Tag Archives: broadcasting

Next Month MP3 Creators Debut Flexible Rendering Technology For New Immersive Audio Experience

December 31, 2024 The Silo Leave a comment

Fraunhofer will be at CES 2025 from January 6-January 8, 2025 at the Fraunhofer suite in the Venetian Hotel.

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December 31, 2024, Erlangen, Germany — Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (Fraunhofer IIS), a leading developer of advanced audio technologies, including mp3 and AAC, will present at CES 2025 upHear Flexible Rendering, a ground-breaking audio technology that greatly simplifies high-quality immersive sound experiences on consumer audio reproduction devices, including loudspeakers, soundbars, and TVs. upHear Flexible Rendering enhances and distributes sound flexibly to all available speakers for a spectacular enveloping immersive audio effect at all times.

upHear Flexible Rendering for Effortless Flexibility: Expand Setups from Stereo to Immersive

upHear Flexible Rendering belongs to Fraunhofer’s upHear range of audio processing technologies. They enhance the sound quality of content from voice signals to immersive audio masterpieces and provide pristine audio pickup as well as faithful reproduction from classic stereo setups to complex scenarios with multiple devices. The upHear Flexible Rendering technology automatically combines wireless speakers for the best possible experience, supporting new immersive audio formats as well as providing first-class upmixing for legacy content.

What Makes This Technology Impressively Different

With upHear Flexible Rendering, everything is adjustable: Adding or removing a speaker from the system is no trouble due to its automatic adaptation to the current playback situation. Its inherent flexibility provides the option for effortless system growth making it very budget-friendly. All systems upgraded with upHear Flexible Rendering achieve enhanced immersion for an extraordinary sound experience. “Currently, users can only connect to one smart speaker at a time or to a fixed setup per room.

With the upHear technology, you now have the flexibility to conveniently combine any number of speakers into an immersive speaker cluster wherever you want. Party music in the kitchen? Transform your living room into a movie theatre? Operas in the bathroom? It is all possible without a fuss,” said Sebastian Meyer, Product Manager upHear, Fraunhofer IIS.

Fraunhofer Demos will be available at CES 2025 –

Speaker Repositioning: Smart speakers will be distributed in the room playing immersive music. The upHear Flexible Rendering technology will make it possible to add/remove speakers and to reposition them. The upHear algorithm optimizes the sound image based on the current setup. Visitors will be able to try out repositioning for themselves. The wireless speaker setup also uses the Fraunhofer Communication Codec LC3plus for ultra-low-latency wireless audio transmission.
upHear Microphone Processing Technologies: Through live calls, Fraunhofer will show how they make life easier: An “office” in the suite will show advanced AI-based technologies such as Echo Control, Noise Reduction, and the latest feature: Voice Isolation, which is the highlight of the Microphone Processing area. Users can create a “fingerprint” of their voice in seconds, which makes it possible to remove all sounds but their voice from a call for a truly personalized live call experience for better conferencing.
Demo Audio Samples: Check out upHear demos at: https://comm-demos.iis.fraunhofer.de/upHear_20240808/index.html.
upHear Mobile Audio: Fraunhofer’s virtualization platform opens the door to true spatial playback experiences on headphones. It works from a multitude of sources, from legacy stereo to current immersive formats. Thanks to the minimum resource requirements of the low-complexity rendering, it can run on DSPs for any audio device class, be it headphones, mobile devices, home audio systems, or even a low-power XR devices.

upHear is available immediately. For more information, see: www.uphear.com, and https://www.audioblog.iis.fraunhofer.com/tag/uphear.

Fraunhofer Audio Codecs to be presented at CES 2025 –

xHE-AAC: The stereo codec for broadcast and streaming provides DASH/HLS streaming at 12-320+ kbit/s, a new anchor loudness feature, mandatory loudness and dynamic range control, improved speech quality, and stereo imaging. The technology is already used by Netflix, Facebook stories, and Instagram Reels. xHE-AAC is natively supported on the latest Amazon, Android, Microsoft, and Apple products and operating systems.
LC3plus Lossless: Video calls, music, and gaming are best enjoyed with wireless headphones and microphones that deliver perfect audio quality and long battery life. With LC3plus, sound reaches users in perfect quality and the new LC3plus Lossless switches seamlessly between lossless and lossy modes of operation. It works with all features of LC3plus, including low-delay and superior robustness thanks to Advanced Packet Loss Concealment. LC3plus is on the Japan Audio Society’s list of codecs whose implementation opens the door for device manufacturers to use the prestigious High-Res Audio Wireless logo. Fraunhofer IIS will demonstrate integrations into the AKG N5 Hybrid Earbuds, a HyperX gaming headset, a Sony streaming microphone, and a headphone prototype by BEStechnic.
- MPEG-H Audio: Next Generation Audio system for streaming and broadcast applications with advanced personalization and accessibility options. Fraunhofer will showcase devices by globally leading CE manufacturers with MPEG-H Audio support, which is required for Brazil’s upcoming broadcast standard DTV+. Here, the technology helps Globo, TV Cultura, and other major providers to deliver customizable immersive sound experiences with a high degree of accessibility. Viewers can choose between different languages and commentators or select a version with enhanced dialogue.

For the Silo, Karen Thomas/ Eva Yutani.

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About Fraunhofer IIS Audio & Media Technologies
Fraunhofer IIS is part of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Europe’s leading applied research organization. The global leader in advanced technologies for audio coding and moving picture production. Almost all computers, mobile phones, and consumer electronic devices available today are equipped with technologies from Erlangen and are used by billions of people around the world every day. The creation of mp3, co-development of AAC as well as HE-AAC prove how Fraunhofer IIS has been innovating the audio sector for over 30 years. The current generation of compelling audio technologies includes Fraunhofer Symphoria for automotive 3D audio, EVS for phone calls with crystal-clear audio quality, xHE-AAC, which is used by major streaming services such as Netflix, by Facebook stories, and by Instagram Reels. MPEG-H Audio delivers personalized immersive sound for broadcast and streaming, which lets viewers adjust dialogue volume to suit their personal preferences.

Sci-Tech

Video Producers Using Unreal Game Engine For AR Graphics And Sets

September 28, 2020 The Silo Leave a comment

LAS VEGAS — A couple of years ago, ChyronHego announced a partnership with leading game developer Epic Games to integrate the Unreal Engine with ChyronHego’s family of augmented reality (AR) graphics and virtual sets solutions. With the integration, news broadcasters and other customers of ChyronHego’s Neon and Plutonium software will be able to leverage Unreal’s industry-leading rendering and real-time special effects capabilities to add powerful new photorealistic and hyper-realistic elements to their on-air virtual sets. Only a decade ago, editDROID and other Laserdisc based systems were still commonly in use with a much more rudimentary set of effects possibilities- this new Neon and Plutonium software system is an industry wide ‘game changer’.

Here is a look at 2017’s ChyronHego’s live use demo-

“In an environment that’s more competitive than ever, our broadcast news customers are on a constant search for innovative ways to tell a better story and captivate viewers,” said Olivier Cohen, senior product manager, virtual solutions, ChyronHego. “Virtual sets that harness the amazing graphics capabilities of world-class gaming engines are the wave of the future for news, sports, and weather broadcasting, and Epic Games is the perfect partner to take us there. The integration with Unreal is just the latest link in our CAMIO Universe strategy to place the industry’s most powerful storytelling tools at news producers’ fingertips and drive template-based, unified news and weather workflows.”

“Since we launched Unreal Engine 4, it has become one of the world’s most powerful rendering engines for the game industry — but its flexibility, real-time performance, and robust set of tools make it ideal in just about any type of content creation workflow,” said Marc Petit, general manager, Unreal Engine Enterprise at Epic Games.

“ChyronHego’s AR and virtual set solutions for broadcast production are the ideal match for Unreal Engine. By partnering with one of the leading broadcast graphics providers, we can continue to expand our presence in the broadcast, film, and entertainment industries.”

ChyronHego will work to integrate the CAMIO graphic asset management server with Unreal Engine, including creating broadcast-specific camera movements. Unreal’s 3D graphics engine enables producers to generate AR graphics through the templated workflows of the CAMIO Universe. Via custom user interfaces built with ChyronHego Live Assist panels, producers can then present the AR graphics on air using ChyronHego’s Plutonium and Neon virtual set and robotic camera tracking solutions.

Cohen added, “As one of the world’s most powerful rendering engines from one of the world’s foremost gaming companies, Unreal will bring new levels of openness and scale-ability to our virtual set solutions. Unreal Engine is easily customizable and expandable, and five million users around the world will benefit from Epic Games’ vast reach across the global community of gamers and game developers. It means news broadcasters will be able to render effects in their virtual sets that rival anything their viewers have seen in the gaming world, with special effects like real-time shaders, bumps, sliders, and highly photo-realistic objects.” For the Silo, Lyndsey Albright.

Supplemental- The Revolutionary Video Toaster and Amiga Computer system 1991.

Culture

Reboot Canadian Content Policy For Digital Age Says C.D. Howe Institute

November 27, 2019 The Silo Leave a comment

Canada should ditch Canadian content tools that are ill-suited for the digital age, says a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute.

Image result for author Daniel Schwanen — Daniel Schwanen

In “Choosing Canada: Canadian Cultural Policy in the Twenty-first Century” author Daniel Schwanen sets out a plan to bring Canadian content policy into step with developments such as the emergence of digital competitors for Canadian viewers, including Netflix, Spotify and YouTube.

Unfair Competition

These digital competitors, notes Schwanen, are unconstrained by Canadian content requirements facing traditional TV or radio distributors. The consequence is a “slow bleed” in audiences for licensed TV broadcasters and radio stations while audiences for non-regulated digital channels (many based outside Canada), are rising sharply.

Trends

These trends negatively impact the revenues of traditional conduits for culture and information as advertising revenues migrate to digital channels. Compounding burden on traditional broadcasters, regulators maintain out-dated quotas of Canadian content in prime time and requirements to help fund Canadian TV and film production, whereas their emerging competitors on digital platforms are not subject to these rules. Furthermore, foreign online services such as Netflix are not required to charge their Canadian customers the Goods and Services Tax, unlike their Canadian competitors.

“As Canadians embrace new technologies and platforms to access their entertainment and information, the ability of quotas to affect Canadians’ viewing or listening habits is rapidly diminishing,” said Schwanen. Indeed, 2013 marked the first year in which the number of Canadian households subscribing to internet services exceeded the number of traditional television subscribers. Although 75 percent of Canadian households still subscribed to cable or satellite television distribution services in 2016 – down markedly from 83 percent only four years before – 87 percent of Canadian households subscribed to internet services. In the economy more generally, the culture, entertainment and information services offered online through digital technologies have boomed relative to other economic activities, and in particular relative to traditional cultural and information businesses.

What Is True Demand?

The report proposes an approach focused on more deliberately linking offerings of Canadian content with the potential demand for them. The report’s recommendations for regulators include:

Focusing the funding framework for public cultural agencies and cultural subsidies, including that of the CBC, on the production, dissemination, and exhibition of original artistic or literary works for which a commercial market is not yet established or for which there is a clear public rationale (e.g., educational, informational, or community benefits).
Establishing an arms-length “Canadian Connections Fund” that would replace some existing subsidies with support for initiatives that promote non-commercial Canadian content with Canadian audiences.
Working with Canadian broadcasters and distributors to facilitate the “discoverability” of Canadian content on digital platforms (through, e.g., search engine optimization, targeted online advertising, mobile applications, and the translation of Canadian works for both foreign and domestic audiences).
Eliminating mandated funding of Canadian content and Canadian content quotas for broadcasters while ensuring a level playing field for federal taxation applicable to digital media services purchased by Canadians
Reducing foreign investment restrictions applying to cultural industries, with the aim of attracting investment in Canada.

Read the Full Report

Gaming

Updated XSplit Broadcasting Connects Entire eSports And Gaming Communities

August 15, 2016 The Silo 1 Comment

When we launched XSplit almost six years ago, we set out on a mission to make live streaming and recording simple. In that time, both broadcasting and gaming changed dramatically, with the advent of new live streaming services, the birth of the Twitch Streamer, and the explosion of eSports capturing the imagination of players across the globe.

Fast forward to 2016 and the world’s top gaming personalities, eSports teams, game developers, publishers and millions of people worldwide are using XSplit to create innovative, hilarious, entertaining and meaningful content that has impacted audiences of all ages. Live streaming has helped bring people together from all walks of life, and with hundreds of thousands of new users joining us every month, that number is set to grow higher still.

Yet this is still only the beginning. Our aspirations for the future are much bigger, as we envision a world where players can seamlessly connect to one another in a dedicated space, share and create content, compete with one another and grow their own communities. To turn this dream into a reality though, we knew we needed the right expertise, technology and people to make this happen.

This is where social discovery platform, Player.me, and tournament management service, Challonge come in. Between these two services we see the potential to create a platform that connects the entire gaming community and serves the needs of all players in their daily lives.

We’re going to shake things up a bit over the coming months by combining the Player.me community and discovery engine with Challonge’s tournament bracket technology to create a future where players, content creators, eSports entrepreneurs and event organizers, can connect with one another seamlessly and beautifully.

Both Sean Fee (CEO of Player.me) and David Cornelius (CEO of Challonge), two top entrepreneurs and leaders in their field share this vision to build a connected experience, and we cannot wait to show you what’s coming in the near future. On a final note, we would like to thank our community, our partners and of course you – our users for being with us on this adventure. For the Silo, Henrik Levring, CEO of SplitmediaLabs.