In Broadcast - April 2020 - 60

60

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 10 - Issue 4 | April 2020

InMedia

A Peep Inside MPEG
F

ive insights from a start-up's
experience working on a new
standard.
In 2018, V-Nova embarked on an
ambitious mission working with the
Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG)
to build a standard around a key
business proposition we believe in and
which our customers were demanding
from us - a way to enhance the
compression efficiency and reduce the
complexity of any existing or future
video codec. So, what have we learnt
along the way working on what has
become MPEG-5 Part 2 Low Complexity
Enhancement Video Coding (LCEVC)?
You don't have to be one of the
big boys to work with standards
bodies: Many smaller companies
assume that the costs associated
with working with a standard like
MPEG are too big a barrier to entry.
Whilst there's a significant amount of
work required, some travel and strict
deadlines and procedures, if the effort
expended is aligned with your own

company's goals, it's absolutely a wise
investment.
Not everything happens quickly,
but the structured collaboration
drives incredible progress: From the
outside, many view MPEG as deeply
bureaucratic. However, once you begin
working with the group, it becomes
clear that the processes ensure full
transparency and robust collaboration.
Initially an exploratory phase is carried
out to evaluate business needs, once
that stage is completed evidence is
then collected to review what relevant
technology is currently available. Next,
a call for proposals is made to gather
contributions which are judged on
predetermined criteria, followed by
a collaborative phase between the
involved parties to refine everything.
It's comprehensive but very effective.

By Simone Ferrara - SVP,
Technology and IP Strategy...

up your technology to analysis by the
leading figures in the video industry.
However, receiving feedback and
input from a larger community and
providing the same to your peers is
truly invaluable.
It's all about articulating the value
and purpose of the standard: Within
MPEG there is a healthy scepticism
towards new approaches.
Would it really be possible
to provide an efficiency
enhancement
to
all
codecs? Throughout the
process we had to
constantly articulate the
purpose of LCEVC and we
learnt considerably from
the group on how it should
fit in. LCEVC was to be a
complementary

tool to enhance all other codec
standards and in no way a competitor
to them as some had previously
assumed to be the case.
Continued evolution means the
future looks strong for MPEG:
2020 is a ground-breaking year
for MPEG with the launch of 3 new
video codec standards, each one
addressing different business
requirements. In some
ways
this
reflects
growing
complexity
in video delivery but
providing these key
solutions to address
the different business
challenges operators
face illustrates the
continued importance of
the organisation.

Opening up your technology to the
world's leading experts is scary, but
invaluable: As a smaller company, it's
easy to be trepidatious about opening

Digital Nirvana MonitorIQ 7.0
By Keith DesRosiers,
Digital Nirvana...

D

igital Nirvana recently introduced
the 7th generation release of its
MonitorIQ broadcast monitoring and
compliance logging platform.
The platform natively records
content from any point in the video
delivery chain, from production (SDI)
to consumption (OTT), and allows
operators to record, store, monitor,
analyse, and repurpose content quickly
and efficiently with a minimum of
clicks.
Refined by experts including
architects of the original Volicon
Observer product, the new MonitorIQ
7.0 design includes an updated and
intuitive web interface, core feature
improvements, and industry-first
integration with artificial intelligence
(AI) and machine learning (ML)
services.
Version 7.0 gives broadcasters all
the key features of Volicon's beloved

Observer product, improving upon
each one to provide unparalleled
broadcast monitoring and compliance
capabilities. Users benefit from singleclick access to content and metadata,
rapid clip and share capabilities, and
quick comparison and analysis of
multiple channels, both their own and
competitors'.
The power of AI and ML allows
broadcasters to take these monitoring
and analysis tasks to a new level. The
solution now enables the identification
of ads on competitive channels.
MonitorIQ will generate a daily
report when each ad played and how
many times it played per channel.
Broadcasting sales teams can employ
the data to upsell local and national
advert customers to generate greater
revenue. It also enables mining of the
data for proof of ad conformance with
customers.

Need more content to populate posts
across online platforms? The social
media team can use MonitorIQ 7.0 to
search through and access content
for repurposing. With as few clicks
as possible, frame-accurate content
can cut, clipped, and publish to social
media or websites in less time than
any other platform.
As they start down the upgrade
path, broadcasters and network
operators need many of the same
features of the "standard" compliance
system, but they also want new
features and capabilities where other
departments within the organisation
can leverage the solution's worldclass features and serve them well
into the future. Fortunately, the AIbased microservices for broadcast
applications have matured to the point
that they can be a valuable addition to
a full-featured logging and monitoring
system. Running in the cloud as a
layer atop the compliance system,
such microservices can be spun up as
needed to complete specific tasks at
scale.

The full slate of applications
available through MonitorIQ 7.0
includes transcript generation for ads
and content using speech to text (STT),
logo detection in high-value content,
face recognition for finding news and
entertainment content, closed caption
or transcript generation from live or
historical content, and closed caption
conformance to internal and external
guidelines.
Broadcasters working with MonitorIQ
now also can leverage the platform
to implement full workflows for an
automated transcript, closed caption
generation, and translation.
Digital Nirvana's MonitorIQ version
7.0 is built on a secure, reliable, and
expandable architecture. MonitoriaIQ
offers an enhanced array of core
broadcast monitoring and compliance
capabilities, plus access to critical
microservices in the cloud. MonitorIQ
empowers
broadcasters
across
the industry and multiple internal
departments to realise the full value of
aired content, both current and longarchived material.
http://www.inbroadcast.com https://www.v-nova.com/ https://www.v-nova.com/ https://www.v-nova.com/ https://www.v-nova.com/ https://www.v-nova.com/ https://digital-nirvana.com/
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