Hd/3d multimedia processing and delivery
SkyMedia focuses on the most critical technologies in the area of HD/3D multimedia in terms of content processing, capturing using UAV-based solutions, and transport through the deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and Wireless Distribution Networks (WDNs). It proposes an innovative end-to-end immersive media architecture capable to dynamically capture process, manage and deliver composite content from live entertainment in an open environment. The idea comes from the fact that audience experience of a live event is ruined by a bad seating, poor visibility, or simply there are too much going on and cannot be enjoyed. SkyMedia aims to mix the reality with enriching information of high quality, collected by HD/3D cameras and wireless sensors, and render the content either in the hands of the audience through enhanced smartphones, or through immaterial mid-air screens placed strategically around the arena.
SkyMedia focuses on the real-time immersive media architectures for entertainment. Today, this is usually associated to high/super-high definition video, or 3D video, with spatial sound effects. Much work is being devoted to developing these technologies for commercial applications in the television and digital cinema segments. The focus in all cases appears to be on improving the quality of the audiovisual content, whereas the end-to-end architecture remains quite similar to its classic structure. The situation is different for immersive media technologies for other applications, such as tele-presence for teleconferencing. In that case, there is also work on the overall system architecture. Finally, there is clearly much on-going work on immersive 3D media Internet technologies, and we can say that we are still in the infancy of a development that will likely revolutionize the overall landscape.
In the field of television, audiovisual content is handled using a standardized manner in order to ensure interoperability between the different equipment belonging to a single audiovisual production chain. If digital television started with the launch of the MPEG-2 video coding standard, high definition television took off with the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC standard which is now adopted by both television and telecommunications worlds. On the other hand, representations that are scalable in quality and resolution, have allowed to satisfy professional and nomadic usage requirements in digital cinema with JPEG2000 and in wireless communications with MPEG-4 SVC. JPEG2000 is also in competition with MPEG-4 AVC High Profile as a television contribution format and provides an efficient solution for collecting video streams from a networked camera set before being processed by a multimedia platform.
Concerning 3D television, two initiatives have been launched, but without reaching yet a full functionality for the whole set of possible use cases: the first concerns multi-view video coding with MPEG-4 MVC, and the second focuses on 3D television with the addition of a depth map in MPEG-C Part 3. In addition, the “3D video and FTV coding” MPEG group is currently studying a new coding approach, named MVD (Multi-view plus Depth), in the aim to apply it for TV3D.
Concerning image transmission over wireless networks, the JPEG2000 standard is well suited due to its scalability features which enable secure and adaptive image transmission. JPEG2000 Part 1 is ISO/IEC 15444-1 / ITU-T T800. Its key features are: it delivers superior compression rates for both lossy and lossless compression with visually graceful degradations; intra coding (low latency); lossless to lossy compression with the same architecture; error resilience features; scalable data organization enables progressive decompression and/or a random access to data. Part 9 of the JPEG 2000 standard refers to the JPEG 2000 Interactive Protocol, "JPIP". JPIP specifies a protocol consisting of a structured series of interactions between a client and a server by means of which image file metadata, structure and partial or whole image codestreams may be exchanged in a communication efficient manner. With JPIP, the exchange and negotiation of capability information and the request and transfer from a variety of containers, such as JPEG 2000 family files, JPEG 2000 codestreams and other container files, may be accomplished in varying, compatible ways.
