IEEE Broadcast Technology Society

"The technologies to deliver information and entertainment to audiences worldwide,
at home and on the go. "

IBC 2009

Tutorial
"AUDIO TECHNOLOGY: CODING AND CONCATENATION, LOUDNESS AND LIP SYNC"
provided by the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society

Sunday, 13 September from 1:30-5:00 pm
Location: “Forum” room

The Tutorial will be co-chaired by
Dr. Yiyan Wu
Communications Research Centre Canada

The tutorial has five presentations, followed by a Panel discussion

Audio for Next Generation Entertainment Services
Broadcasters, content makers and platform operators have a wealth of audio formats to navigate as they deliver next generation services, whether for digital TV, internet delivery, or mobile entertainment. This tutorial will summarize the trends in audio formats for next-gen services, including HDTV, and the key considerations in the selection of an audio format to accompany MPEG-4 and other next generation video, or for music file delivery. Aspects to be considered include interoperability, quality versus bit-rate tradeoffs, metadata capabilities and surround sound features.
Tony Spath, VP, International Broadcast, Dolby Laboratories

Audio Quality Loss Due to Concatenation of Audio Codecs
Low bit-rate audio codecs typically offer the ability to trade-off quality vs. coding efficiency (bit-rate). However, in the broadcast area, codecs are often concatenated with multiple generations of encode-decode taking place. Codecs differ in their ability to maintain high quality over multiple encode-decode cycles, or when concatenated with different codecs. Results from EBU sponsored tests will be shown to illustrate the issues.
Gerhard Stoll, IRT

Audio and Video Synchronization
Audio/Video synchronization (“Lip-sync”) is an ongoing problem in digital multimedia broadcasting. This presentation will review some of the sources of the problem (end to end in the system), as well as current work towards resolving it by different organizations (EBU, ATSC, CEA). A major focus will be the new CEA “CEB-20” which provides detailed decoder implementation guidance.
Patrick Waddell, Manager for Standards and Regulatory, Harmonic

Audio Loudness
The rollout of digital television has unfortunately been accompanied by a significant decrease in the consistency of audio loudness. A substantial amount of work is being done to provide solutions. This tutorial will provide an overview of the topic describing the sources of the problems and the new standards intended to help solve them. The accomplishments to date and the work still underway in different organizations (ITU-R, ATSC, EBU) will be summarized.
Craig Todd, Sr. VP and CTO, Dolby Laboratories

The Search for the Holy Grail - Towards Loudness Normalization in Broadcasting
Audio levels in broadcast industry have become increasingly diverse and different over the last decades. Despite clear guidelines and recommended practices, the general use of peak measurement in audio metering and the development of sophisticated level processors have led to over-compression of audio signals with the questionable aim of being louder than the competitors. This attitude has especially impacted the audio quality of advertisements and promotions. With the introduction of loudness level metadata and an international standard for loudness measurement (ITU-R BS.1770), there is a light at the end of the tunnel. A few broadcasters and networks have addressed the loudness issue. Their experiences show that it is possible to solve the problem to the benefit of the consumers. It is more than overdue to establish a new paradigm in audio leveling: the switch from peak measurement to loudness measurement. As the chairman of the EBU Group P/LOUD, the speaker will present the first draft of the new EBU loudness recommendation.
Florian Camerer, Austrian Broadcasting Corporation

Speaker Bios:
	Yiyan Wu, yiyan.wu@crc.ca, is a Principle Research Scientist of Communications Research Centre Canada. His research interests include broadband multimedia communications, digital broadcasting, and communication systems engineering. He is an IEEE Fellow, an adjunct professor of Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Dr. Wu is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society Administrative Committee, and a member of the ATSC Board of Directors, representing IEEE. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting. Dr. Wu has more than 200 publications and received many technical awards and patents for his contribution to the research and development of digital broadcasting and broadband multimedia communications.

	Tony Spath, ts@dolby.com, is the Vice-President, International Broadcast of Dolby Laboratory. He is responsible for adoption of Dolby technologies in broadcast applications throughout Europe, Asia, and Australia. Following a successful career as a music recording engineer and producer, Tony joined Dolby Laboratories in 1985 to help launch and promote Dolby SR to film studios and the music industry. He played an instrumental role in introducing Dolby technology to a growing film industry in both India and China. During Dolby's transition to digital, Tony also was involved in the first broadcast services to include Dolby Digital 5.1 in Europe in 1999 and in China in 2005. When in the same year Dolby received a Primetime Emmy for Dolby E from the US National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Tony was named in the citation. He is currently working with high-definition broadcasters and those planning alternative content delivery methods (IPTV, broadband delivery and Mobile TV) to promote better audio. Tony has a degree in music from the University of Surrey.

	Gerhard Stoll, stoll@irt.de, studied communications engineering with focus on IT and cybernetics at the universities of Stuttgart and Munich. In 1984 he joined the IRT - the research centre of the public broadcasters in Germany, Austria and Switzerland – where he was in charge of the development of the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 Audio standards. Mr. Stoll is also a member of different standardisation groups, such as MPEG, DAB, DVB, ITU-R and EBU. For his contributions in the area of low bit-rate audio coding, he received the Prof. Cremer Award from the German Acoustical Society, the Fellowship Award of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and in October 2000 the Emmy-Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. As senior engineer, he is now in charge of audio for Radio and TV and technical co-ordinator of European IST-projects dealing with Rich Media Interactive TV, including interactivity for mobile TV, such as SAMBITS, SAVANT, GMF4iTV and porTiVity.

	Patrick Waddell, Patrick.Waddell@harmonicinc.com, is a veteran of the broadcasting and performing arts industries. Mr. Waddell has over 30 years experience serving a variety of staff and freelance positions with a number of different facilities. A second-generation broadcaster, his primary area of expertise is digital video system implementation for broadcast television. Mr. Waddell joined Harmonic in December 2000. He is responsible for compliance with industry standards and government regulations. Previously, he worked at Sony. Mr. Waddell is a SMPTE Fellow, and serves as Harmonic’s representative to a number of industry standards bodies, including the SMPTE, SCTE, DVB, and the ATSC. He currently serves as the Chair of the ATSC’s TSG/S6, the Specialist Group on Video/Audio Coding and of the SMPTE’s Technology Committee 32NF on Network/Facilities Infrastructure. Mr. Waddell earned a BSEE degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and did graduate studies in Technical Production for Live Performance at San Jose State University.

	Craig Todd, CT@dolby.com, is Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Dolby Laboratories. Craig Todd's involvement with multichannel sound spans more than 30 years, beginning with his initial work on Dolby Surround sound in 1977. Since 1992 he has focused his efforts on bringing multichannel digital audio to the consumer. He was instrumental in establishing Dolby Digital in DTV, CATV, and DVD formats, and has most recently made major technical contributions to the technology strategy and systems architecture of Dolby's Digital Cinema system. A holder of more than 20 patents, Craig has participated in standards-setting activities for the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) project, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), the International Telecommunications Union (ITU-R), the Audio Engineering Society (AES), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). He is a Fellow of both the AES and SMPTE, and in 2002 was awarded the SMPTE Samuel L. Warner Memorial Medal for contributions to motion picture sound. Craig holds a BS degree in physics from the California Institute of Technology.

	Florian Camerer, florian.camerer@orf.at, joined the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) in 1990. From very early on, he has been mixing small programmes and working on location. In 1995 he became a staff-sound-engineer (“Tonmeister”) mainly in the field of production sound and post-production. High quality audio for documentaries developed into his field of special interest. In 1993 he started to get interested in Multichannel Audio. He mixed the first program of the ORF in Dolby Surround (“Arctic Northeast”) and is now involved with all aspects of Multichannel Audio at ORF. He lectures on an international basis in all aspects of surround sound productions.

contact bts: bts@ieee.org