Fraunhofer IIS @IBC 2018

Adrian Murtaza: “Working closely with EBU, France Television, BBC, NRK, RAI and many others, this year we have managed to organize multiple broadcast and streaming trials with MPEG-H Audio during major sporting and music events across Europe. It was a great success for us when the MPEG-H TV Audio System, mainly developed by Fraunhofer IIS, was selected and deployed in South Korea, and personally I’m looking forward to the first regular service using MPEG-H Audio in Europe.”

Bernd Linz: “xHE-AAC is a technology that is desperately needed throughout the world. The outstanding audio quality of the codec even at very low bit rates enables digital radio services and radio streaming in countries and under circumstances that haven’t supported services before.

As an example, it simply wouldn’t be possible to serve, say, hundreds of millions of Indians with radio programs and give them affordable and unlimited access to information without xHE-AAC and the DRM digital radio system.

xHE-AAC really helps to bring content to people. In industrialized nations as well as in emerging countries.”

Alexander Zink: “Many developing countries have very little internet or mobile coverage, so people depend on radio. Digital radio offers new ways of accessing information; our Journaline data service, for instance, sends text messages, while our EWF Emergency Warning Functionality provides information in the event of an emergency. Personally, I find it very exciting to work on a project that really adds value to people’s lives.”

Heiko Sparenberg: “easyDCP is one of many Fraunhofer inventions that are now widely used. We currently have some 2000 customers around the world who use easyDCP. They have set up companies and earn their money with it. Ultimately, it’s all about getting films into cinemas at top quality. That’s something that really motivates me, and I’m very happy to show you our innovations and improvements.”

Siegfried Fößel: “The JPEG Committee is always on the lookout for the next generation of image and video codec. That’s why, two years ago, we started compiling the requirements for an image code algorithm for professional film and video production. We used these to launch a new codec project called JPEG XS. The standard for this codec is now almost complete, so we can demonstrate it at IBC. JPEG XS is a mezzanine codec for film and video production that guarantees the highest levels of quality while keeping the necessary computing power within limits. It enables 4k 60p films to be processed in real time on standard PCs and it is optimized for parallel processing on CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs and ASICs.”