MPEG-H Audio Tested on Worldcup Live Transmissions

Fans around the world that are following the football/soccer worldcup games are probably not aware that those transmissions are creating a new test bed for the possibilities of immersive sound and different personalization options using MPEG-H audio technology. Fraunhofer is supporting its partners worldwide in setting up live transmissions of the tournament in Brazil and South Korea, the two countries that already adopted MPEG-H.

The Brazilian SBTVD Forum (Brazil's digital TV technical coordination entity) recently finalized the technical evaluation phase of its TV 3.0 Project for the definition of the next-generation television system in Brazil. It comprised a detailed technical evaluation of all proposed technologies. As a result, the MPEG-H Audio system was selected as the sole mandatory audio codec for the future Brazilian broadcast system. Fraunhofer IIS supported the SBTVD Forum in the testing and evaluation process.

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The SBTVD (Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão Digital / Brazilian Digital Television System) Forum has selected MPEG-H Audio for inclusion as an additional audio system in the ISDB-Tb (Brazil's own digital terrestrial standard) specifications. Fraunhofer IIS and its technology partners EiTV and ATEME have showcased live ISDB-Tb broadcasting using MPEG-H Audio for the first time at the 2019 SET Expo trade show, taking place from August 27 to 29 in São Paulo, Brazil.

The International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) 2015 was widely agreed to be extremely successful. According to the promoters, the best yet (but they always say that). Measured in terms of conference content and quality of the event, we have to agree. It wasn’t the best for product announcements but it was certainly exciting for the technology previews.