Imagine you could adapt the length of a radio documentary as you require or listen to a radio drama from the positions of different protagonists in the play. These and many more personalized, immersive listener experiences become possible due to a novel technological concept called object-based media, which will fundamentally change the production and user experience of radio broadcasts and multimedia productions. Key tools and apps for implementing object-based media for audio content have been developed by ORPHEUS, an EU-funded research project performed by ten major European media industry players.
On 15th May 2018, the consortium presented their results at a workshop in Munich to about 150 representatives of the global media industry. The event was hosted by IRT, the research institute of the public broadcasters of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Object-based media
Object-based media is an advanced approach for creating and deploying interactive, personalized, scalable and immersive content. It allows media objects to be assembled in novel ways to create new and enhanced user experiences, being responsive to user needs as well as environmental and platform-specific factors. Examples are the adaptation of the dialogue level, the flexible playback on any end device or the variable length of a program. This technology is also an essential component for Radio/TV/Online cross-media demands. Moreover, it enables the transition from linear to non-linear and both on-air and on-demand listening, using broadcast and IP technologies.
Broadcasting architectures and infrastructures have been developed, refined and optimized over the last 100 years. Up to now, the final product delivered to the audience, was assembled, edited, mixed and configured as an unchangeable entity, leaving little or no options for adjustments according to the reception conditions and the personal preferences of the recipient. The object-based media approach fundamentally changes this principle: A production is now a collection of media assets, so called ‘objects’, along with parameters or ‘metadata’, describing their attributes and relationship. This package is delivered to an end user device, where it gets optimally ‘rendered’ according to the capability of the device, environmental conditions and user preferences.
ORPHEUS resultsThe ORPHEUS project has created a full set of tools and applications for all stages of the complete broadcast workflow. In 30 months of project duration, the consortium ran two successful pilots to demonstrate the key features and benefits of object-based broadcasting, including immersive sound, foreground/background control, language selection, and enhanced program services.
In addition, Pilot 1 was the first ever live object-based interactive radio drama, and was produced using the BBC’s IP Studio platform. Pilot 2 premiered the introduction of variable-length functionality for audio. These pilots have proven the advantages of object-based media as a universal, innovative approach for media production and its applicability in real-world broadcast environments. The key achievements of ORPHEUS include:
- Object-based audio capturing and production tools by BBC, b<>com, IRCAM, MAGIX
- Pre-processing, rendering and encoding applications by IRT and Fraunhofer IIS (MPEG-H)
- Reception devices and apps by Trinnov (Altitude 32) and elephantcandy (iOS app)
- Technical guidelines for implementation and source code of an OBA production renderer published by the EBU (Tech 3388 and TR042)
The project results are fully documented in public deliverables, available on the project website.
ORPHEUS App
An evaluation version of the ORPHEUS app for iOS, which demonstrates the project achievements using the pilot productions made by BBC and BR, is available upon registration from the project website. These productions show the advantages of object-based audio in a broad range of radio formats, including live football report, documentary, radio drama and music.
The ORPHEUS Project
ORPHEUS is a European research project under Horizon 2020 dedicated to improving the management of audio content. It has developed, implemented and validated a new end-to-end object-based media chain for audio content. The consortium consists of 10 partners from 4 countries: Fraunhofer IIS (DE – coordinator), Eurescom (DE), BBC (UK), IRT (DE), Elephantcandy (NL), Trinnov (FR), b<>com (FR), IRCAM (FR), BR (DE), Magix (DE). Project coordinator: Andreas Silzle, Fraunhofer IIS.
In the past 30 months, ten major European broadcasters, manufacturers and research institutions have explored, developed and evaluated a complete end-to-end object-based audio broadcast chain based on open standards and with a strong focus on
real-world applicability. The ORPHEUS project has created a full set of tools and applications for all stages of the complete broadcast workflow. Even more, in two successful pilots, ORPHEUS has proven the unsurpassed advantages of this next-generation audio technology as a universal, innovative and game-changing approach for media production and its applicability in real-world broadcast environments.
ORPHEUS project coordinator Andreas Silzle from Fraunhofer IIS said: “It is not possible to fulfill such a huge task with one research institute, one company or one broadcaster. Here, a powerful team is necessary with experts along the complete broadcast chain. We have had a team of four research institutes, three industry companies, two public broadcasters and one consulting company, fulfilling all the necessary expertise and long year experience requirements. Thanks to all these professional inputs, we could achieve our great results.”
https://orpheus-audio.eu
