Getting a clearer view on the sustainability challenge - June 2021
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MEDIA TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION ISSUE 48 • JUNE 2021
Getting
a clearer
view on the
sustainability
challenge
Plus
T&I Award 2021 – the nominees
How RTÉ surfs the change-waves
Advances in fake news detection
and more...
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | June 2021 1
tech.ebu.ch/subscribe
-i
Issue 48 • June 2021
4 7
Cover story: The inaugural EBU
Sustainability Summit was held on
Earth Day 2021, bringing together
around 400 online participants. On
pages 10–11, there is a report from
ARTE on measuring the carbon
footprint of digital systems; page 12
features on overview of some key
9 14 16
presentations from the Summit.
Editor-in-Chief: Antonio Arcidiacono
Managing Editor: Patrick Wauthier
Editor: Eoghan O’Sullivan
tech@ebu.ch
Design: Louise Tait
Printed on FSC certified paper by
Contents
Graphius (FSC CO14767)
3 Keeping innovation alive through the next crisis
Antonio Arcidiacono on creating a more resilient R&D&I
© European Broadcasting Union
All rights reserved. The reproduction
ecosystem
of articles in tech-i is authorized only 4 EBU Technology & Innovation Award 2021
with the written permission of the Which projects are in the running this year?
publishers. The responsibility for views 6 Sharing video expertise and enthusiasm
expressed in tech-i rests solely with
Meet the people leading EBU work on video systems
the authors.
7 Securing a place for television in the age of the internet
Rundfunk Berlin Brandenburg is piloting DVB-I
8 Finding the right transcription tool for the job
A collaborative project helps Members to benchmark
transcription tools
9 Faky: fighting the spread of misinformation
RTBF’s new platform for fake-news detection
10 Measuring and reducing the carbon footprint of arte.tv
New to measurement provide a more complete picture
12 Sustainability and media technology: start with an honest
assessment of the facts
TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION Report from the inaugural EBU Sustainability Summit
Get an edge 13 Content distribution and production in the UHF band:
a virtuous circle for broadcasters
• Our goal is to be an incubator to
advance media technology. The EBU is calling for stability in how the UHF band is allocated
• We catalyse innovations so they 14 Testing the production of Next Generation Audio in an all-IP
deliver for all players environment
• We stimulate active collaboration so SRF tests how Next Generation Audio can be produced efficiently
that you get more than innovative
technology – you get a real 15 Designing better audio experiences: put the user at the centre
competitive advantage. Coming up with fresh approaches to audio user inferfaces
16 In my opinion: Surfing the change-waves
Sign up to receive tech-i magazine,
Director of Operations, Technology and Transformation at RTÉ,
EBU Technology & Innovation
newsletters or event alerts: tech.ebu. Richard Waghorn
ch/subscribe 17 Partner Profiles: ITU
How standards boost the benefits of broadcasting
EBU Members are encouraged to
follow and contribute to the work
18 Competitive pressures underscore the need for partnership at
of our Strategic Programmes and European level
Communities of Practice. The latest research from the EBU Media Intelligence Service
19 In the spotlight: Krzysztof Kucharski
Visit: tech.ebu.ch/ourwork
Senior Expert, Technology Department, TVP
2 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | June 2021
EDITORIAL
Keeping innovation alive through the
next crisis
Antonio Arcidiacono, Director of Technology & Innovation, EBU
Later this month we will name companies and reducing
the winner of the EBU expensive medium–long-term
Technology & Innovation Award investments that they, at that
2021 from among the 24 projects specific moment in time, would
listed on pages 4–5. Looking not likely make.
through the entries – the highest This new innovation effort
number received since the award should receive substantial and
was inaugurated five years ago urgent support from European
– I take heart from the fact that funded R&D and national
the spirit of innovation is clearly innovation projects. This is
alive and well across the EBU explicitly indicated in the
membership. The diversity of December 2020 action plan1 of
topics and approaches is also the European Commission. A
heartening, from remote specific reference is made to
production and authoring tools “Recovery and Resilience Plans”
to innovative devices, apps and providing national reforms and
platforms, virtual studios, AI enterprises (SMEs) that represent investments to contribute to
implementations, cloud, the vast majority of all businesses “strengthening European news
sustainability and much more. (I in the EU do not have the media and audiovisual digital
encourage you to make necessary cash for R&D and capacities, including through
connections – a new innovation (R&D&I) and often live multi-country projects, such as
collaboration may be just around on the brink of a funding crisis. co-productions of European
the corner!) Even public structures, also content, EU media data space
That many of these projects under the pressure of recurring infrastructure, or equity
have come to fruition in the crises, are victims of reduced investment to foster European
difficult conditions of the past funding and must almost audiovisual production or
year is a testimony to the mechanically reduce their staff distribution.” Such support
resourcefulness and resilience, and in particular their medium- should go beyond the
and often to the passion, of the and long-term investments. development phase and also help
technologists and creators in our Innovation only works in the with initially commercializing the
community. Of course, in some medium to long term. And results of the innovation projects.
cases it was specifically the restarting it, despite the best As I have previously observed2,
pandemic that generated the political claims, is complicated. A the EBU is today the largest
necessary momentum, but all of ‘normal’ company will often structure coordinating European
these projects represent public prefer not to draw on funds for media R&D&I activities. I believe
service media (PSM) innovating innovation if it risks financial it is thus the natural candidate to
under increasingly difficult strain later, having to repay loans, lead such an effort targeting
circumstances. however subsidized, or to innovation in media technology.
continue paying the salaries of If we can take the innovative
RECURRING CRISES people hired. spirit epitomized by the 2021 T&I
The recurring economic crises of What, then, is the solution? Award nominees, working
recent decades have pushed How can we unblock sustained alongside our counterparts in the
many companies in Europe to innovation? private media sector, and fuse
progressively stop innovating that with Europe’s deep pools of
and to reduce investment in INNOVATION ON-DEMAND academic and industrial talent,
research and development. While What we need are stable we can build a sustainable
the COVID-19 crisis has served to structures with which companies, structure that will keep alive the
spark and accelerate innovation public and/or private, can partner flame of innovation, sustain
in some domains, in the longer for their R&D&I with an ‘on- growth, and develop a resilient
term its deep budgetary impacts demand’ approach. We must join ecosystem that would also
will also be felt – and PSM will forces to support the creation of generate the momentum
not be immune. these flexible and modular required to survive through
Large companies often look at structures. This is what would future crises.
short-term financial results; the make it possible to innovate,
1 tinyurl.com/media-action-plan
small and medium-sized limiting the risk for motivated 2 See tech-i 47, March 2021
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | June 2021 3
NEWS & EVENTS
T&I Award 2021:
and the nominees are…
Now in its fifth year, the EBU Technology & Innovation Award provides an opportunity to shine a light on
some of the most creative technologists, developers and researchers from Europe’s public service media
community. A total of 24 projects were nominated for this year’s award; here we present a brief description of
each one, along with contact details you can use to request more information or enquire about a potential
collaboration.
The winner of the T&I Award 2021 will be announced during the EBU Technical Assembly on 9 June after
16:30 CEST. For information on how to access the stream, visit: tech.ebu.ch/events/ta2021
Audio Orchestrator production tool for multi-
device audio experiences
BBC, UK • Contact: Jon Francombe,
jon.francombe@bbc.co.uk
A software tool for prototyping audio experiences
that are orchestrated across multiple devices,
opening immersive and interactive audio to a much
wider range of listeners.
EAR (EBU ADM Renderer) Production Suite
BBC, UK & IRT, Germany • Contact: Chris Pike,
chris.pike@bbc.co.uk
A set of production tools that empowers in plug-in hybrid vehicles, reducing both operating
broadcasters to create spatial and personalizable costs and emissions.
audio using open standards, driving interoperability in
production tools and workflows. Home Planet app to gamify sustainable living
ITV, UK • Contact: Matt O’Shea,
BBC Sounds: an integrated audio platform matthew.oshea@itv.com
BBC, UK • Contact: Lloyd Shepherd, This mobile application, built in-house using a no-
lloyd.shepherd.sounds@bbc.co.uk code platform, underpins a campaign to encourage
Sounds is the new home for radio, music and all staff to live more sustainably, driving real cultural
podcasts at the BBC, giving listeners a personal, change within ITV.
relevant experience and offering them more control
and flexibility. Remote cloud-based editing solution
ITV, UK • Contact: Tim Guilder, tim.guilder@itv.com
BBC News Virtual Production Tools The ITV Studios team accelerated its development of
BBC, UK • Contact: Morwen Williams, remote and cloud-based editing solutions that are
morwen.williams@bbc.co.uk both agile and scalable, reducing the carbon footprint
Three transformational tools: Toucan for fast- and increasing productivity.
turnaround remote TV interviews; Pre Rec for quality
audio on pre-recorded distanced discussions; Virtual OBECA – evolving the 5G Broadcast ecosystem
Audience for connecting audiences with studios. ORF, Austria •
Contact: Stefan Babel,
Low-cost mobile Augmented Reality production kit stefan.babel@ors.at
France Télévisions, France • Contact: Christophe de OBECA (Open Broadcast Edge
Vallambras, christophe.devallambras@francetv.fr Cache Appliance) is a modular
The “JP Tech” kit – named after its inventor – uses open-source 5G Broadcast
technology from video games and virtual reality to receiver platform enabling the community to develop
enable low-cost production of live, mobile and tomorrow’s hybrid “broadband meets broadcast”
interactive AR sequences anywhere. solutions.
Newsgathering vehicles with low carbon emissions Digital data hub
ITV, UK • Contact: Tim Guilder, tim.guilder@itv.com ORF, Austria • Contact: Jürgen Schöner,
The ITV Daytime team developed a lightweight, agile juergen.schoener@orf.at
streaming solution for remote newsgathering, housed A software stack to aggregate and transform the
4 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | June 2021
huge amounts of programme-related metadata Reimagining the future
generated by linear broadcast systems for use on of radio apps
non-linear online services. SWR, Germany •
Contact: Daniel Freytag, lab@swr.de
Agile video editing The SWR mobile app gives users the
ORF, Austria • Contact: Sebastian Blaha, ability to instantly replay and save both music and
sebastian.blaha@orf.at segments to their personal playlist, all in an easy-to-
A solution for remote editing of broadcast quality use radio service.
video over public internet but rendered in the central
broadcasting MAM. Already commercialized and in Virtual studio production using game engines
use by other broadcasters. VRT, Belgium • Contact: Dries Tastenhoye,
dries.tastenhoye@vrt.be
Efficient production of companion screen Demonstrate the capabilities of a virtual studio based
applications on COTS hardware, leveraging the power of game
Rai, Italy • Contact: Alberto Messina, engines for high-value to small-scale live productions.
alberto.messina@rai.it
The RaiBridge system enables editorial teams to Automated metadata extraction from online videos
efficiently author companion screen content, Yle, Finland • Contact: Pia Virtanen,
delivered on a single customizable app, greatly pia.virtanen@yle.fi
enriching the user experience. Implementation on the Yle Areena player of
automated thumbnail selection and preview video
An avatar for sign language applications extraction, reducing the manual work involved and
Rai, Italy • Contact: Gino Alberico, increasing click-through rates.
gino.alberico@rai.it
A platform based on a virtual actor (avatar), enabling Automated subject indexing
applications for LIS (Italian Sign Language) such as Yle, Finland • Contact: Irene Nikkarinen,
teaching and automatic generation of weather irene.nikkarinen@yle.fi
forecast reports. Adopting an open-source subject indexing tool called
Annif has reduced manual work and improved the
Producing live in “hyper sound” quality of Yle’s metadata, contributing to improved
RTVE, Spain • Contact: Carmen Pérez Cernuda discoverability of content.
carmen.perez.cernuda@rtve.es
A concert streamed live from the Prado Museum was Monitoring regional TV news using audio
mixed and encoded using Dolby Atmos, enabling fingerprints
placement of sounds in three-dimensional space for Yle, Finland • Contact: Toni Ljungberg,
total audio immersion. toni.ljungberg@yle.fi
This proof of concept uses audio fingerprinting to
Pilot broadcast of 8K UHD over DVB-T2 automatically monitor regional news output, helping
RTVE, Spain • Contact: Adolfo Muñoz, to avoid the wrong content being played out in a
adolfo.mb@rtve.es given region.
A broadcast in October 2020 demonstrated the
feasibility of delivering 8K UHD services over get.it – a cloud-based metadata platform
terrestrial networks with existing technology, using ZDF, Germany • Contact: Thomas Urban,
HEVC video coding and DVB-T2. urban.t@zdf.de
A solution to map and translate data from different
5G and cloud for multiplatform content production applications into a common ZDF-specific model,
and distribution making it available to anyone, to support cross-media
RTVE, Spain • Contact: David Corral, production and publication.
david.corral@rtve.es
A live concert produced by Radio3 was delivered to HoLo Box: an all-in-one communication box
both online and broadcast platforms in multiple ZDF, Germany • Contact: Michael Hoitz,
formats using a multi-camera signal routed via 5G to hoitz.m@zdf.de
a cloud-based virtual mixer. Compact voice-guided system allowing journalists in
the field to connect to ZDF’s infrastructure via LTE/
News values – the public service algorithm KA-SAT, enabling communication and secure access
Sveriges Radio, Sweden • Contact: Jörgen Bang, to archives and drives.
jorgen.bang@sr.se
The algorithm used to automate SR’s news playlists is
centred on news values and gives prominence to
stories rated as having high public service value.
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | June 2021 5
VIDEO SYSTEMS Sharing video expertise and enthusiasm Video technology forms the basis of most of the EBU Members’ activities. It allows content and services to be created in ever higher quality, ever faster. At the same time available technical expertise is falling. Here is how the EBU helps. Public service media organizations are a heterogeneous group. They vary in size, age, resources, R&D capacity, market position, and so on. Technical staff working for these companies typically share a great enthusiasm for video technology and its use, but the expertise to use it optimally is not always at hand or the scale to perform large testing exercises is missing. The EBU helps by pooling Members together, maximizing the sharing of knowledge, experiences and available resources. History has shown this model works very well, especially in times of crisis, but also that it needs continuous adaptation. Recently the EBU’s video work has undergone such changes. The liquidation of the German research institute IRT accelerated a process that was under way already, namely the shift to a larger set of smaller projects led by different Members. Here we present four leaders of such work. For more details, or to follow or contribute to the work, see: tech.ebu.ch/video Simon Thompson (BBC) Kayatri Rangarajan Simon is leading the umbrella (CBC / Radio-Canada) group for the EBU’s video work, Kayatri is driving the creation Video Systems & Workflows. Its of EBU guidance on the use of main focus at the moment is on ‘non-standard’ aspect ratios in the measurement of production and archiving. professional video monitors, Social media applications often especially when used with HDR use 9:16 and even 1:1 aspect (high dynamic range) images. ratios, which has raised Simon has undertaken much questions about the optimum pioneering work in this domain, including many way of handling such material in editing and live HDR production trials, SDR HDR format archiving operations. An internal CBC study on conversions, colour/levels research and monitor the topic and an EBU Tech Roundtable have tests. The group is currently finalizing an update helped to define the main options and a set of to EBU Tech 3325, which helps Members measure do’s and don’ts. Besides writing up guidance for their own studio monitors. The new version will other Members, the work also includes be accompanied by new test material, including encouraging better support for non-standard more challenging test colours. aspect ratios in standards and production tools. Karl Petermichl (ORF) Roberto Iacoviello (RAI) With his managerial background In April 2021, a new group and operational expertise as a covering work on subjective broadcast engineer, Karl and objective evaluations was understands the need for clear, created. This Video Evaluation practical guidance on complex group covers the quality- topics. This is exactly what the checking of codecs, the UHDTV Strategy Support group creation of test sequences, and is aiming to provide. This the testing of AI-powered initiative, which Karl leads, is algorithms. The latter are currently creating guidance for the contribution of especially relevant for the upsampling of content UHDTV material both in live and file-based form. from SD to HD and from HD to UHD. Leadership This will facilitate UHDTV content exchange and is in the trusted hands of Roberto Iacoviello help Members that are not yet using UHD and (RAI). His current research is on AI techniques NGA technologies to start putting future-proof applied to video compression and point clouds. practices in place. His energetic and to-the-point Roberto is actively involved in several codec style mean the group’s calls never include a dull standardization organizations. moment and the speed is high. 6 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | June 2021
DISTRIBUTION TECHNOLOGY
Securing a place for television in the
age of the internet
Public service media must use their existing reach to direct users to new platforms and services.
Rundfunk Berlin Brandenburg (rbb), part of the ARD network, is exploring how DVB-I can help
with this, writes Remo Vogel.
After I saw the Eurovision Song
Contest broadcast as a live
stream in the late 90s, I was
totally convinced that television
would be devoured by the
internet within 10 years. It didn’t
happen that quickly. But today,
those working on the
transformation of public service
media (PSM) distribution can see
that we have a final window of
opportunity for television to
secure its place in the age of the
internet.
A smartphone showing an EPG delivered with DVB-I
SERVING THE CORD-CUTTERS
The digital transformation is still
at a relatively early stage for homogeneous user experience. technology, you simply have to
PSM. While other industries have Thus DVB-I allows a smooth try it out and gain practical
already had to completely turn migration from broadcast to experience. That’s why we
their business models upside broadband and gives control to decided in mid-2020 to start
down, classic broadcasting PSM organizations over priorities with a DVB-I pilot at rbb. As we
continues to work amazingly and quality parameters. use the DVB-SI (service
well. At the same time, we are While the technology is still in information) playout for the
experiencing a strong change in an early phase, several markets entire ARD network in Potsdam,
user behaviour, especially among are examining the potential of we can provide the service lists
younger generations. On the one DVB-I. In addition to the private and programme data for ARD
hand, there is a tendency broadcasters, completely new and ZDF in our DVB-I service list
towards consuming content on players are emerging. Therefore, with modest effort. We have
demand, without regard for it is extremely important for us to been using MPEG-DASH
linear schedules; on the other actively shape the start-up phase livestreams for other use cases
hand, we also see a trend and to secure the interests of for quite some time. Thanks to
towards the use of linear services PSM. This includes both service the DVB-I reference application
via IP. While the big screen is prominence on future devices provided by the DVB Project, we
booming, there is a growing and applications as well as the can concentrate completely on
number of so-called ‘cord- availability of features like our role, the provision of
cutters’ – users giving up entirely accessibility. ARD and ZDF are metadata and streams.
on multichannel television collaborating on describing a We are at the beginning of our
services – seeking only OTT- service scope that reflects our implementation and intend to
device support, from big screens interests in a first draft “Profile expand it in iterative steps. We
to smartphones. for DVB-I usage”. will ensure our activity aligns
Up to now, live streaming has with developments in the global
taken place in an unstructured DVB-I PILOT and national ecosystem and aim
way using proprietary solutions. To really get a picture of the to support the market
While the streaming technology potentials and weaknesses of a introduction of DVB-I.
itself is (most recently with
MPEG-DASH) very mature, there EBU HbbTV and DVB-I Group
has been no standardized The HbbTV and DVB-I interoperability group is designed for
approach for access on the big broadcasters to share best practices. It will also work to improve
screen. This is exactly where the interoperability of HbbTV in the markets where EBU Members
DVB-I comes in, combining are active. The group is chaired by Christian Klöckner (WDR) and
classic broadcast with OTT in a Remo Vogel (rbb). See: tech.ebu.ch/groups/hbbtv_dvb-i
hybrid approach and allowing a
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | June 2021 7
SPEECH RECOGNITION
Finding the right transcription tool
for the job
An EBU-led project helps Members to select the right transcription tools for different use
cases. Eyal Lavi (BBC), Alberto Messina (RAI) and Alexandre Rouxel (EBU) explain how
BenchmarkSTT is evolving.
Two important aspects of the public service media
remit are accessibility and the preservation of
language diversity. The burgeoning market for
translation and transcription tools may not always
sufficiently account for these needs, making it all the
more important to pick the right tool for a given job.
Automatic speech-to-text (STT) algorithms can
have enormous operational value where large for benchmarking automatic speech recognition
amounts of audiovisual content are processed. models, but it can be a blunt tool. It treats all words
Examples include metadata generation and the as equally important but in reality some words, like
production of subtitles, enabling new accessibility proper nouns and phrases, are more significant.
services and for the more efficient use of archives. When these are recognized correctly by a model,
Every language has its specificities. When it comes they should be given more weight. Version 1.1 of
to using STT transcription services, special BenchmarkSTT, recently released, thus introduced
characters, accents, capital letters and punctuation new metrics, namely the character error rate (CER)
can all impact the meaning of a transcript. The large and – to address the problem just described – the
number of commercial STT vendors and the rapid ‘bag of entities’ error rate (BEER).
development of new algorithms make for a dynamic BenchmarkSTT is open source and available on
and complex landscape. BenchmarkSTT was both GitHub and PyPI, where there is extensive
developed as a simple and service-agnostic tool to documentation and a detailed step-by-step tutorial.
help choose the best STT implementation for a The team is now developing metrics to evaluate the
given use case. quality of speaker diarization, showing ‘who spoke
This production-ready tool, first released in April when’.
2020, was created in response to requests from the BenchmarkSTT was developed by the
EBU membership, where there is a huge diversity of Flemish Institute for Archiving (VIAA), BBC (UK),
native languages. Unlike other tools in the area of AI Rai (Italy), Sveriges Radio (Sweden) and France
and machine learning, this command-line tool was Télévisions, under the umbrella of the EBU.
designed to be used by non-specialists. Visit tech.ebu.ch/production and click on AI
The word error rate (WER) is the standard metric Benchmarking.
Who is using BenchmarkSTT? try to identify the content types for which the
automated transcription gives the best results (e.g.
Deutsche Welle, Germany news content).
DW is evaluating transcription, translation and voice Sveriges Radio
synthesis AI tools for the development of a cognitive The Swedish broadcaster contributes to the
platform. Subjective and objective evaluation metrics BenchmarkSTT project with a view to having a better
are combined, with BenchmarkSTT used for way to benchmark different transcription engines and
evaluating transcription. help evaluate them. The use of WER and CER
TV 2, Norway provides data to be used as part of ongoing
Benchmark STT allows TV 2 to compare progress in evaluations of different vendors.
quality development for different vendors. The Rai – Radiotelevisione Italiana
broadcaster’s backend AIHub obtains transcripts In the context of a greater focus on integrating
from different vendors for clips taken from an internal available AI cloud services in strategic production and
FTP video receiver tool, using release 1.1 of publication processes, BenchmarkSTT is used for the
BenchmarkSTT running on Docker to evaluate them. evaluation of different STT vendors.
Radio France BBC
BenchmarkSTT is used to assess the added value of BenchmarkSTT was used to compare various STT
transcribing audio content into text to feed search algorithms used in the in-house transcription API as
and recommandation features. Already using the well as for a small-scale study of subtitles as ground-
WER for a rough evaluation of the transcription truth data. The study suggested that it may be
quality, they plan to use the BEER feature to help possible to use subtitles, rather than expensive,
improve performance with respect to the words manually created transcripts, as reference for
selected by the recommendation engine. Finally, they calculating WER.
8 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | June 2021
FAKE NEWS DETECTION
You can learn more
about Faky at faky.be
An EBU tool
for fake news
detection
Alexandre Rouxel and
Pierre Fouché (EBU)
Human performance in
detecting fake news by
analysing only the content
without knowing the context
and the facts is very poor – not
much better than random
choice. This has been confirmed
through rigorous experiments by
Faky: fighting the spread psychologists. At the EBU, we
have developed our own AI
of misinformation models to detect fake news
using linguistic properties.
As a complement to the
A new platform from Belgium’s RTBF provides users with fact-checking approach, which
access to a range of tools to evaluate online information. requires a thorough
Grégoire Ryckmans explains what it offers. understanding of the context,
the EBU eXplainable tagging
In an effort to fight against Those articles from Le Monde tool uses natural language
misinformation, which has been also form part of the second processing. The tool computes a
on the rise in recent years, RTBF element of the platform, which is reliability score and explains
has developed a fact-checking its feed of the latest fact-checking how the text’s lexical,
platform accessible to everyone. articles published by partner grammatical, psychological and
Faky offers several tools to help newsrooms. Alongside those semantic properties influence
both journalists and citizens to published by RTBF journalists, the score. It also goes one step
evaluate the reliability of a given there are also the articles from further by indicating the
article, website or image. Les Décodeurs, and similar sentences or psychological traits
There are four main features on services run by Franceinfo, TV5 of the text that most affect the
the platform. First and foremost is Monde, France 24 and Radio- score.
the possibility to submit for Canada, as well as from the We are developing an API,
analysis any article (in the French collaborative platform Hoax Net. open for EBU Members, to
language) by pasting its URL into As a third option, Faky also attribute explainable reliability
the search box. Independent and offers a general search, allowing scores to their content. As we
partner-developed tools then users to search for fact-checking design and train our models, we
analyse the URL through different articles related to a given theme can quickly adapt them to new
information prisms such as or based on keywords. For trends and emerging topics. We
source, content, syntax or example, should a visitor want to are now collaborating with RTBF
dissemination. know whether Bill Gates really to handle articles in French and
The article’s reliability is said “we should eliminate three open our API to Faky.
assessed by the Crowlingo billion people”, with a few clicks, We are also working towards
platform; its content is analysed they will find the answer. (Hint: he exposing a new API for
by an AI-based ‘disinformation didn’t!) authorship and source
detector’ developed on behalf of Finally, there is an image attributions. rouxel@ebu.ch
RTBF; and its subjectivity is verification tool. It uses a ‘reverse
evaluated by Textgain, a tool that image search’ to help discover
relies on natural language whether a photo has been MDN Workshop 2021
processing (NLP). Articles are retouched, hijacked or The projects described on this
also cross-checked using two decontextualized. This feature page were presented by the
products from the French allows the user to find the authors during the recent
newspaper Le Monde, the different sites where the same Metadata Developer Network
Décodex tool that checks the image has been published to find workshop. The slides and
source of the article and the Les the source and see, for example, videos are available here:
Décodeurs series of fact-checking whether it has been the subject of tech.ebu.ch/mdn21
articles. fact checking.
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | June 2021 9
SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS
Measuring and reducing the
carbon footprint of arte.tv
Existing measurement tools don’t provide a complete picture of the carbon footprint for online
platforms, but new approaches are emerging, writes Kemal Görgülü, CTO of ARTE.
Sustainability is one of ARTE’s end-to-end stack within a
core values. Not only have controlled environment.
environmental issues always GreenFrame isn’t yet capable
had a place in our programme of giving an accurate estimate
catalogue, but they also play of the footprint of the arte.tv
an essential role in shaping our system in production. It focuses
in-house energy policy, technical on reproducing the digital
infrastructure, and various system in a lab environment.
other fields – including digital Furthermore, while it may But by doing so, it provides
activities. By identifying potential be possible to quantify the precious and reproducible key
for reducing our digital carbon environmental impact of server- indicators that make it possible
footprint, we aim to induce a side infrastructure fairly easily, to assess the evolution of the
sustainable change in mindsets doing so on the client side is all arte.tv carbon footprint over time
and behaviours as early as the the more difficult. The only way as new features are regularly
programming stage. But where to get accurate system metrics added by developers. It allows us
to start from? like CPU or network consumption to raise awareness of good and
An important first step towards on the client side is to have users bad development practices with
prioritizing appropriate actions install third-party software with respect to carbon footprint. It
was to get a clear picture of the administrator privileges – not also allows us to clearly highlight
carbon footprint of our digital a viable option with regard to the link between sustainability,
system, specifically our arte.tv security and data protection performance, and the user
platform. However, existing requirements. experience on our platform.
measurement tools proved to be
insufficient to obtain a FULL-STACK MODEL HOW DOES IT WORK?
comprehensive end-to-end vision The good news is that some On the frontend, GreenFrame
of the impact. They evaluate the experimental solutions are conducts end-to-end tests by
footprint of only one part of a emerging to fill this gap. We simulating typical user scenarios
digital system – the client, the have realized a proof of concept (Fig. 1).
server, or the network. In doing with one of them, GreenFrame It uses Docker to encapsulate
so, they create an incentive to (formerly Argos), a promising each component of the system
move emissions from one part of framework based on scientific in an isolated container.
the system to another part that models and addressing the main While running the scenarios,
isn’t measured, thus improving issues listed above. GreenFrame GreenFrame gathers technical
the visible metrics but not the allowed us to measure the metrics (CPU, memory, network
GreenFrame : Measuring the digital footprint of a system
overall footprint. carbon footprint of an entire I/Os, disk I/Os) in real time, and
Running a user Collection of Component Our model calculates The analysis report
scenario on the technical metrics isolation via the energy allows developers
client desktop on system containerization consumption of each to find
components component in Watt optimizations and
hours detect best
practices
Figure 1. How GreenFrame measures the carbon footprint of a digital system
10 12
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | June 2021 2
Mois de collaboration Modules Open-sourceReducing our global carbon
footprint means first and
foremost reducing our client-
side energy consumption.
The challenge will be to find
a balance between reducing
the carbon footprint without
compromising the UI/UX. As a
positive side effect, this will also
mean significantly improving
page and video loading times.
WHAT’S NEXT?
We will continue to use
GreenFrame at ARTE and
integrate it into our CI system in
Figure 2. The client device and the network account for the vast majority of
energy use. order to detect regression early
in our development processes.
We will also take the example of
“The challenge will be to find a balance other important issues like web
performance and security, and
between reducing the carbon footprint determine a monthly ‘carbon
without compromising the UI/UX.” budget’, combined with an
internal set of rules to limit (and
reduce) energy consumption.
A further approach will be
to give greater consideration
to environmental criteria when
choosing, for example, a new
CDN provider, as this represents
a large part of our video
infrastructure. CDNs currently
transforms them into the same LIMITATIONS AND RESULTS don’t provide CO2 emissions
unit, watt-hours. Based on an For our proof of concept, led metrics, but they will if enough
energy mix, watt-hours can by François Dume and Olivier customers require them.
easily be converted to carbon Hoffschir, we were able to get Finally, we’re aware that
emissions, which convey a clear the project started quickly optimizing the footprint of
overview of the digital system because we were already in a service can lead to more
footprint. Each scenario is run the process of converting all usage, and ultimately to greater
a dozen times to get a strong, our applications to a container- emissions. We want to offer
accurate signal and reduce the based infrastructure. Having this transparency to our viewers so
standard deviation. kind of architecture in place is that they can make informed
That means GreenFrame tracks a strong requirement for using decisions about how they watch
the entire system: the frontend, this tool. But some services ARTE videos.
the backend, the database, and (databases, APIs, CDN) proved Then, all requirements will
the network. to be more difficult to integrate be met for a virtuous circle
The process of running into this controlled environment. allowing us to induce sustainable
GreenFrame tests is fully In some cases we thus had to business transformation
automated and, thanks to its simulate services, for example at ARTE, thus meeting our
container-based architecture, it using static text files, which may responsibility as public service
runs smoothly in any continuous have led to underestimates. media to do our part in
integration (CI) and deployment The initial results weren’t improving the environmental
(CD) system. New analyses necessarily revolutionary impact of our industry.
can be triggered each time a and basically confirmed our
developer pushes a change assumptions that the majority of GreenFrame (greenframe.io)
in the code, giving us the energy consumption is indeed was created by Marmelab
possibility to detect any kind on the user side (browser, (marmelab.com/en).
of improvement or regression screen, network, ...). They also EBU Members can view Kemal
in the environmental footprint highlighted that video transit Görgülü’s presentation
of the global system before and decoding form the bulk of on this topic at
deploying a new feature to the carbon emissions of a media BroadThinking 2021 here:
production. service like arte.tv (Fig. 2). tech.ebu.ch/broadthinking2021
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | June 2021 11EBU SUSTAINABILITY SUMMIT
Sustainability and media technology: start with
an honest assessment of the facts
One key takeaway from the recent EBU Sustainability Summit was the need to base actions on
hard data, writes the EBU’s Hemini Mehta.
The EBU’s first Sustainability
Summit, aptly held on Earth
Day (22 April), attracted more
than 400 online participants
from around the world. They
came together around a shared
commitment to finding ways to Tim Davis Roy Schwartz
reduce the environmental impact
of the media industry.
Opening with a look at
policy-driven approaches
at the global and European
levels, the programme moved
onto foundational concepts Miguel Coma Katie Singer
such as the circular economy,
sustainability strategies and relying on fixed line internet. 5G ON THE WAY
targeting net-zero impacts. A Data like this gives ITV a much A third technology of growing
session on green tech – see clearer idea of where changes interest to broadcasters and
below – was followed by parallel can have the biggest impact. where sustainability is increasingly
workshops on green production, in focus is 5G. IT architect Miguel
held in multiple languages. GREENER AI Coma summarized the likely
Data is also key to research on environmental impacts as 5G rolls
DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY making AI more sustainable, out: the biggest culprits in terms
Kicking off the green tech presented by Roy Schwartz of energy consumption will be the
session, Tim Davis of ITV (UK) of the Hebrew University of access networks and data centres,
discussed the need to “design for Jerusalem. With this technology and the embodied energy (i.e.,
sustainability”. With a public goal becoming ubiquitous in many energy spent on manufacturing,
of achieving net-zero carbon fields, including media (e.g. including the devices and
emissions by 2030, and based for translation and in voice batteries, etc.). Impacts related to
on the principle that “information interfaces), concerns include extraction of fossil fuels and rare
generates insight”, ITV has joined the environmental impact of earth elements also need to be
DIMPACT. This is a collaborative deep-learning models that accounted for.
project that aims to take the grow bigger all the time, but It’s an area that requires an
complexity out of calculating also the billions of smaller honest assessment, said writer
carbon emissions across the AI-driven interactions that Katie Singer: “I live in the ‘I
entire digital media value chain. happen daily with web searches, don’t know’ a lot; they are just
It enables ITV to model the recommendations, etc. enormous problems, but unless
impact of its digital offerings by The hardest challenge in we’re honest about the whole
calculating energy consumption calculating the true carbon cradle-to-cradle situation, we’re
both internally (e.g. data centres) footprint of AI is in how to not going to be getting honest
and externally (e.g. when viewers measure it. This challenge is answers.”
consume the content, with addressed by, in the first place, For 5G, the answers could lie,
delivery bitrates being one key enhancing the reporting of for example, in deploying it only
variable). AI success rates so that the where really needed, such as
ITV found that, for digital achievement of different levels in small-scale private networks
content, the delivery mechanism of accuracy is mapped against targeting Industry 4.0, or using
made the single biggest a given budget level (where wired alternatives wherever
contribution to the total carbon that budget could be stated in possible.
emissions. Furthermore, while terms of electricity or carbon).
cellular networks represented Dr Schwartz and his colleagues, Videos and slides are
roughly 50% of the carbon who have been promoting available from: tech.ebu.ch/
generated for digital distribution, efficiency as a core evaluation sustainability2021
that related to only 2.5% of the for AI, have seen that there is a Find out more about EBU T&I
actual content consumption, with growing awareness of this aspect activities around sustainability:
the vast majority of consumption of using AI. tech.ebu.ch/groups/spsm
12 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | June 2021SPECTRUM POLICY
Content distribution and production in the
UHF band: a virtuous circle for broadcasters
David Hemingway (BBC), chair of the EBU strategic programme on spectrum, explains why
stability in how the UHF band is allocated is essential to maximize innovation and public value.
For the last 50 years, we have content to be made and
relied on the UHF frequency delivered to our audiences. That,
band for delivery of terrestrial however, should not detract from
television. The move from the continued importance of
analogue to digital allowed the broadcast delivery of our
release of some of the UHF band programmes. Consumption of AV
to be used instead for mobile content is shifting to IP, but
broadband systems – first 4G slowly, much more slowly than
and now 5G. Broadcasters also many predicted. For public
use the UHF band for service content, delivering high
programme production social and cultural value across
technologies, interleaved Europe, broadcasting remains
between the television supremely important. More than
transmissions: radio mics, 80% of our viewing and listening
talkback systems and in-ear is still delivered through
monitors. We have innovated in broadcast platforms: terrestrial
those too: moving to digital (DTT, FM, DAB), satellite and
systems, squeezing more cable. These numbers very
channels into the same spectrum between countries, of course –
and moving out of spectrum for some EBU Members, online
earmarked for mobile broadband. David Hemingway delivery is higher but for many it
Regardless of how we distribute remains low.
our finished content or how
important DTT is in our countries, CHANGES NOT NECESSARY
we all use those production At the 2023 World
systems for making programmes Radiocommunication Conference
– without them, our content (WRC-23), national regulators
offering would be much poorer. from Europe, Africa and the
Middle East will discuss the
YOUNGER AUDIENCES future use of the remaining UHF
And we continue to innovate in data costs. Even better, it can be spectrum that we use for DTT.
the technology we use to deliver used in the existing UHF band, The EBU believes that we can
our content. We need to respond under the rules of the Geneva continue to innovate in our use
to changing audience behaviour, 2006 Agreement, requiring no of this band, both to create and
especially among younger new spectrum to be allocated. to deliver public value for our
audiences. Reaching younger Broadcasters could (subject to audiences in new and exciting
audiences is challenging, due to agreement with their national ways, without the need to make
both the type of content they regulator, of course) swap out changes in the international
enjoy and the ways we deliver it. DVB-based systems for 5G treaty that governs use of radio
Their preferred viewing device Broadcast – this is especially spectrum.
has moved from TV sets to attractive in those countries Broadcasters have created a
smartphones and tablets. Direct where DTT take-up is low. For virtuous circle in their use of UHF
delivery to those devices, in a those Members operating in spectrum: it allows us to both
way that is both spectrum- and countries where DTT is distribute our programmes in a
cost-efficient, is key. important, they could continue highly efficient way, helping to
The EBU has been looking at to use DTT for as long as their ensure universal access to public
ways to utilize mobile networks audiences demand it. service content, and we use it for
that could be beneficial to One of the great innovations of programme-making applications,
Members. To that end we have the last decade or so, of course, creating content that would not
added elements into the 5G has been the ability to deliver be possible without it.
standard that can enable a ‘5G content by IP. This isn’t just a Destabilizing this arrangement
Broadcast’ system capable of great leap forward in technology, by amending spectrum
delivering content to mobile but has enabled, and will management regulation is both
devices efficiently and without continue to enable, new types of risky and unnecessary.
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | June 2021 13AUDIO PRODUCTION Testing production of Next Generation Audio in an all-IP environment Having embraced SMPTE ST 2110 for its new facilities, SRF is exploring how Next Generation Audio can be handled with maximum efficiency. Adrian Hilber, Andreas Weiss and Markus Brockmann describe a recent proof of concept. The use of object-based audio (OBA) allows us to kill two birds with one stone: we can offer personalized sound experiences while also optimizing the use of bandwidth. An obvious use case would be a movie or live sports event with one multichannel audio bed and a variety of different languages plus audio description. With OBA, an ‘object’ is essentially an audio stream with accompanying descriptive metadata. By using dynamic metadata, the end user can be given the freedom to choose how the available audio objects are played back in their Clockwise from top left: Faders on the desk controlling only metadata; specific listening environment. protocol convertor between desk and PMD Studio; Audio Metadata Viewer on For SRF, doing all of this with the receiver side; PMD Studio with different gains for the same IS input. ST 2110 IP-based workflows is critical. This was the driver a broadcaster, as technology is authoring tool. Here we had for our proof of concept in changing faster and faster. to develop our own protocol collaboration with Dolby converter to interface our Laboratories Inc. PROOF OF CONCEPT console with the PMD studio. In The solution takes the mixing Our test aimed to prove how our view, a good way to go is parameters of an audio console dynamic metadata could be the open sound control (OSC) and uses this data to control used for a sports transmission protocol with an S-ADM profile, an authoring tool (Dolby PMD where we have an ‘international as OSC is widely used in audio Studio) generating the desired sound’ (IS) object and three gear and, with a defined S-ADM metadata. Bringing these commentary objects (for profile, the vocabulary of each parameters into a standard different languages). Each object device would be compatible. protocol (in our case S-ADM) is only transported once but Our test environment used an allows the use and routing of the on the receiver side we have a ST 2110-31 stream to carry the metadata in any standardized different representation for each S-ADM dynamic metadata. This broadcast environment. combination of commentary plus worked well, even if converted Serial ADM – a new professional IS, with the mix controlled by to SDI and back. However, as ST audio metadata format derived generating dynamic metadata. 2110-31 is intended for bigger from the ITU’s Audio Definition This means that the IS object audio streams rather than very Model file format – seems to needs three different gains in small metadata streams, working be the right choice for OBA the metadata, one for each towards a solution that uses ST metadata. It is clear to us that representation, and each 2110-41, specifically intended for even in a modern facility there commentary also needs a ancillary data, seems obvious to is always a need for backward gain. As audio engineers, it is us. compatibility. And though a full important to be able to generate With the audio and the IP-based workflow is the goal, in metadata directly from a mixing metadata in separate streams, reality we often have to deal with desk. Control rooms are already care also must be taken to legacy SDI infrastructure and cluttered with controllers and ensure the indexing data in links. web interfaces, so having another the S-ADM stream that maps The use of open standards and UI for the metadata control audio objects to given channels protocols to ensure maximum should be avoided. remains intact during transport. interoperability between different The first challenge was to We’d be happy to share more products is becoming more get the fader positions from information about the tests. and more important for us as our console to the metadata Don’t hesitate to get in touch! 14 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | June 2021
AUDIO USER EXPERIENCE
Designing better audio experiences:
put the user at the centre
The EBU Audio Systems group hosted a series of sessions aiming to come up with fresh
approaches to user interfaces and experiences for audio. Interaction design researcher
Lalya Gaye led the process.
Next Generation Audio (NGA) essential design rationales for the
promises significant benefits interfaces and sketch out user
to audiences, content creators interfaces based on Members’
and broadcasters. It uses use cases. This preliminary work
metadata embedded in the is intended to form the basis for
audio files and streams. Instead potential future development
of creating multiple audio mixes, aimed at providing UI design
producers can deliver a single, guidelines to TV manufacturers
multi-purpose audio package, and app designers.
which can then be rendered and The results of these sessions,
played back appropriately on and a description of the process
anything from mono devices to used, have now been published
sophisticated and fully immersive as EBU Tech Report 061, User
audio setups. Accessibility and Experience and Interface ideation
personalization features are also for NGA (available via tech.ebu.
enabled in this way, such as the ch/publications). The report
ability for users to control the describes how interaction design
relative playback volume of voice methods put the end user, rather
commentaries over the rest of than the technology, at the
the programme audio. centre of the thinking process
While there is already a good and create interfaces that are
understanding of the value more intuitively understood and
of immersive audio, many Design sessions with several better adapted to the end user’s
in the industry believe that Member representatives daily life. The report will be of
personalization of audio has participating were held every interest to professionals working
the potential to be even more two weeks. We dived into on designing any kind of media
widely appreciated. For example, methods such as persona user interface, but especially
the ability to adjust dialogue design, scenarios of use, those related to personalized and
levels relative to other sounds bodystorming (brainstorming by immersive sound experiences.
will address one of the most physically trying things out) and
frequent complaints received by wireframing (drawing overviews Visit the EBU Audio Systems
broadcasters. of interactive products to group page to follow and
establish the structure and flow contribute to activies related
INTERACTION DESIGN of possible design solutions). to audio technology and
During a discussion among These sessions helped identify experiences: tech.ebu.ch/as
members of the EBU Audio
Systems group in the spring Go deep on NGA
of 2020, the idea of revisiting A new publication from the EBU and FAME (Forum for Advanced
the definition of the user Media in Europe) goes into detail on Ten things you need to know
experience (UX) and user about Next Generation Audio. From applications and workflows to
interface (UI) in the context costs and timelines, the report offers comprehensive overview of
of NGA applications on both the state of the wider NGA ecosystem today. Download it from
television receivers and mobile tech.ebu.ch/publications
apps emerged. With a view to
providing design pespectives
for rich and meaningful user-
centred experiences, and for
more intuitive and enjoyable
interfaces, it was decided to run
a series of interaction design
sessions. Having a background
in interaction design and related
methodologies, I was asked to
guide this process.
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | June 2021 15IN MY OPINION
Surfing the change-waves as a
smart follower
Having adopted a smart follower strategy, Ireland’s RTÉ is better prepared for change, writes
Richard Waghorn, Director of Operations, Technology and Transformation.
The pandemic forced us all to
change, rapidly. At RTÉ, we
implemented some changes in a
matter of days, with new ways
of working that were previously
unthinkable: when choice is no
longer an option, necessity
drives innovation.
SELF-DISRUPTION
Of course, relying on an external
disruptor, such as a worldwide
pandemic, to force change is not
a sustainable model. We need to
disrupt ourselves all the time to
ensure that we are ready to face
the next change-wave, and the
one after that. If dealing with
change is challenging, given
resource constraints and the Richard Waghorn
regulated environments we
operate in, then failing to “While RTÉ doesn’t have a research and
prepare for change is disastrous.
When I first arrived at RTÉ, I
development function, we do have teams of
said to the technology teams people who want to push boundaries.”
that we needed to be smart
followers. We didn’t need to be
the early bird that catches the such as our private cloud, our Accelerator programme: RTÉ
worm – that risks wasting the content management system will co-champion five projects
limited money and resources and storage platform, our this year, covering 5G, LEO
that we have. Instead, we flexible TV studios and new satellites and AR/VR. Staff from
needed to be the second mouse productivity solutions are doing technology and operations are
that gets the cheese – the wily their job – they’ve disrupted the involved in various EBU groups,
follower often secures the way we work, facilitated change and we continue to innovate
sustained competitive and ultimately enabled RTÉ to with projects that will transform
advantage. strengthen its game. the way we work. And, along
Being the smart follower the way, we’ve picked up two
required us to disrupt INNOVATION CULTURE IBC Innovation Awards.
established norms. In order to And we’re becoming smarter Getting the smart follower
be ready to surf the next innovators. While RTÉ doesn’t strategy right means we can
change-wave we needed to be have a research and make the organization more
agile, efficient, and clever in the development function, we do agile and efficient, and better
way we invested and innovated. have teams of people who prepared for change. The proof
Over time, we shifted the want to push boundaries. of the smart follower strategy is
investment focus away from Using collaborative approaches, in our response to COVID-19.
upgrades and maintenance to we are building an innovation Part of that response is down to
transformative projects, projects culture that helps our staff the smart investments we’ve
that are now delivering real to think beyond the current made, but part of it is also down
value across the organization. horizon and see the waves to the building of a culture that
We are unlocking efficiencies in of change that are coming is more conditioned to facing
every area of the business, our way. and responding to change. The
enabling us to better serve and We are now in our third year self-induced disruption has (so
reach our audiences. Projects of participating in the IBC far) paid off.
16 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | June 2021You can also read
