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MEDIA TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION ISSUE 47 • MARCH 2021
Targeting cloud-based
and remote production
Plus
Multiplying the value of Europe’s newsrooms
Frédéric Brochard (France Télévisions) on technology priorities
Why broadcasters still need the DVB Project, and vice-versa
and more...
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 1
tech.ebu.ch/subscribe
-i
Issue 47 • March 2021
4 14
Cover story: The COVID-19 pandemic
has accelerated the development of
remote production solutions that take
advantage of the cloud. This issue
of tech-i includes an update on the
activities of the new EBU Hybrid &
Cloud Production Group (pages 8-9),
including a recent technology test at
7 16
the World Biathlon Championships
in Antholz, Italy (pictured on the
cover). You can also read about
Yle’s development of a cloud-based
radio studio and RTVE’s use of
5G technology with cloud-based
production and distribution.
Cover photo © Biathlon Antholz /
Contents
3 Spearheading the renaissance of media innovation in Europe
Manzoni / NordicFocus
Antonio Arcidiacono on the need for Europe-wide collaboration
on innovation
Editor-in-Chief: Antonio Arcidiacono
Managing Editor: Patrick Wauthier 4 Emmy Awards; SMPTE presidency
Editor: Eoghan O’Sullivan 5 Discussing the future of European media R&D
tech@ebu.ch Report on a panel discussion at PTS 2021
Design: Louise Tait 6 Yle works towards cloud-based radio production
Printed on FSC certified paper by How Yle is creating a fully featured radio studio in the cloud
Graphius (FSC CO14767) 7 A 5G journey through the cloud
Pushing the boundaries of new production and distribution
© European Broadcasting Union technologies at RTVE
All rights reserved. The reproduction
of articles in tech-i is authorized only
8 Live production in the cloud – learning through collaboration
with the written permission of the The new EBU group on Hybrid & Cloud Production mounted a
publishers. The responsibility for views pilot production at the Biathlon World Championships
expressed in tech-i rests solely with 10 Strength in diversity: multiplying the value of Europe’s
the authors. newsrooms
Introducing the News Monitoring tool and the Recommendation
Box
11 Eurovision News Monitoring: what’s under the hood
How EuroVOX and PEACH provide the core functions
TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION 12 Looking beyond the media technology horizon
Get an edge
A new report on how PSM R&D labs see the future media
• Our goal is to be an incubator to landscape
advance media technology. 14 Who needs conventional broadcast networks when you’ve got
• We catalyse innovations so they the internet! Right?
deliver for all players
• We stimulate active collaboration so
Roland Beutler recommends caution when relying on Big Tech
that you get more than innovative 15 Sustainability Matters: Tackling climate change one
technology – you get a real conversation at a time
competitive advantage. A mobile app aims to make sustainability part of the day-to-day
technology conversation at ITV
Sign up to receive tech-i magazine,
EBU Technology & Innovation 16 In my opinion: Finding new levers to meet the challenges of
newsletters or event alerts: tech.ebu. tomorrow
ch/subscribe France Télévisions CTO/CIO Frédéric Brochard
EBU Members are encouraged to
17 Partner Profiles: DVB Project
follow and contribute to the work Still serving broadcasters, with more urgency than ever
of our Strategic Programmes and 18 No single approach to sign-in dominates
Communities of Practice. The latest research from the EBU Media Intelligence Service
Visit: tech.ebu.ch/ourwork 19 In the spotlight: Karl Petermichl
Strategy and Governance Officer to the CTO, ORF
2 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021
EDITORIAL
Spearheading the renaissance of
media innovation in Europe
Antonio Arcidiacono, Director of Technology & Innovation, EBU
Consider, for a moment, the the first materialization of this
differences between the US vision with the launch of the
media landscape and our News Monitoring and the
situation here in Europe. On the Recommendation Box projects
other side of the Atlantic, we (see pages 10-11). AI
find large and uniform markets technologies are leveraged to
where content and platforms combine trusted news from
can gain mass audiences and multiple EBU Members, made
take advantage of considerable available to any journalist or
economies of scale. citizen in their own preferred
Europe, in contrast, is a language. This represents not
multicultural, multilingual only a wider choice but also a
patchwork of medium and unique democratic weapon
(mostly) small markets: we are enabling comparison of
more than capable of producing independent information
interesting content and sources.
technology products but are
limited by the size of each OPEN TECHNOLOGY
individual market. The potential the most obvious ones. These Part of our public service
return on investment constrains technologies can be applied to mandate is also that of setting
the amount of product help create an offer that can be the reference for technology
development that can happen, consumed in all markets at a innovation. It is a role the EBU
whether in production or sustainable production cost. has been fulfilling for decades,
distribution. I see the potential for an driving innovation in media
These constraints were less of enlarged content offer technology in collaboration with
a problem before the age of combined with a common set of international bodies such as
globalization. However, today products and distribution DVB, SMPTE, ITU, HbbTV,
we see that the inability to services aimed at a mass 5G-MAG, ETSI, WorldDAB and
compete, not only on European market – more than others. Our historical leadership
production but also on R&D and 500 million people. With role was recently acknowledged
innovation in general, leaves the individual countries having with the receipt of three
door wide open for the large increasingly diverse audiences, Technology & Engineering
OTT operators – mostly based the smart application of AI and Emmy Awards (see page 4).
in the US – that can continue to data technologies can help The EBU remains today the
invest in product innovation. identify the best opportunities largest structure coordinating
With the exception of the for export. And the economies European media R&D&I
anglophone native productions, of scale that arise will enable activities. It is the natural
other European products often targeting of content and candidate to lead the
find a natural resistance to distribution services in the other development of open
export and consumption in four continents. technology solutions that
markets other than their own So, the way to address this benefit EBU Members along
national ones. challenge of Europe’s non- with the entire industry and
uniform markets is in combining society at large. I want to see
LEVERAGING AI & DATA original, high quality content the EBU leading a European
How can we address these with technological innovation to hub of excellence in media
constraints on investment? Can attract audiences, while technology development,
we avoid wasteful replication of developing a sustainable set of driving innovation where
efforts to develop distribution products in the long term. To technology and media creation
solutions that are deployed only develop and maintain innovative come together. We must fight
at a national level? The answers products we must join forces back to ensure we can leverage
lie partly in new AI-based and and produce the required tools our own tools of production
data technologies, including in both production and and distribution, so that citizens
language management and distribution technology. get the most out of Europe’s
smart recommendation among We have recently announced rich cultural heritage.
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 3
NEWS & EVENTS
SMPTE elects EBU
T&I’s Hans Hoffmann as
President
The SMPTE standards organization has
elected Hans Hoffmann, Head of Media
Fundamentals and Production at the EBU,
as its president for the 2021–22 term. On
1 January, Hoffmann became the first
European in the history of the organization
to serve in that role.
EBU receives three Technology The appointment further strengthens
& Engineering Emmy® Awards the EBU’s ties and partnerships with the
wider entertainment industry. The Society
The European Broadcasting Union has been awarded of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
three Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for is based in the US and operates as a global
excellence in engineering creativity, recognizing three key professional association of engineers,
technologies that were collaboratively developed by the technologists and executives working in
EBU and that have shaped or underpin systems widely the media and entertainment industry. Its
used by the broadcast industry today. work underpins many of the technologies
“These three Emmy Awards confirm that collaboration used by media organizations around the
between organizations is key to successful innovation, world.
and we will continue on this path”, says EBU Director “It’s an honour to be elected to this
of Technology & Innovation Antonio Arcidiacono. “They leadership position at SMPTE,” said
are proof of the power of collaborative, leading-edge Hoffmann. “I look forward to collaborating
innovation to shape the future of technology and make with the fantastic SMPTE team in White
a lasting, practical impact. We’re very pleased to have Plains, the SMPTE Board, and the SMPTE
the work of the engineers and experts who drove those membership to identify the Society’s
developments honoured in this way.” gravity points — strengths and areas
The first Emmy Award recognizes the EBU’s role in the we need to develop to grow now and
creation of the Advanced Authoring Format (AAF), an in the near future. We have a world of
interchange file format that paved the way for cross- opportunity ahead of us, and we need to
platform post-production workflows, the benefits of be agile in positioning the Society to delve
which are still enjoyed by the industry today. into the areas that address the rise of the
The second Emmy Award honours the standardization cloud, IP, remote workflows and media
and commercialization of broadcast, hybrid electrical creation, artificial intelligence and machine
and fibre optic camera cable and connectors, a design learning, software in place of hardware,
for physical interconnect solutions that helped to and personalization and ‘immersiveness’ in
accommodate the growing bandwidth requirements in media consumption.”
digital media production systems and has since come to Hans Hoffmann was also recently
be relied on by vendors, broadcasters and media creators awarded the FKTG’s Richard Theile Medal
around the world. 2020 for outstanding services in television
The final of the three Emmy Awards rewards the technology. The award recognizes his
EBU’s contribution to work on Common Encryption, services in the development of HDTV
a fundamental technology design that separates the and UHDTV television systems and his
encryption function from the content contribution or significant contribution to international
distribution system and can accommodate the presence standardization committees.
of multiple encryption or conditional access systems in
Hans Hoffmann,
parallel. The technology allowed industry participants
EBU Head
to deploy successive generations of increasingly of Media
sophisticated conditional access systems as part of new Fundamentals
services on satellite and cable. and Production
Nominations are now being
accepted for the EBU Technology
& Innovation Award 2021
Visit: tech.ebu.ch/award
4 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021
PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR 2021
Discussing the future of European
media R&D
With the closure this year of one He pointed to the shorter the EBU has a role to bring
of the world’s foremost R&D labs development cycles that have together the requirements and
for broadcast technologies, the become the norm and noted that, views of the broadcasters. “We
Munich-based Institut für while many Members were shouldn’t forget that it’s always
Rundfunktechnik (IRT), it seemed working on similar projects, they important to be close to your own
an apt moment for the EBU were usually at different points in audience and to have a look at
Production Technology Seminar to the cycle. your local and regional needs and
explore the state of media-related requirements and specifics. So,
R&D. A discussion panel with a FUNDING GAP you cannot only rely on the big
primarily European focus, but also Two institutes in the German players from the West Coast,
including NHK STRL (Japan), Fraunhofer network were because they naturally have to
brought the online conference to a represented in the discussion: have a global view.”
close and pointed out several Harald Fuchs heads the media
paths to future success. systems and applications GAIA-X POTENTIAL
Gino Alberico, who leads the department at Fraunhofer IIS, Both of the German panellists
research centre at Rai in Italy, said while Ralf Schäfer is responsible mentioned the cloud as an area
a key question for broadcasters for the video division at ripe for development and
today was “make or buy?”, where Fraunhofer HHI. Both stressed the collaboration. Once again
it is important to find the right growing importance for the highlighting the European angle,
balance. PTS 2021 had shown broadcast industry of EU-funded Ralf Schäfer saw the GAIA-X
several examples of broadcasters projects. initiative as an opportunity to
experimenting with available Ralf Schäfer pointed out that, as work on an open standardized
technologies – he highlighted a public research institute, HHI platform. It might, he said, open
Yle’s first steps in synthetic media has to work on topics where the path to additional European
using a web-based tool – but funding is available. “One problem Commission funding for
broadcasters would still need to is that in Europe we lost the collaboration, given that over-
develop tools and infrastructure consumer electronics industry dependency on certain cloud
to solve specific needs within and therefore it’s quite hard to providers could prove to be an
their own organization. Avoiding get funding for consumer obstacle for collaboration.
vendor lock-in should be a electronics or broadcasting The director of NHK’s Science &
priority, he said. topics.” HHI continues to do Technology Research
His counterpart at BBC R&D, relevant work, particularly on Laboratories, Kohji Mitani,
Andy Conroy, said that EBU video coding, but also as an brought a perspective from
Members can still play a vital role offshoot of applications for fields outside Europe to the discussion.
in R&D: “We can bring our values; like medicine or security. Picking up on the need for
that’s what distinguishes us, public Picking up on this point, Harald collaboration, which had also
service media; we can bring our Fuchs said that European projects been identified by the other
values to bear on the space.” continue to be important and that panellists, he mentioned personal
data stores as an important topic
for all countries and regions and
thus one that was ripe for
collaboration. When it came to
personalized media services,
“transparent and highly
accountable technologies are
required to enable our viewers to
enjoy user-centred broadcasting
services with peace of mind.”
Overall, the discussion re-
emphasized the need for strong
media-related R&D capacity in
Europe and the importance of
collaboration, both between
institutes and across disciplines.
The EBU is seen as a natural
Clockwise from top left: Andy Conroy (BBC R&D), Kohji Mitani (NHK STRL), Gino facilitator to coordinate such
Alberico (Rai CRITS), Ralf Schäfer (Fraunhofer HHI), Harald Fuchs (Fraunhofer IIS). activities.
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 5
CLOUD-BASED PRODUCTION
Yle works towards cloud-based
radio production
Yle’s Mikko Nevalainen describes how the Finnish broadcaster has created a fully-featured radio
studio that runs entirely in the cloud.
Our vision for this project was
that, equipped with nothing
“A node that is to be used for the remote
more than a microphone, a production of a full radio show might have
laptop and a good internet
connection, a Yle radio presenter
several outside sources defined and set as
could go on air with all of the inputs.”
functionality and features they
would have available in a typical
radio studio. We delivered on this can be used stand-alone or in IP stream with the appropriate
vision by putting everything in hybrid contexts. codec, bit rate and sample rate
the cloud: the user can just Once everything has been for whatever service is targeted.
browse to the appropriate URL, configured in the back end, the Once the user has logged in,
login, and go live. software takes care of loaded the appropriate playlist
The solution offers a simple connectivity, contribution and and configured their microphone,
way to replace a studio delivery. When the user logs in, they can connect to the media
environment remotely, a need the preconfigured settings are player. The connection uses
that became all the more urgent loaded in the front end. They see WebRTC and the Opus audio
during the past year. But it can all of the different sources that codec.
also serve as a lightweight might be needed for a radio The output of the studio is
back-up solution when you don’t show, such as regional news mixed and delivered as an IP
have sufficient studio space studios, music libraries, stream that can easily feed
available. programme jingles, etc. There is web-based players or audio-on-
also the usual radio rundown and demand systems. FM delivery is
USER-FRIENDLY audio monitors, while the also possible, simply requiring
The main goals of this project provision of a talkback function is the stream to be routed to the
were to prioritize ease of use in on the roadmap. correct place for playout.
terms of the user interface and The system is based on a series
the user experience. It should be of media nodes, each configured TOWARDS DEPLOYMENT
accessible at any time from any according to what should be Having successfully delivered the
location and should enable fast available. For example, a node proof-of-concept, we are now
publishing to the web for audio- that is to be used for the remote exploring how to deploy this
on-demand or podcasts. production of a full radio show service as easily as possible. The
Importantly, it should be might have several outside aim is to use cloud-based
platform-agnostic: available for sources defined and set as distribution with a repository
deployment either on the public inputs. The node’s own output where we can set up docker
or private cloud or on premise. It would in turn be configured as an images: you just spin up the
machine and you have the studio
environment up and running.
Although the complete system
is not yet used in production, the
playout function is already being
used daily on three national
channels. A Lawo mixing desk is
used to create the live feeds as
AES67 streams to the media
network and the media node
player is controlled as a webpage
inserted inside Lawo’s virtual UI
known as VisTool. In this case the
media node is running on a
virtual machine with R3LAY
Virtual Patch Bay as a soundcard
interface, controlled with the
A screenshot of the interface with a live (test) show in progress Ember+ protocol.
6 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021
CLOUD-BASED PRODUCTION
A 5G journey to the cloud and beyond
RTVE has been pushing the boundaries of new production and distribution technologies on an
innovation journey that will help define the future of broadcasting, writes David Corral.
To say goodbye to 2020 we
decided to, in a way, Six different
technologically challenge the distribution
channels
pandemic by doing a special
were fed
broadcast. We took the simultaneously
opportunity of a concert from the cloud
produced by Radio3, our national Below:
station focused on music and Shooting at
culture, to come full circle on an Madrid’s Casa
innovation journey, both in terms América
of the production techniques and
how we distributed the content
to all RTVE channels, from radio
or streaming to conventional
television.
Technologies like AI and 5G
have been on RTVE’s innovation
agenda for several years. In the
area of telecoms technology in
particular, we have taken
pioneering steps for the media
sector as a partner in the
European 5G-MEDIA project.
American artists on stage at latencies, as well as graphics
FIRST STEPS Madrid’s Casa América. Taking overlays and preloaded videos,
This particular journey, however, the FM radio broadcast as a among other technical
began in June 2019, at the 7th starting point, we used a multi- possibilities.
Global 5G Event in Valencia, we camera signal mixed in the cloud Added to the system,
mounted what was one of the to serve all of RTVE’s platforms, synchronized across the different
world’s first stand-alone live 5G both conventional broadcast and connected devices, was footage
broadcasts for television. Within digital, also providing vertical from three smartphones,
a month of that trial, we had video where required. In what connected to a Wi-Fi network
begun using a public 5G network was another first for Spain, we generated with a 5G router
for news contributions. used a 5G backpack to achieve through the TVU Anywhere
A further step forward was to this unique audiovisual coverage. application.
mix several cameras in the cloud An audio feed taken from the The different video and audio
and broadcast fully in 5G during mixing desk for the event was signals were mixed and
a conference on advantages and fed in stereo over a cable to a simultaneously distributed
risks of 5G in the audiovisual camera. This audio, the very directly to their destinations from
sector, organized by the same that was enjoyed by the virtual mixer. So, having
European Parliament. Then, as anyone listening to the FM radio started with a “simple” 5G
part of 5G-MEDIA, a radio play broadcast, served as the unique broadcast 18 months previously,
called La vida es sueño was reference for all devices and we completed the circle in
mixed entirely using edge formats served by the leveraging native 5G and cloud
computing. Other cases – and audiovisual coverage. broadcast techniques to
steps forward on this journey – distribute through the six
included the use of purpose-built CLOUD-BASED PRODUCTION outputs available on the system:
mobile apps to enable 5G The camera receiving the audio in horizontal for YouTube, Twitter
broadcasts and a pilot project to was a standard RTVE model, but and Facebook, via RTMP for the
install a small 5G cell in the was now connected to a TVU RTVE website, SDI for our 24-
Castilla-La Mancha parliament. One backpack, a unit with six hour television channel, and – as
All of these previous steps modems, two of which are 5G a novelty – in vertical for
prepared the ground for a truly and the rest 4G. The backpack Instagram.
impressive operation. At the end signal was sent to a virtual mixer We hope that in 2021 we’ll be
of November 2020, Radio3 put a system, TVU Producer, that able to go even further with this
new generation of Latin allows remote operation with low technology.
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 7
CLOUD-BASED PRODUCTION
Live production in the cloud –
learning through collaboration
From roundtables to hands-on tests, Paola Sunna explains how EBU Members and industry
players have been working together on discovering and defining best practices for the fast-
emerging field of cloud-based live production.
COVID-19 gave a boost to the use of the cloud for • A related topic that should not be underestimated
media production. For post-produced content this is in terms of importance is intercom. Complex
relatively straightforward. For live production it is a productions require a robust back-channel for
serious challenge. team communication. Intercoms nowadays span
While office workers and families at home have the whole space from dedicated (robust)
become reasonably used to working, teaching and hardware devices to virtual phone apps. It is a
learning via Google Meet, Zoom and the like, question of picking the right tools and
professional live productions are much more difficult understanding what dependencies are introduced.
to ‘cloudify’ because they require more real-time • Maybe the most important feature that users are
interaction with strict timing constraints. Indeed, a asking for is being able to create and recall set-ups
survey performed by the EBU Hybrid & Cloud easily. Given the potential complexity of the
Production (HCP) group last September confirmed complete cloud-based set-up, it is essential to
cloud production workflows to be the number one easily be able to go (back) to tested and trusted
challenge for broadcasters. configurations.
To address the need for cloud production best
practices, the EBU HCP group adopted a multi- MARKET SOLUTIONS
perspective approach: exchanging the latest user A second series of roundtables has put solution
experiences, identifying market solutions and providers at the centre. In Q4 2020, the HCP group
organizing hands-on testing. hosted sessions on Grabyo, Grass Valley’s AMPP,
Kiswe Studio, Microsoft Azure, Simplylive, Sony’s
USER EXPERIENCES Virtual Production, and VizRT’s Vectar Plus.
Since September 2020, EBU Members have Solution providers can currently be divided into
regularly exchanged cloud production experiences two main groups: cloud infrastructure providers and
in biweekly group calls and dedicated roundtable providers of ‘applications’ that run on top of the
sessions. In the latter, frontrunners present their cloud infrastructure. A further subset of the latter
latest learnings, triggering a subsequent are companies with strong broadcast expertise, that
conversation between the participating Members. are effectively creating the cloud equivalent of what
The presentations are recorded, so those who used to be hardware products (like video switchers).
missed a session can watch it later on. So far, At the other end of the spectrum we find ‘digital
experiences from BR, RTBF, RTÉ, VRT and Yle have services’ companies, where the emphasis is more on
been shared, providing insights into innovative interfaces and workflows. The business model for all
production approaches for both television and radio. of them is a subscription and/or pay-as-you-use-it
Several areas emerged quickly as requiring further model.
exploration:
• The first one is the choice of interconnect, HANDS-ON TESTING
including decisions on bandwidth, video stream The third activity of the HCP group consists of a
codec (and settings), and bitrate. SRT is a popular number of hands-on trials in which Members and
choice for many current operations, but vendors test cloud-based live production set-ups.
interoperability between applications and even The first one was organized last month, for the
between dedicated SRT encoders and decoders Biathlon World Championships 2020 in Antholz.
can be tricky to get right. More tests are being planned for 2021.
• Minimizing latency is a key aim. Depending on the
Learn, share, test!
combination of tools and interconnects this can
The EBU group on Hybrid and Cloud Production
easily go up to seconds (for the round-trip), which
has over 150 EBU Member participants. The group
would rule out remote camera control and
is led by Conrad Gouws (RTÉ) and Markus
complicate two-way communication.
Ostertag (SWR), with Ievgen Kostiukevych and
• Mix-minus audio is high on the list as another point
Frans de Jong of the EBU T&I team coordinating.
to check. In practice, mix-minus returns for remote
The group meets ‘in the cloud’ every second week.
contributors can be created relatively easily with
Besides continuing the roundtables series (with
audio matrices and mixers, but for ease of use it is
Members and vendors) and trials, the group is
important to know how much of this functionality
working on a report with use cases, requirements,
is present and directly usable in the cloud-based
etc. More at tech.ebu.ch/hcp
tools.
8 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021
Testing cloud-based
production at the Biathlon
World Championships
At the end of January 2021, the EBU, Eurovision
Media Services, Finnish broadcaster Yle, Italian
broadcaster Rai, Grass Valley, and Simplylive
worked together to test cloud-based live
production technology during the Biathlon World
Championships in Antholz (Italy). For this test, the
Yle, Finland
focus was on the backhaul of six feeds: three
different main programme feeds and three respectively, Simplylive and Grass Valley’s AMPP
additional remote-controlled PTZ cameras at the production tools. The set-up was intended as the
shooting range and an interview location. precursor to a larger trial where special attention
The signals were received in Geneva, Helsinki will be paid to remote control of the cameras,
and Turin, with Yle and Rai staff validating the audio, remote commentaries, and graphics
reception in their broadcast centres using, integration.
Eurovision Media Services, Switzerland Rai, Italy
2020 Biathlon World
Championships, Antholz, Italy Cloud-based production tests
RTP Stream
3 x production feeds
6 x SRT streams
Public
internet
Encoder
RTP Stream
3 x remote feeds
Sketch of the set-up for the first cloud production trial in Antholz.
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 9
TRANSLATION & RECOMMENDATION TECHNOLOGY
Strength in diversity: multiplying the
value of Europe’s newsrooms
Justyna Kurczabinska, Head of the EBU News Exchange & News Strategy, introduces an
innovative digital news collaborative project that gives journalists – and soon the audience –
almost real-time access, in their own language, to news published across the EBU membership.
Public service media is Europe’s updated list of additional articles in the News Exchange, including
largest newsroom, spending EUR on the same topic published by radio-only Members who wish to
5.5 billion annually and other sources, generated using integrate their content. This
employing over 40,000 AI and machine learning expansion of the pilot has been
journalists. There are 47 technology from the EBU possible thanks to the recent
international all-news PSM PEACH project. For busy decision of the EBU News
services active in 2020, and journalists, this means precious Committee to invest reserve
many PSM are considered the time is not wasted searching for funds that had been earmarked
most trusted news brands in their additional relevant content – for news in the monitoring tool,
respective countries.1 they have what they need at as a strategic innovation project.
PSM produce strong, trusted their fingertips. The tool has the potential to
digital content and have trusted All articles are translated become an essential PSM hub of
digital platforms. The problem is automatically into English, articles from all around Europe.
that, today, we do not have thanks to another EBU project, As more Members join, the
in-depth digital collaboration in EuroVOX. The user can perform diversity of views will increase.
news, and we are thus not translations into additional 2021 will also see a move to
leveraging our strengths to the languages at the press of a testing the public-facing vision,
full. button. The tool currently displaying news from all around
What if we could exchange supports Finnish, French, Europe on online pages where
online content between PSM German, Italian, Portuguese, the participating news providers
newsrooms in Europe? Spanish and Swedish, and more choose to integrate it as the
languages can easily be added. Recommendation Box. This EBU
NEWS PILOT News B2C project is now co-
With this question in mind, in the EUROPEAN CITIZENS funded by the EU2 and has ten
spring of 2020 the EBU and 14 of The PSM organizations participating Member
its Members began to pilot a participating in the project are organizations as of February
collaborative way of sharing convinced that impactful, fact- 2021.
digital news content among based, and trustworthy news Each participating company
themselves. It was initially only with public service values should will have full editorial control of
for monitoring purposes be offered to the European all content published on its
internally in their newsrooms, but audience more widely than services. All workflows and
also with a vision to explore the today. This need is underlined by technical solutions will be
possibility of publishing these internationally relevant topics
news items in several languages like climate change, the refugee
across the participants’ online crisis, tensions and polarization
platforms in the future. in European politics, and, right
At the time of writing, the now, the economic and social
monitoring tool that emerged impact of the COVID-19
from this project is collecting an pandemic.
average of more than 750 In the words of Eric Scherer,
articles daily, offered through a co-chair of the Steering
simple web interface. Committee, “This is a strategic
The application allows editors project for all of us: for the EBU,
to filter the content by for its Members and, not least,
categories (sports, environment, for European citizens. This is a
politics, science, etc.), by source, tool against populism, a tool
and by date. Text queries can be against misinformation, a very
entered to search for specific important tool.”
keywords.
At the end of every article, the NEXT STEPS
user is offered a constantly February 2021 marked the roll-
out of the monitoring tool to all
1 Public Service Media and News – EBU 2020 Media
Intelligence Service the EBU Members participating
10 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021TRANSLATION & RECOMMENDATION TECHNOLOGY
designed to ensure this goal is
achieved. Eurovision news monitoring
Our value proposition lies in
creating a first phase for an
innovative network of news
tool: what’s under the hood?
platforms sharing stories of high Sébastien Noir, Head of Software Engineering in the EBU
relevance and pan-European Technology & Innovation Department, describes the main
interest. The approach is based technical building blocks of the tool.
on using only high-quality
content from respected public We designed the news review the steps taken:
service brands on platforms that monitoring tool in close transcriptions can be corrected
already have a significant consultation with editors and both in terms of text and timings
audience in their own countries. journalists, incorporating their to make the content more
This kind of news collaboration feedback directly in the accessible. Once done this makes
is distinctive, novel, and in the development. The goal is a tool for a better translation, although
long run might offer an that is easy to use, requires no the translation too can be edited
important alternative to social training, and provides immediate if required. Finally, a video can be
media platforms. value to the user. rendered from the translation
Flexibility is an essential quality using a synthetically voiced
PARTICIPATING MEMBERS of the project. Every EBU presenter, and optionally with
The 14 participating EBU Member has its own tools and either burned-in or embedded
Members are: Belgium – RTBF; workflows. We designed the pilot subtitles.
Finland – YLE; Germany – BR, with solutions for all: content can PEACH uses machine learning
Deutsche Welle, ARD/ be pushed to the tool’s API at and AI to provide ‘related article’
Tagesschau and ZDF; Ireland – time of publication, or the tool recommendations. It works by
RTE; Italy – RAI; Portugal – RTP; can retrieve the newest articles converting each article into a
Spain – RTVE; Sweden – SR; every few minutes on the vector representation using
Switzerland – Swissinfo (SRG Member’s REST API. pre-trained deep-learning
SSR); France – FTV and ARTE. Once articles are ingested into language models. The goal is that
the system, they are converted to similar articles (semantically
a standard format: every article is similar, even if different words are
represented as a list of sections used) would be represented by
2 The EU funding has been awarded by the Directorate- (title, lead, headings, paragraphs, vectors that are similar.
General for Communications Networks, Content and
Technology (DG CNECT) as part of a project entitled images, media, quotes). The text The vectors used may have
“Towards a European Public Sphere: Multilingual
Programmes from across Europe”. In addition to the component of every section can more than 100 dimensions to
EBU’s Recommendation Box, the funding provides
support to the European Collection, a curated selection
then be translated. The audio and capture the semantics of
of documentaries, magazine shows and reports on video files are downloaded and sentences. To find similar articles
current issues in European politics and society. The
European Collection is coordinated by ARTE and draws sent to EuroVOX for transcription to a given article, we look up all
on programmes produced by France Télévisions,
Switzerland’s SRG SSR, and Germany’s ARD and ZDF.
and translation. vectors representing each article
The common selection is made available in five As soon as the text translation present in the hub and select the
languages throughout Europe on the partners’ digital
platforms. is available, the article becomes closest in the multi-dimensional
visible in the web application. space.
This process takes a matter of PEACH can also make use of
minutes. The journalists therefore user data; approaches like
have access to the news almost collaborative filtering will be
in real-time. taken later, when the content is
The translation of content is shown to end users.
handled by EuroVOX. Developed The next iterations of the tool
by the EBU and its Members, it is will provide automatic extraction
an open toolbox for transcription, of topics from the articles. These
translation and revoicing. It will be used to surface trending
provides a single unified interface topics in real-time, so that
to language tools from the major journalists can quickly identify
cloud platforms (AWS, Microsoft what is happening now, from the
Azure, Google, Speechmatics, perspective of EBU newsrooms.
DeepL, etc) alongside the ability The user experience will also
to plug in smaller vendors and evolve, to permit a more focused
custom models. It also provides a exploration of the diverse
web application that enables content produced by European
easy transcription and translation PSM.
of content. See tech.ebu.ch/eurovox
Journalists and editors can and tech.ebu.ch/peach.
i | tech.ebu.ch
tech-tech- i | tech.ebu.ch
| December
| March2020
2021 11RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Looking beyond the media
technology horizon
A recent report from a group of public service media R&D labs presents an ambitious vision of
the future media landscape. Hans Hoffmann and David Wood here summarize the three broad
trends identified.
The EBU Broadcast Technology 1. TOMORROW’S USER experience, including using
Futures (BTF) group, which EXPERIENCE more sophisticated voice
brings together senior staff from The rise of what can be termed activation and digital assistants.
public service media R&D labs, ‘ambient media’ will have an The options may be chosen
has recently published a report impact in two domains: the user’s by the user or be triggered
with their insights on the future control and the user’s sense of automatically by the local
technologies that may be part reality. environment or by the user’s
of, and help shape, the media In the future users will have needs.
environment in the coming ever greater control over In addition to this increased
decades. what is before them – greater personalization, users will have
This article is a taster, with personalization. Services can a greater sense of reality. This
much more detail in the full include elements that provide will include more realistic images,
report, available from additional information about the sound that can reproduce
tech.ebu.ch/btf2020. current viewing experience, help width, height, and depth, and
The report concludes that new to find content of interest for the multimodal presentations that
media technology will arrive user, recommend content, and may include haptics (technology
as component parts of three more. that stimulates the senses of
broad trends, related to user The next decades may touch and motion). ‘Space-
experience, content production thus bring more options sharing’ content viewing may be
and content delivery. The trends for personalizing the media possible, through which people in
may impact at the same time
or separately, and one may be Ambient media
consequent on another. Exactly Greater personalization
what arrives, and when, will and sense of reality
depend on local contexts and User
what is developed. There will be Experience
a ‘right time’ for the introduction
and success of a range of new
technologies, but it will not
be the same in all countries.
And the future will, of course,
include developments that arise
unforeseen today.
If there is a common overall
thread to the trends foreseen
it may be greater convenience Delivery Production
and flexibility for the user and
the programme maker and,
most importantly, that the
customer experience and value
proposition will be at the focus of Cooperative delivery Rich production
innovations. Any user terminal; Greater flexibility; multi-
broadcast and broadband platform content production
12 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
– separately or at the same time new content forms and user
– targeting a range of different experiences will see media
content formats, each serving services being available on a
different markets or different wider range of different types of
groups of users. receivers. The range of delivery
The decades to come will bring platforms will remain terrestrial,
programme production that satellite, cable, IPTV, wired and
meets the needs of future user wireless internet and Wi-Fi,
experiences in a multiformat but some will be limited in the
world. Infrastructures will provide new kinds of services they can
local, remote, and distributed provide because of bandwidth or
production by using IP-based other limitations.
networks, the cloud and The new wireless broadband
serverless computing. Production systems 5G and eventually 6G
resources will become more may have a significant role in
‘available on demand’. The new providing media services. An
workflows that will become attractive option may be to
possible will have a major impact combine broadband services
on programme making. Metadata with broadcast services and
Who is in Broadcast will continue to be a key enabler. create ‘intelligent concurrent
Technology Futures group? AI and machine learning tools will networks’.
• BBC, UK support editorial staff in a variety
• EBU, Switzerland of tasks, including programme FACTORS SHAPING SUCCESS
• IRT, Germany generation and detection of fake The technologies and services
• NHK, Japan news. And both sustainability that will be successful in
• Rai, Italy and content accessibility will be practice will depend not only
• Yle, Finland strategic challenges for content on the novelty and capability
• VRT, Belgium production. of the technology itself, but on
The full report, again, goes a collection of success factors
into detail on the points above, that include: the prevailing
different locations may share the showing the ways in which societal and media climates; the
emotions of the experience with content production may be desirability, affordability and
each other. transformed. availability of equipment and
The overall impact will be a content; the challenges then
heightening of the sense of 3. TOMORROW’S MEDIA faced by media providers; the
reality through more immersion DELIVERY need that the new development
and increased image and sound The third trend detailed in the would fulfil; and others.
quality. A further new experience report can be summarized as Can we go further and
may be created by combining the rise of ‘cooperative delivery’. predict more precisely what will
real or conventional media This will firstly be marked by the happen in the coming decades?
content with digitally created emergence of a mixed delivery Unfortunately, the future will be
worlds. The BTF report goes environment, where both determined not only by what
into greater detail on all of these broadcasting and broadband is probable based on today’s
aspects and more. – wireless or wired – provide knowledge, but also by ideas and
media services. Each will have systems that emerge unforeseen
2. TOMORROW’S CONTENT their strengths, and different in the coming years. But while
PRODUCTION combinations will be used in consequently we cannot predict
The second trend foreseen different countries. 5G may be the exact shape the media will
by the BTF group is the rise combined with satellite and/ take in the coming years, it
of ‘rich production’ for media or terrestrial broadcasting in is reasonable to assume that
content. Production facilities will intelligent cooperation. the trends and tendencies
increasingly be arranged to allow This will be coupled with identified today by the BTF
production locally or remotely the increasing availability of group and detailed in the report
or a combination of both. This all services on any terminal, are accurate and will be among
will include outsourcing some or including fixed TV or radio those that will happen.
all of the production chain, and sets, portables, tablets or
the use of the cloud (or, in fact, smartphones. Content providers Read the report and form
multiple clouds). will, in each case, make use of your own judgement about
A further aspect of this trend the specific capabilities of these what is at or beyond the
will be increased production devices to reach and engage media technology horizon. It
flexibility, whereby it will be with audiences. is available for download from:
possible for content to be made The delivery to the user of tech.ebu.ch/btf2020
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 13DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY Who needs conventional broadcast networks when you’ve got the internet! Right? Roland Beutler (SWR), who chairs the EBU strategic programme on Distribution, recommends caution when it comes to relying on the Big Tech companies. Above all, PSM organizations must work together. With the proliferation building their own of the internet and its network infrastructure apparently unlimited to connect the world. opportunities, many Facebook is launching a representatives of public global satellite network; service media (PSM) Google plans to deploy organizations seem its own undersea cable to be losing faith in between the US and conventional broadcast Asia. distribution networks. On top of controlling We see PSM focusing the physical internet more and more on infrastructure, Amazon, on-demand content Facebook, Google and and services, which Apple are major content require bidirectional providers through their communication. The latter, by reach, prominence, attribution, respective platforms. Google definition, cannot be offered branding, control and costs. and Apple have a dominant by unidirectional broadcast global footprint in mobile devices networks. However, broadband IN THE OLD DAYS using their respective operating networks, both fixed and mobile, The internet used to be a web systems, Android and iOS. They which may be the appropriate in the proper sense, meaning it are also now present in stationary option, are usually beyond the consisted of many independent devices such as smart TVs and control of PSM organizations. entities such as different core increasingly in cars, with Android They can make use of broadband and access networks, exchange Automotive and Apple CarPlay. networks only in the same way points and peering arrangements And finally, even though the as any other service provider between participants. Microsoft European Commission tries to who wants to deliver some primarily sold operating systems contain their influence, GAFAM data or communicate with and office software, Google was seem to operate outside national its customer base. Renting or a search engine and Amazon a or even supernational regulation. leasing dedicated capacity on bookseller. This is now a fading managed broadband networks memory. DANCING WITH THE DEVIL may quickly become a very The so-called GAFAM So, can the internet take care of expensive endeavour. companies (see image) set out to the distribution of our content It is not surprising, therefore, completely control the internet and services? In principle yes, but that there is massive hype about infrastructure end-to-end. PSM organizations should follow over-the-top (OTT) distribution Google and Amazon had built the advice of a popular German across the internet. It helps to huge server farms to cope with (actually Bavarian) song: “If you increase the reach of media their original services. These are want to dance with the devil, you offers, is undoubtedly very now also used to offer all kinds better wear good shoes!” flexible, and can in principle of cloud services to external It’s unlikely that PSM will be give access to content both customers. They are heavily able to buy good shoes off- at home and on the move. used by PSM organizations in the-shelf. Our only option is to Most importantly, it targets production, contribution and join forces to gain visibility in strategically relevant devices distribution of their media a GAFAM-dominated internet such as smartphones and tablets. services. world. This means defining our PSM organizations make use In the past, the deployment requirements and injecting of OTT distribution through of undersea cables or satellite them into the right bodies and their own apps and websites. networks was typically achieved standardization groups in a But they also utilize third-party through creating international timely manner. The currently platforms. Both ways have their consortia. Nowadays, Google widespread notion of being pros and cons when it comes and Facebook are pursuing these better off going one’s own way to fulfilling the requirements of kinds of network deployments will fail when trying to dance PSM organizations related to independently. They target with GAFAM. 14 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021
SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS
Tackling climate change one conversation
at a time
In January 2021, a new company-wide mobile app went live at ITV. Home Planet
aims to make sustainability part of the day-to-day technology conversation at the
UK broadcaster. Matt O’Shea tells the story.
We started the platform was how
ITV Home Planet quickly we could iterate
journey in November – we failed really fast!
2019. ITV was busy We’d implement ideas
developing new 2030 as we thought of them
environmental targets and when they didn’t
and I had just taken on work, we’d row back.
the role of Technology The no-code approach
Lead for ITV’s Green made for rock-solid
Team Steering Group, releases, so no need
the group responsible for all the effort of
for embedding change testing or release
on the ground. management.
I was thrilled and
nervous – I still am! THE TEAM GROWS
I’ve been working We had fantastic
with technology for support from ITV
more years than I Technology leadership.
care to remember, The results of a
and I understand how pilot were great. We
serious climate change expanded our team
is, but bringing the two to three – enter Anna!
things together is tricky She added a much-
and it’s new ground. There are individuals could compete, and needed creative touch to the
two things working in my favour: great tips for sustainable living. application, turbo-charged our
the issue of climate change Although convinced we had plans and made the idea of an
is one that the ITV teams will a good idea, we hit our first ITV-wide roll-out a reality.
engage with brilliantly, and the blocker: we had no funding At the time, the ITV Client
people who work at ITV are a and there were only two of us! Strategy team was working on
clever bunch. If we could raise On the upside, Marc is a great a commercial proposition called
the profile of sustainable living technologist, and I had a sense Home Planet. There were clear
and climate change, bring the of what good looked like. Hey synergies between their goals
issue forward in the mind of presto, we were a two-person and ours, they loaned us their
our technology teams, then the product team! branding (huge thanks Client
plans would follow! We were going to need a Strategy!) and the product was
low-cost, low-barrier-to-entry complete.
GAMIFICATION (so no databases!), intuitive It’s early days but there are
Discussing all this with Marc, a platform. A platform that signs of something good.
colleague, we knew we needed anyone could use to build Sustainability is more a part of
to get the issue of climate mobile phone applications. A the technology conversation
change out there, and in the no-code platform. Marc quickly than ever, and the teams are
right way. The engagement got to work testing no-code setting up to rebalance the
should be fun; we wanted platforms, and I added tips for impact of technology on the
to inform and to inspire living sustainably to a Google environment.
conversation. It was decided, we Sheet. Marc found a platform Our no-code experience in
would gamify sustainable living! that ticked all the boxes: Glide developing and releasing Home
What would become ITV uses spreadsheets as a data Planet has shown us that the
Home Planet was born – and source, it has a brilliant user days of monolithic programmes
we had set our sights beyond interface, and (boom!) it has a are behind us. With today’s
the technology teams. Our very free tier. Marc plugged Glide into technologies, the right idea and
own mobile application would my tips spreadsheet, and we a small product team, our ideas
be available to everyone at ITV, had ourselves a prototype! can be realized as swiftly as
with leaderboards so teams and The great thing about the they can be communicated.
tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021 15IN MY OPINION
Finding new levers to meet the
challenges of tomorrow
The France Télévisions group of tomorrow will be free from the constraints of infrastructure and
boosted by AI, writes CTO/CIO Frédéric Brochard.
Today, artificial intelligence already enables us to communication, and the development of collective
increase our potential and supports our public intelligence assisted by AI.
service remit by improving, for example, the Moreover, other innovations, such as the
accessibility of our 24/7 news channel franceinfo development of open-source smart TV
with the imminent deployment of semi-automatic technologies, or even 5G, are encouraged by the
24/7 subtitling intended for the deaf and hard of development of synergies through our
hearing. collaborations and our sharing of experiences with
other players from the French public service
COLLABORATION & VIRTUALIZATION audiovisual sector and within the EBU.
Due to changing contexts, illustrated by the major
COVID-19 crisis, and new modes of programme ESSENTIAL ROLE FOR EBU
consumption, a successful business transformation All European public service broadcasters face the
requires us to be ever more mobile and scalable. same challenges – adapting to new uses, new
Staying ahead of changes in collaboration methods competition, the proliferation of technologies and
and business needs therefore becomes a distribution channels – while resources
priority. The virtualization and flexibility of stagnate or even decrease in most cases.
our technical ecosystem, far from signifying However, it is unthinkable to reduce the
greater individualization, allows us to resources allocated to content creation,
maintain proximity and increased so it becomes necessary to find new
collaboration in all circumstances. The tools levers. This is where I see the role of the
adapt and make it easier to ‘do it together’ EBU as critical in bringing together
by abolishing distances and physical or experts and interested Members around
geographic requirements. a topic.
Offering virtualized and secure systems, However, it seems essential to me to
incorporating the latest innovations focus energies on the most interesting
available from ordinary laptops, activities and with the highest
accessible with one click from added value for as many
anywhere in the world, allows Members as possible. I am
our specialists to focus on their convinced that CTOs are in the
value-creating activities. The best position to determine the
recent deployment of an office strategic axes to be followed
suite as SaaS (Microsoft Office thanks to their scope of action
365), remote production, or within their company. I hope
even the virtualization of the that, in the near future, we can
entire news editing process convene a discussion among
(Dalet Galaxy xCloud), are CTOs in order to help the
only individual steps towards EBU’s Technology &
greater sharing, facilitated Innovation department and
the Technical Committee to
direct the work towards the
“It seems essential most strategic and
significant projects.
to me to focus The health crisis has
energies on the confirmed the importance
of our public service remits
most interesting and the social ties that we
activities and with have helped to maintain,
through our education,
the highest added information and culture
value for as many offers. It is up to us to
confirm that the ties that
Members as possible.” bind our companies will
FRÉDÉRIC BROCHARD enable us to meet the
CTO AND CIO, FRANCE TÉLÉVISIONS challenges of tomorrow!
16 tech-i | tech.ebu.ch | March 2021You can also read
