VIENNA and MADRID—Big Blue Marble has announced a strategic partnership with HISPlayer, a video player for Unity, Unreal Engine, and Meta Spatial SDK. Together, they will deliver DRM-protected, end-to-end video streaming solutions for interactive and immersive XR (Extended Reality) use cases on mobile, PC, laptop, and VR/AR headsets.

The joint offering combines Big Blue Marble’s Cloud Video Kit, a modular tool for managing and processing live and on-demand video, and Cloud DRM, its multi-DRM content protection service, with HISPlayer’s advanced XR playback technology. As a result, broadcasters, content owners, telecom operators, and sports platforms can now bring their existing premium video content into XR environments with full DRM protection across all supported devices worldwide, the companies said.

Together, these technologies unlock next-generation XR experiences, including:

• Secure playback of protected content with Widevine DRM Level 1 on the Meta Quest
• Ultra-high-resolution 8K video
• Seamless multi-camera or multi-angle playback
• Interactive ad formats native to 3D environments
• Enhanced video with dynamic lighting and VFX
• Rich spatial audio for full immersion.

Most XR experiences today rely on placeholder or demo footage because rights-protected content cannot be used safely. With DRM-secured video now available in XR environments through the partnership between Big Blue Marble and HISPlayer, broadcasters and sports platforms can begin experimenting with immersive formats using the premium content their audiences value, according to the companies.

“Immersive technologies are finally moving from hype to real use cases, but these experiences cannot be deployed at scale unless premium content is protected at the same level as established streaming services,” said Dawid Gorniak, Product Owner for Cloud Video Kit and Cloud DRM at Big Blue Marble. “Our partnership with HISPlayer gives organizations the confidence to bring their highest-value assets into the XR space without compromising on security or user experience, and without the costly process of changing the headend.”

HISPlayer's CEO, Carlos Lucas, said: “HISPlayer's goal is to lead the market in high-quality XR/VR video streaming across all devices, and that requires the ability to deliver premium video content with the strongest level of DRM protection. This strategic partnership enables us to offer customers a turnkey, end-to-end solution that brings together DRM content protection, the most advanced VR/XR video player available, and the broadcasting delivery expertise of Big Blue Marble."

LAS VEGAS—MediaKind will showcase immersive live viewing experiences provided by its portfolio of content creation and distribution products at the NAB Show next month.

Formerly Ericsson Media Solutions, this year marks the company’s first NAB Show under its new moniker, according to CEO Angel Ruiz.

“We are looking forward to demonstrating the full scope of the MediaKind Universe portfolio and show how our innovations and partnerships are responding to consumer demands, especially in immersive live viewing through our latest innovations in 360-degree video delivery,” Ruiz said. “As we rapidly move into a mobile-first world, we are committed to helping our customers reach their potential by delivering high quality immersive media experiences for everyone, everywhere.”

The MediaKind booth will be divided into five defined areas of the “universe,” each addressing a specific trajectory with how content is delivered to the consumer and manifest in the real world as defined media workflows:

• Orion – Immersive and compelling consumer experiences through the advancement of Media Platforms, Content Discovery, Targeted Advertising, Content Rights Distribution and actionable insights via end-to-end analytics. Delivering the as-a-Service capabilities across consumer applications
• Pictor – Optimizing Storage and Delivery enabling Catch Up & Cloud DVR and true optimization across the entire AV pipe whilst ensuring that content is available on any screen, any device at the highest quality
• Aquila – Efficient, optimal-quality processing for all screens, delivering broadcast quality OTT, operationally efficient headends, and ATSC 3.0 propositions
• Cygnus – Ensuring quality content is delivered securely across Contribution and Primary Distribution networks, leveraging applicable standards and the benefits of Cloud deployment
• Vega – Ensuring a smooth implementation and operation of the MediaKind Universe solutions as well as demonstrating how value is created in the ‘as-a-Service’ model.

MediaKind execs will discuss the company’s latest products for advertising and distribution rights; recent developments in optimized end-to-end media delivery; new advances for all-IP, OTT and UHD/HDR delivery; and its SaaS capabilities through recent advances within Linear and On Demand processing, cloud-based TV platform, MediaFirst, and IPTV Mediaroom platform.

The company will also recreate a multi-partner, collaborative proof of concept demonstration, which saw companies including Deutsche Telekom, TiledMedia and Magnum Film enable the world’s first multi-channel 6K 360-degree live sports event during a basketball match in Germany in December 2018 to an audience of real-world consumers.

MediaKind will be in booth SU7210

BONN, GERMANY—Sports production at its best can give viewers –if even for a fleeting moment—the feeling that they’re part of the game.

Deutsche Telekom and MediaKind extended that immersive feeling with the help of 6K tiled 360-degree video to viewers via the Magenta VR app on Dec. 9 when the Telekom Basket Bonn met EWE Baskets Oldenburg on the hardwood at the Telekom Dome in Bonn, Germany.

“Consumers are always seeking new ways to experience their favorite sports content. Through the rapid evolution of 360-degree technology, we have the potential to push boundaries and take the consumer to the heart of the game itself,” said Angel Ruiz, CEO of MediaKind.

[Read: Samsung, USA Basketball Team Up On VR]

The multi-camera, 360-degree live stream was delivered to Deutsche Telekom customers via the company’s Magenta VR service on a consumer app. Technical project management was handled by MediaKind, which worked with Deutsche Telekom, Magnum Film, Tiledmedia, Iconic Engine and INVR. Magnum Film shot and produced the event in 360-degree video.

The coverage was the latest milestone in a collaboration over the past year and half between MediaKind and Tiledmedia to demo 360-degree viewport adaptive ClearVR video and supplement traditional broadcast production, bringing viewers closer to the action. “The success of this world first live sport event using 6K 360-degree video with ClearVR tiled format is a major milestone for our team of engineers and our partners who turned this around in a short space of time,” said Ruiz.

MediaKind’s virtualized software encoding technology was deployed in the Google Cloud Platform. MediaKind’s software-based probes were used to monitor every point of data traffic flow and cloud processing operation. They also created customizable and detailed operational dashboards using common cloud visualization tools.

Deutsche Telekom’s T-Labs research team sponsored the event.

More information is available on the MediaKind website.

Oculus has launched Oculus TV, a new channel that serves as a hub to experience programming from Hulu, Showtime, MLB Live games and others, as well as esports via Facebook’s Watch video service. The service is available to users of Oculus Go, the company’s first standalone VR headset. Oculus Go, announced at Facebook's F8 conference last month, retails for $199 for 32GB of storage, $249 for 64GB.

What’s missing from the company’s announcement? Any mention of the words “virtual reality.” Instead, Oculus claims that the viewing experience on its new TV network for Oculus Go is equivalent to a 180-inch TV screen. The company said viewers can switch between live and on-demand content, from “The Daily Show” and “Late Night With Stephen Colbert” to Facebook Watch original shows. Content is also available from Pluto TV, Red Bull TV and Newsy, with the promise of “fan favorites” from ESPN to be added soon.

The Oculus TV app can be downloaded from the Oculus Store for free. 

LAS VEGAS—At the NAB Show, Ericsson Media Solutions launched its MediaFirst media processing and encoding platform for delivering Ultra-High Definition (UHD) and High Dynamic Range (HDR) content from camera to consumer. The software-based, multi-application solution is targeted to meet the growing demand for a higher-quality, immersive TV viewing experience.

Designed from the ground up, the new solution leverages high-performance algorithms and advanced technology for UHD encoding and contribution workflows.

It also enables the use of HDR technology for a more immersive consumer experience, as well as flexible formatting and deployment via private, public or hybrid cloud platforms.

“As ownership of 4K/UHD and HDR-ready TV sets increases,” said Boris Felts, Head of Products and Solutions at Ericsson Media Solutions, “There is a huge opportunity for operators to differentiate [themselves] by delivering more immersive and high-quality viewing experiences. Our … end-to-end UHD processing solution is the first on the market to unlock this potential.”

[Read: Ericsson Renames Media Services Business Red Bee Media]

The MediaFirst TV platform combines Ericsson Media Solutions’ modular AVP system encoders that deliver MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and HEVC efficient compression, with MediaFirst video processing and content processing . The workflow also includes a UHD TV decoder for high-bitrate, superior low latency 4K HEVC decoding, and future proofing flexibility for current and evolving HDR standards.

Combined with the Ericsson Video Storage and Processing Platform (VSPP), MediaFirst provides a unified solution for cloud DVR, on-demand and time/place-shifted TV services, supporting all media and screens up to UHD resolution, and increasingly immersive video experiences.

Head-related transfer functions (HRTF) —which I covered in my last column— are essential to creating a realistic immersive (or 3D) audio experience over headphones. HRTFs can be determined in a variety of ways, with varying degrees of accuracy.

The best way, albeit not the most practical, is to have your own ears measured. Research labs around the world have been measuring individuals as they study the effects of different transfer functions on binaural listening.

HRTFs are typically measured in anechoic chambers. If no anechoic chamber is available, semi-anechoic chambers or non-anechoic rooms can be used if the direct sound can be separated from the first reflections and late reverberation by applying proper windows in the time domain.

“The window size determines the frequency resolution of the measured HRTF and thus requires that the first reflection arrives with sufficiently enough delay after the direct sound,” said Markus Noisternig of the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique, or “IRCAM,” a Paris-based research institute for music and sound.

Boundary element rendering of the sound pressure field on the scan of a human head. Measurements are always taken in the time domain, according to Noisternig. Microphones are typically placed at the entrance of the blocked ear canal, which requires special ear molds. As 3D audio perception requires full spectral content from 20 Hz to 16 kHz, most HRTF measurement systems apply exponential swept sine signals, as they allow for separating non-linearities.

If the measured data is represented in the time domain, it is called a head-related impulse response (HRIR), while the Fourier transform of the HRIR produces the frequency domain HRTF. For signal processing, it’s easier most of the time to do the mathematical convolution filtering computations in the frequency domain, although there are some efficient time domain filters that are sometimes used.

BOUNDARY ELEMENT MODELING
A second approach to obtaining HRTFs is to scan a head with a camera or an infrared device and then process that information (mesh grid of the head and pinna) using boundary element modelling (BEM) to obtain an HRTF for that person.

BEM is a very computationally demanding process. “Computations could take a half a day on a powerful computer or less on a computer cluster,” Noisternig said. “There would be the option to upload the mesh-grid to a server that processes the data on a huge cluster and sends back the rendering results. Anyway, we are very far from doing this on a smartphone.”

But mobile devices can be used for the third method of determining, or in this case, estimating a person’s HRTF. While it is the least accurate of the three approaches, it can provide quicker results that can be very satisfactory.

“The only accessible individualization method on mobile devices is to find the best match with HRTFs from huge databases,” Noisternig said. This method uses a best-fit model that doesn’t involve scanning the head, but rather uses some biometric data that can easily be measured, like head radius or the distance between the ears.

This information is sent to HRTF databases, which propose possible HRTF matches to the listener, along with a test recording that contains localization information. It is expected that there will be some trial and error, as the listener selects the best match. If an HRTF isn’t closely matched, then the full auditory immersion and localization experience won’t seem real. Sound may appear coming from inside the head or cannot be precisely localized.

Having a common file format for all HRTF data, no matter the source, would be a great advantage, since early on there wasn’t.

“The problem was that there was very little interoperability between the formats,” said Piotr Majdak with Acoustics Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. “Imagine an algorithm processing HRTFs. That algorithm would need to deal with all the various formats, which would make it heavy and susceptible to bugs.”

Thus began the work that would eventually evolve into the Audio Engineering Society standard AES69-2015 “AES standard for file exchange—Spatial acoustic data file format.”

In 2012, AABBA (Aural Assessment by Means of Binaural Algorithms), a group of scientists working on binaural hearing and audio, “realized quite soon that there needed to be a new format, and we needed to put much effort in its extendability in order to prevent the need for another format quite soon,” Majdak said. “With these aims, we started to develop a format called ‘spatially oriented format for acoustics’ [SOFA].”

STANDARDIZATION THROUGH AES
Around this same time, the BiLi (binaural listing) project in France was getting underway. “The BiLi project aims to develop methods and tools to capture HRTFs for scientists, professionals, but also for anyone, [on] PC, mobile, HiFi, professional devices, to render binaural listening with a personalized process,” said Matthieu Parmentier with France TV.

As this project also needed an interchange format to store HRTFs within listening devices, according to Parmentier, standardization through the AES began. “Since SOFA was the most developed format, they decided to support SOFA,” Majdak said. Since the fall of 2012, “SOFA and AES pulled together,” and by early 2015, the standard was published.

The data stored according to AES69— with the file extension .sofa—is self-described, according to Majdak, which means there are many narrative descriptions in the file, and yet the file is data-compressed (zipped) for efficient network transport, and readable on any platform. “SOFA does not store audio content like WAV or MP3 does,” Majdak said. “SOFA describes the filters only.”

AES69 based on SOFA relies on a well-established numerical container, and is open toward future development. “SOFA uses so-called conventions, which describe how the data are organized within SOFA,” Majdak said. “The standard defines SOFA as a framework for the conventions, and conventions for description of specific data. With such a concept we can describe the currently available data like HRTFs in conventions, already part of the standard, and also data available in the future, like multichannel measurements from microphone arrays or loudspeaker arrays.” Any further conventions developed can be later standardized as annexes to AES69.

Applications of AES69 are many.

“HRTFs measured for various directions can be stored in SOFA,” Majdak said. “Then, SOFA files containing HRTFs can be used to create virtual loudspeakers for reproduction of spatial audio via headphones. But, as SOFA can describe nearly any spatially oriented data, SOFA is not limited to HRTFs.”

An example of the latter is a project that Noisternig has been involved with. “We are using AES69/SOFA for storing spatiotemporal room impulse responses measured with spherical loudspeaker arrays and spherical microphone arrays,” he said. “With this data we can provide more realistic auralization of concert halls and a more profound analysis of the room acoustics.”

PERSONALIZATION FOR THE END USER
AES69, as a single standard simplifying data exchange, allows players with smartphones, tablets and Web applications to easily run their binaural processes with different sets of settings to know and better approximate the end user’s HRTFs, according to Parmentier.

From a broadcaster’s point of view, “the personalization goal embraces accessibility services for hard-of-hearing people, and even people in perfect health who are concerned in various situations, for example when listening in transportation, and more specifically, to bring a realistic immersive audio process over headphones,” Parmentier said.

Researchers can use “SOFA repositories for the development and evaluation of algorithms processing HRTFs or for psychoacoustic studies by using tons of HRTFs available as SOFA files,” Majdak said. “Application developers can implement spatial audio algorithms in their applications and use SOFA files for the rendering of virtual loudspeakers. Users of audio software can use SOFA files for the personalization of audio reproduction.”

The group that developed AES69 “also worked with AES members involved in the MPEG-H 3D audio codec to allow an end-device architecture to accept AES69 (SOFA) files within the binaural processor function, in case the user plugs in headphones while playing multichannel content,” Parmentier said. “AES was the perfect place to meet between high-level scientists, software/hardware engineers, codec manufacturers, sound engineers from the field, post studios and broadcasters.”

Mary C. Gruszka is a systems design engineer, project manager, consultant and writer based in the New York metro area. She can be reached via TV Technology.

So you are “hearing” about new audio codecs, ones that promise to be more bit efficient as well as high quality, and will be able to deliver the “true” cinema sound experience in the home environment. You probably are thinking, “Didn’t AC-3 5.1 audio do all that?” Certainly it’s been in practice for over 15 years in ATSC 1.0, why add a new audio codec in ATSC 3.0? Before we can answer this question, I thought I’d begin by explaining what is behind this new audio experience.

IMMERSIVE AUDIO

While 5.1 audio envelops the listener, there is only the horizontal dimension to the sound field (Fig. 1). While this can be compelling, the limitations of 5.1 have meant only a “feeling” of being there at the event or in the movie. Due to stereo compatibility issues (including matrix approaches), the surround channels are not used to their full extent. While 5.1 can deliver a richer sound experience than stereo, it has not been able to deliver a sound program with immersive spatial dimensionality.

Fig. 1 (Courtesy, Fraunhofer IIS)

Immersive audio goes beyond 5.1 surround sound and uses more channels to create the sensation of height (sound above). Where this gets interesting is—how many more channels? Even more interesting is an approach called “Higher Order Ambisonics” (HOA), which is a format that does not rely on channel assignments, but rather represents a sound field as a set of audio vectors that can be combined into whatever speaker configuration is desirable. 

But before we leap ahead to HOA, let’s get some definitions out of the way. First, you may have heard about audio objects. Maybe you have experienced this in a theater showing a movie mixed for Dolby Atmos or Auro-3D sound. Similar to stereoscopic 3D movies, 3D movie sound is reproduced so that sound effects can be located in very specific and localized positions relative to each theater patron. Audio objects may be static or dynamic and thus panned around the theater space. One can imagine the creative effects possible with such a system. 

AUDIO OBJECTS FOR TV

Audio objects can be much more than special effects, however. Audio objects can be elements of the sound program that the listener has control over, such as alternate language tracks, coaches’ microphones, race-car radio traffic, etc. These audio objects can be static or dynamic. The interesting feature, from a viewer perspective, is the ability for the viewer to choose as well as modify the base audio program, adding or deleting objects, controlling their level or spatial position, thus enabling interactive audio features of a television program. 

You may be thinking, “Doesn’t our current 5.1/AC-3 system provide for mulitple languages as well as descriptive video tracks?” Yes, but with AC-3, these alternative objects have to be embedded within a separate audio program, so the viewer can choose to listen to the Spanish version, but only with a pre-mixed stereo program, not full 5.1. Likewise, the same problem occurs if a sight-impaired person wants to listen to the descriptive track but has to settle for a mono mix-down of the 5.1 program. 

Audio objects are coded separately from the primary audio program mix and can be rendered (yes, rendered, much as on-screen graphics are rendered on your TV’s on-screen menu/guide) along with the full program mix and placed in the appropriate speaker channels, at a level that can be adjusted by the viewer.

SPEAKER CONFIGURATIONS

I mentioned above that immersive audio expands the number of speaker channels to provide for a true immersive experience. How many? Well the NHK in their UHDTV standard (which is 8K pixels) define their sound program as 22.2 channels. 

Fig. 2 (Courtesy, Fraunhofer IIS)

 The speakers are placed at three levels—high, mid, and low—and includes two subwoofers (the 0.2 designation) (Fig. 2). This can provide theatrical realism, but is certainly not a living room or kitchen type of experience for TV viewers. More practical are the variations on 5.1 and 7.1, which provide four overhead speakers, for immersive presentations of 11.1 or 9.1 speaker configurations. The decoder/renderer as part of these new audio codecs, can create the downmix versions of the full immersive program to fit conventional 5.1 or stereo (and yes mono, too) speaker arrangements. The renderer, if programmed with the actual speaker locations, can also compensate for non-ideal speaker placements. And there are other novel solutions such as the 3D soundbar (an advanced soundbar that can create the effect of surround + height speakers) and “up-firing” speakers that use the ceiling as an acoustic reflector. 

HOA 

High-order ambisonics is a technique used to capture a unique sound field without concern for the final speaker configuration. The degree of precision to which the sound field can be captured is dependent on the order of the HOA process. For each order N, the number of audio signals required to convey the sound field is equal to (N+1)^2. Typically the order is 4, 5 or 6, resulting in 25, 36 or 49 HOA signals. Within the MPEG-H codec, these audio signals are further reduced (usually to six or eight signals) using a linear spatial compression system with very low latency prior to the core MPEG-H audio codec (USAC-Uniform Speech and Audio Coding). The decoder re-expands the spatially compressed signals and formats them for the desired speaker channel configuration. 

ADVANCED AUDIO CODECS

AC-3 has been around since the early ’90s and a lot has happened in audio since then. MP3 caused a revolution in the music world, not because of better quality, but because it reduced audio file sizes where portable players—at first with hard drives and then solid-state memory—could hold thousands of songs. The follow-up to MP3 was the Advanced Audio Codec family (AAC). There are many variations, some with very high quality, some low latency, but all very efficient in reducing the bit rate of the sound signal. 

The latest codecs being proposed for use by the ATSC are MPEG-H and AC-4. MPEG-H was developed by three companies— Fraunhofer IIS, Technicolor and Qualcomm—and has become an ISO standard. AC-4, developed by Dolby Labs, has been standardized by ETSI. Both codecs have similar features, such as audio objects, personalization, rendering at the player, with high compression efficiency (lower bit rates for high quality audio). MPEG-H also has a voice codec as part of the USAC core codec, the ability to transmit a sound program in HOA and a layered coding option. AC-4 has the ability to encode Atmos movie soundtracks into a broadcast program by grouping sets of objects for efficient encoding. Both systems have rich program metadata that provide for the channel definitions, loudness parameters, advance dynamic range control settings and the steering of dynamic objects. 

FINAL WORDS

It’s an exciting time for television and immersive audio can provide a richer fuller viewer experience, regardless of how they choose to listen. Immersive audio can be rendered to the speakers available and provide interactive control by the viewer to tailor the program to their taste. With full immersive sound and 4K (or 8K) displays that cover the full field of view, TV viewers will not only be immersed but will enjoy features unavailable today.

Editor's Note: In an early version of the story we had the equation for the sound field as (N-1)^2 instead of (N+1)^2. The equation and subsequent results have been changed.

Jim DeFilippis is CEO of TMS Consulting, Inc., in Los Angeles. He can be reached at JimD@TechnologyMadeSimple.pro.

Ever since audio technology made the shift from mono to stereo imaging it seems that some listeners have been on a quest for the most immersive audio image possible. Quadrophonic, Ambisonics, Dolby Surround, DTS and Dolby Digital were all born from the desire to provide a truly encompassing audible experience for listeners.

Although early developments were audio- only, it wasn’t long before multichannel audio was married to motion pictures using systems like Fantasound and Cinerama, while television broadcasts remained mono until the 1980s.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Take a stroll through consumer electronics stores now and you’ll see a proliferation of surround systems to accompany large-screen televisions, but just as many personal Bluetooth speaker systems and plenty of high-end headphones. In fact, the trend for surround and immersion seems to be moving toward personal versus shared experiences, driven by smartphones and handheld gaming systems. However, much of the content being consumed on these devices still originates with media and broadcast production companies.

Juan Punyed, Telos Alliance director of sales for Latin America and Canada, previews a Dolby Atmos immersive audio demo in the Telos Alliance NAB booth. A number of manufacturers jumped into the immersive audio field early in the game, but now, with ATSC 3.0 seeking to bring immersion into the broadcast space, the Audio Engineering Society has stepped forward with a standard aimed at ensuring immersive audio delivery systems use the same file format for exchange of spatial audio information.

Before we take a look at the standard it is important to note that this standard promotes binaural listening as the key to immersion, which means this standard is all about the head and the space, real or simulated, that it resides in.

Binaural recording is nothing new and the typical method for making binaural recordings is to use a dummy head with microphones placed at the ears, the thought being to capture audio as a human would hear it. Unfortunately, the human head itself is another object in the acoustic space and will itself modify the audio we hear.

Depending on many variables—including where our head is in the soundfield in relation to the source—sound is likely to arrive at each ear at a slightly different time, at a different intensity and with a somewhat different frequency response depending on the shape of our head and ears, and reflections/cancelations from our body.

IT’S ALL IN THE HEAD
Fortunately our brains learn and adapt our hearing to compensate in a response called head-related transfer function (HRTF). HRTF is a key parameter of AES69 along with the help of two impulse responses: head-related impulse response (HRIR), which helps us localize the source, and directional-room impulse response (DRIR), which allows us to place the source in the room.

As with other AES standards, this one builds upon work done by other industry groups rather than establish conflicting standards and unnecessarily reinventing the wheel. In this case the work is based on ISO, ITU and IETF standards and utilizes netCDF-4 as the format for data storage.

The standard relies heavily on audio objects, a staple of the gaming audio world, which is relatively new to broadcast, and something we’ll see a lot more of as we inch closer to ATSC 3.0. The primary objects in AES69 are “Listeners,” which can consist of an unlimited number of receivers; “Sources,” which can consist of an unlimited number of emitters; and “Rooms.”

In any given AES69 file there can only be one Listener, one Source and one Room. These objects are placed within two coordinate systems that determine where they exist in space. The Global Coordinate System allows placement of sources and listeners inside the space, while each source and listener have their own local coordinates within the global system, which allow placement of emitters within the source and receivers within the listener.

Directivity patterns of emitters and receivers are defined within the local coordinate system. To assist with orientation, orthogonal “View” and “Up” vectors are defined, with View on the positive x-axis while Up is on the positive z-axis. A long list of metadata parameters are included and provide an additional method of defining variables and their characteristics, as well as important information about the data inside the file.

As one would expect, listener, receiver, room and room types are described in the metadata parameters, and provision is made for external applications to include metadata specific to their needs and requirements. Available room types are free field, reverberant, shoebox and .dae, a data interchange file providing links to 3D applications. All information gets stored in a single netCDF-4 binary data file with a .sofa (Spatially Oriented Format for Acoustics) extension. AES69-2015 goes into far more detail and depth than there is room to cover here so, as always, I encourage you to pick up a copy and dig in if you want to know more.

Binaural audio is not without its issues and detractors. Location of sources in some binaural recordings can be hard to pinpoint, with sounds to the sides being easiest to determine while sounds to the front and rear sometimes seeming as if they are located at the listening position itself.

Fortunately, the sizable list of parameters included in AES69-2015, along with built-in extensibility, likely means the standard has enough breadth to compensate for any shortcomings of binaural listening.

My one experience listening to an immersive format so far was a demonstration of Headphone:X from DTS and it was a phenomenal experience. Audio sources were played over speakers in the demonstration room; then we were instructed to put on supplied headphones and the audio was repeated.

The headphone audio sounded virtually the same as the audio from the speakers, (to the extent that most of us took the headphones off to be sure). Of course, the DTS guys had plenty of time beforehand to run room impulses and tailor the setup before we arrived, but the result was very impressive nonetheless.

If the immersive systems from other manufacturers are as impressive, and I expect they are, and AES69-2015 is used for interchange among systems, then the world of immersive audio is about to become a very exciting place to listen.

Jay Yeary is a broadcast engineer specializing in audio. He is an AES Fellow and is a member of both SBE and SMPTE. He can be contacted via TV Technology.

Immersive audio took off in a huge way in 2014, especially in cinema with the release of films in Dolby Atmos and Auro 11.1 formats. The Traumpalast in Backnang, Germany was one of the first theaters to install a Dolby Atmos system, which includes a total of 57 speakers.

Here we are at the beginning of 2015, and as with all new years it is fashionable to analyze how the previous year went and take a look at how this new one might unfold. In this column dated Jan. 1, 2014, I made some predictions about what I thought the big stories of the year would be in the world of television audio. So let’s assess my prognostication skills and see whether they’ll hold up this year.

# 1: REFINEMENT OF THE CALM ACT—INCORRECT
My first prediction of last year was that the CALM Act would be further refined to make it easier to understand and implement, and this simply did not happen. There was almost no movement around the CALM Act this year other than the FCC finally adopting the 2013 revision, and the ATSC winning a well-deserved Primetime Emmy for A/85.

The rest of the year turned out rather quiet on the loudness front (pun definitely intended), with consumer complaints tapering off from an initial surge. Whether this is due to consumers actually being satisfied with the results of CALM implementation— or because they’ve given up reporting because they see no public vilifying of broadcasters over loud commercials—is something we don’t yet know; but most broadcasters seem to be doing a good job of keeping loudness under control.

It will be interesting to see what happens as initial two-year waivers expire; whether the FCC will allow extensions to those waivers due to the adoption of A/85:2013; and whether there will be any significant enforcement of the CALM Act. I think we’ll see some minor news regarding CALM this year, but it is unlikely to be anything significant.

# 2: AUDIO OBJECTS, NOT IMMERSIVE AUDIO—INCORRECT
It may not have been possible to be more wrong about this prediction than I was, and it’s partially the result of attending events where discussions take place regarding technology that remains years away.

Since audio objects for broadcast are tied directly to the rollout of ATSC 3.0, and since we won’t see a candidate standard for it until 2016, audio objects for broadcast are a technology of our future rather than our present. The work on this is so current that it was just a month ago (Dec. 5, to be exact), that the ATSC issued a Call for Proposals for ATSC 3.0 Audio Systems, with initial complete system submissions due by Jan. 12, 2015.

It appears that whatever the audio system ends up being in ATSC 3.0, it will be a complete solution from a single company as opposed to a system with technology sourced from many companies. Needless to say, we won’t see audio objects delivered via broadcast in the home for quite some time.

Immersive audio, however, has taken off in a huge way, especially in cinema with the release of films in Dolby Atmos and Auro 11.1 formats. With the inevitable Blu-ray and streaming releases of immersive films to consumers, we will undoubtedly see additional speakers, immersive sound bars and sound frames from a variety of manufacturers cluttering living rooms across the country in the very near future.

# 3: LOUDNESS MANAGEMENT FOR MOBILE, ONLINE DELIVERY—HALF CORRECT
Mobile and streaming is a bit of a conundrum since the devices used to access the content over the air and over the Internet can be the same, though different technologies in the device get used for each.

During a trip to South Korea last year I learned that essentially every mobile phone there comes with unlimited data; that watching television on phones, while riding the subway or driving a vehicle, is something everyone does; and that an awful lot of the phones have an antenna to receive over-the-air DMB television broadcasts.

Compare that to how people use their mobile phones to watch television in the United States, where the majority of viewing seems to be Internet streaming with very little obvious viewing of over-theair broadcasts (based on my observations from the daily commute).

With the big cellular providers making handsets with receivers available and accessory manufacturers providing plug-ins and add-ons for tablets and other devices, there’s no reason people can’t watch broadcast television while they’re on the go, but I still wonder how many people are actually doing so in the United States.

Of course, one big problem with television on the go, whether broadcast or streaming, is that external environmental noise means dynamic range of the audio must be kept to a minimum and loudness management is critical.

On Jan. 30, 2013, the ATSC released their recommended practice A/154:2013, which specifies –14 LKFS as the target loudness level for audio content. This means that a pretty serious loudness practice already exists for mobile television delivery. However, we still have nothing solid for streaming Internet delivery loudness that I’m aware of.

NPR conducted a study on this in 2013 and I’ve been taking some content measurements— both of which we’ll cover in another column—but the results leave me wondering whether this will be the next battleground of consumer audio complaints as viewing of streaming content increases.

THE MISSING PREDICTION
I’m still kicking myself for omitting audioover- IP and AES-67 adoption as an important technology for broadcast audio in 2014, possibly the most important one, in fact. I simply focused too closely on the other predictions and ran out of room and left it out even though I already had plans to begin implementing the technology myself.

Obviously AoIP took off last year with lots of AES-67 compatibility announcements, culminating with a very successful AES-sponsored plugfest in Munich.

After a bit of actual experimentation with AoIP products I found that they behaved pretty much as I expected with high-quality audio, but there were some discovery issues when connecting devices from different manufacturers together, even when using the same AoIP technology. Still, I have high hopes for AoIP and think adoption will continue to escalate this year.

As you can see from this analysis of my 2014 predictions, my crystal ball is on the fritz, so either take my predictions with a grain of salt or just wait awhile, because I have the feeling that all of them will eventually come to pass—my timing is just a bit off.

Jay Yeary is a broadcast television engineer specializing in audio. He can be contacted via TV Technology.