Video Breakthroughs

As more Pay TV content is delivered as streaming video to the television, so the requirements for improved audio become more obvious. If operators want consumers to move seamlessly between their broadcast and IP services within their UI environment, like when they are watching VOD on hybrid STBs, they need to avoid a sudden loss of quality from, for example, 5.1 Surround Sound to simple stereo.

Raising the streaming Quality of Experience (QoE) to match that of broadcast delivery encompasses many challenges. We need subtitling and audio description to become the norm, and trick-play functions to match a local PVR for content delivered from the cloud. There are high hopes that improved compression and CDN technologies will deliver broadcast-standard picture quality and reliability at some point.

With EDC Private Cloud, Jeff Malkin, president of Encoding.com, says his company has solved the problem of premium content, finally bringing cloud encoding to major players. The solution includes fast and secure file ingest and upload (with partner Aspera), high-end processors, and vast storage. One key advantage is EDC Private Cloud's ability to move files quickly: Malkin says it can move files five to six times faster than Amazon can from S3 to EC2.

EDC Private Cloud offers Dolby Surround Sound audio, Widevine DRM, and UltraViolet compatibility.

Besides winning on speed, Malkin asserts that EDC Private Cloud, which uses an automated workflow, also wins on price. In its beta period, he says, it won RFPs with Synacor and Midwest Tape, turning in prices that are 20 percent of current market pricing.

Dolby Laboratories has launched a new development kit based on the MPEG Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH) standard which it believes will enable its partners to deliver high-quality audio for HD streaming.

Dolby technology has already been selected by leading online video services including Netflix, HBO Go, Vudu, Best Buy CinemaNow, Samsung Acetrax, Dixons KnowHow Movies, Voddler, Apple iTunes, and Amazon Instant Video.

The new development kit will enable current and future partners, such as encoder vendors and digital rights management (DRM) vendors, to implement and test Dolby Digital Plusfor products and services in the online video ecosystem. It includes test vectors as well as specifications that describe how Dolby Digital Plus can be signalled and transported within a multiscreen, connected home environment.

Dolby Laboratories today announced that Adobe AIR 3 will support Dolby Digital Plus to deliver surround sound to connected devices including televisions, set-top boxes, and Blu-ray Disc players. Content aggregators will be able to build Flash-based applications that deliver the complete high-definition entertainment experience with HD video and multichannel Dolby surround sound.

Adobe AIR 3 supports streaming of HD video with Dolby Digital Plus for up to 7.1 channels on select connected televisions, Blu-ray Disc players, and set-top boxes.

Fraunhofer IIS, the world’s renowned source for audio and multimedia technologies and BuyDRM, the premiere provider of multiscreen media technologies collaborated with HBO Europe's HBO GO broadband SVOD service to showcase the full potential of the new MPEG-DASH ISO standard. As part of the showcase viewers experienced scenes from HBO’s Boardwalk Empire via an Android phone utilizing built-in AAC surround sound technology from Fraunhofer using BuyDRM’s secure video playback client.

In combination with MPEG DASH, Android devices become true and trusted consumer platforms allowing HBO Europe to easily offer content in the most efficient, highest-quality way using the AAC Multichannel solution from Fraunhofer. Subscribers to HBO GO on Android can benefit from foolproof surround sound delivered as easy and convenient as watching a BluRay or DVD.

Using a variety of KeyOS technologies, BuyDRM’s MPEG-DASH client implementation provides stutter-free streaming as network conditions change. BuyDRM integrated MPEG-DASH support and Microsoft’s PlayReady DRM in the showcase using MPEG video and audio codecs that ship natively with the new Android 4.1 operating system.

ViBE VS7000 video system now provides a full range of Dolby audio technologies. Formerly available with AAC, HE-AAC, and MPEG-1 Layer II audio features, this versatile platform introduces Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital encoding and decoding, as well as Dolby Digital to Dolby Digital Plus transcoding, dramatically enriching the audio processing toolbox of the ViBE VS7000 with authentic surround sound capability.

Also new is support for MPEG-DASH on the ViBE VS7000. In addition to the streaming formats already available (Adobe Flash , Apple HTTP Live Streaming, and Microsoft Smooth Streaming), the ViBE VS7000 now offers the brand new MPEG-DASH (dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP) standard, the first version of which was ratified in November 2011.