In addition to the opening match, Russia vs. Saudi Arabia, SBS plans to broadcast more than 30 matches during the 2018 Football World Cup with immersive and interactive audio – including the final and all games of the South Korean national team. For a realistic user experience, the stadium atmosphere will be transmitted in an immersive loudspeaker configuration consisting of a 5.1 surround setup accompanied by 4 height speakers. The user experience is completed by a UHD image with High Dynamic Range. Additionally, thanks to MPEG-H’s object-based capabilities, SBS will offer a choice of three audio presets for each match transmitted in UHD: either a pure stadium atmosphere, or with Korean or English commentary added.

SBS viewers will be the first worldwide to enjoy enveloping 3D sound paired with personalization when watching a regular television broadcast. Apart from choosing their preferred preset, they will also be able to individually optimize the mix of dialogue and effects based on their specific listening situation. This option, called “Dialogue Enhancement”, can also help viewers with hearing impairments in understanding what is being said.

The broadcast of the Football World Cup with immersive and interactive sound also marks the starting point for SBS’ initiative to introduce next-generation audio features in TV programs of all genres. Supporting the Korean TV stations in their effort for immersive and interactive audio production, Fraunhofer IIS offers training and demonstrations for sound engineers at its training and demo facility in Seoul.

About the MPEG-H TV Audio System

The MPEG-H TV Audio System works with today’s broadcast and streaming equipment, enables broadcasters and service providers to deliver immersive cinema-like surround sound cost-effectively at comparably low bit rates, and enables personalization features, which lets viewers adjust the sound mix to suit their personal preferences. MPEG-H also tailors playback to sound best on a range of devices from TVs to mobile devices.

MPEG-H has been integrated into the ATSC 3.0 and DVB TV standards. In South Korea, terrestrial ATSC 3.0 broadcasting with MPEG-H TV Audio is already underway, making MPEG-H the world’s first commercialized next-generation TV-audio technology.

Professional broadcast equipment, including encoders and monitoring solutions, as well as decoders and consumer products such as TV sets and sound bars, have been announced and introduced with MPEG-H support.

To learn more about MPEG-H, please visit http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/tvaudio and http://www.mpegh.com.