DVB, TTA (South Korean TV) and SBTVD (Brazilian TV) TV standards and it is currently used for ATSC 3.0 broadcasting in South Korea and ISDB-Tb terrestrial broadcast in Brazil. Most recently, after a detailed technical evaluation, the SBTVD Forum has selected MPEG H Audio for Brazil’s next generation, TV 3.0 broadcast system.
Keywords: Personalized Audio Experience, End to end Metadata, NGA, MGA, MPEG-H.
