9 research outputs found
Help I'm surrounded
A dimly lit auditorium, the smell of popcorn and hot-dogs accompanied by the sound of fizzy drinks slurped through straws; the lights dim and a hush of expectation descends, sound fades in from all around, drawing the audience into the illusion of another reality. This is the world of the cinema, but is it possible to recreate this cinematic surround sound experience in the home? In order to address this question it is necessary to understand what is meant by "cinematic" surround sound and to consider some of the challenges faced by those seeking to translate it to the home environment. This article examines these issues through an exploration of the development of surround sound in the cinema and its transference to the home and concludes with a tentative look towards possible future developments
Solutions for New Terrestrial Broadcasting Systems Offering Simultaneously Stationary and Mobile Services
221 p.[EN]Since the first broadcasted TV signal was transmitted in the early decades of
the past century, the television broadcasting industry has experienced a series of
dramatic changes. Most recently, following the evolution from analogue to digital
systems, the digital dividend has become one of the main concerns of the
broadcasting industry. In fact, there are many international spectrum authorities
reclaiming part of the broadcasting spectrum to satisfy the growing demand of
other services, such as broadband wireless services, arguing that the TV services
are not very spectrum-efficient.
Apart from that, it must be taken into account that, even if up to now the
mobile broadcasting has not been considered a major requirement, this will
probably change in the near future. In fact, it is expected that the global mobile
data traffic will increase 11-fold between 2014 and 2018, and what is more, over
two thirds of the data traffic will be video stream by the end of that period.
Therefore, the capability to receive HD services anywhere with a mobile device is
going to be a mandatory requirement for any new generation broadcasting system.
The main objective of this work is to present several technical solutions that
answer to these challenges. In particular, the main questions to be solved are the
spectrum efficiency issue and the increasing user expectations of receiving high
quality mobile services. In other words, the main objective is to provide technical
solutions for an efficient and flexible usage of the terrestrial broadcasting spectrum
for both stationary and mobile services.
The first contributions of this scientific work are closely related to the study of
the mobile broadcast reception. Firstly, a comprehensive mathematical analysis of
the OFDM signal behaviour over time-varying channels is presented. In order to
maximize the channel capacity in mobile environments, channel estimation and
equalization are studied in depth. First, the most implemented equalization
solutions in time-varying scenarios are analyzed, and then, based on these existing
techniques, a new equalization algorithm is proposed for enhancing the receivers’
performance.
An alternative solution for improving the efficiency under mobile channel
conditions is treating the Inter Carrier Interference as another noise source.
Specifically, after analyzing the ICI impact and the existing solutions for reducing
the ICI penalty, a new approach based on the robustness of FEC codes is
presented. This new approach employs one dimensional algorithms at the receiver
and entrusts the ICI removing task to the robust forward error correction codes.
Finally, another major contribution of this work is the presentation of the
Layer Division Multiplexing (LDM) as a spectrum-efficient and flexible solution
for offering stationary and mobile services simultaneously. The comprehensive
theoretical study developed here verifies the improved spectrum efficiency,
whereas the included practical validation confirms the feasibility of the system and
presents it as a very promising multiplexing technique, which will surely be a strong
candidate for the next generation broadcasting services.[ES]Desde el comienzo de la transmisión de las primeras señales de televisión a
principios del siglo pasado, la radiodifusión digital ha evolucionado gracias a una
serie de cambios relevantes. Recientemente, como consecuencia directa de la
digitalización del servicio, el dividendo digital se ha convertido en uno de los
caballos de batalla de la industria de la radiodifusión. De hecho, no son pocos los
consorcios internacionales que abogan por asignar parte del espectro de
radiodifusión a otros servicios como, por ejemplo, la telefonía móvil, argumentado
la poca eficiencia espectral de la tecnología de radiodifusión actual.
Asimismo, se debe tener en cuenta que a pesar de que los servicios móviles no
se han considerado fundamentales en el pasado, esta tendencia probablemente
variará en el futuro cercano. De hecho, se espera que el tráfico derivado de
servicios móviles se multiplique por once entre los años 2014 y 2018; y lo que es
más importante, se pronostica que dos tercios del tráfico móvil sea video streaming
para finales de ese periodo. Por lo tanto, la posibilidad de ofrecer servicios de alta
definición en dispositivos móviles es un requisito fundamental para los sistemas de
radiodifusión de nueva generación.
El principal objetivo de este trabajo es presentar soluciones técnicas que den
respuesta a los retos planteados anteriormente. En particular, las principales
cuestiones a resolver son la ineficiencia espectral y el incremento de usuarios que
demandan mayor calidad en los contenidos para dispositivos móviles. En pocas
palabras, el principal objetivo de este trabajo se basa en ofrecer una solución más
eficiente y flexible para la transmisión simultánea de servicios fijos y móviles.
La primera contribución relevante de este trabajo está relacionada con la
recepción de la señal de televisión en movimiento. En primer lugar, se presenta un
completo análisis matemático del comportamiento de la señal OFDM en canales
variantes con el tiempo. A continuación, con la intención de maximizar la
capacidad del canal, se estudian en profundidad los algoritmos de estimación y
ecualización. Posteriormente, se analizan los algoritmos de ecualización más
implementados, y por último, basándose en estas técnicas, se propone un nuevo
algoritmo de ecualización para aumentar el rendimiento de los receptores en tales
condiciones.
Del mismo modo, se plantea un nuevo enfoque para mejorar la eficiencia de
los servicios móviles basado en tratar la interferencia entre portadoras como una
fuente de ruido. Concretamente, tras analizar el impacto del ICI en los receptores
actuales, se sugiere delegar el trabajo de corrección de dichas distorsiones en
códigos FEC muy robustos.
Finalmente, la última contribución importante de este trabajo es la
presentación de la tecnología LDM como una manera más eficiente y flexible para
la transmisión simultánea de servicios fijos y móviles. El análisis teórico presentado
confirma el incremento en la eficiencia espectral, mientras que el estudio práctico
valida la posible implementación del sistema y presenta la tecnología LDM c
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Laboratory and field trials evaluation of transmit delay Diversity applied to DVB-T/H networks
This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The requirements for future DVB-T/H networks demand that broadcasters design and
deploy networks that provide ubiquitous reception in challenging indoors and other
obstructed situations. It is essential that such networks are designed cost-effectively and with minimized environmental impact. The use of transmit diversity techniques with
multiple antennas have long been proposed to improve the performance and capacity of
wireless systems. Transmit diversity exploits the scattering effect inherent in the channel by means of transmitting multiple signals in a controlled manner from spatially separated antennas, allowing independently faded signals to arrive at the receiver and improves the chances of decoding a signal of acceptable quality. Transmit diversity can complement receive diversity by adding an additional diversity gain and in situations where receiver diversity is not practical, transmit diversity alone delivers a comparable amount of diversity gain. Transmit Delay Diversity (DD) can be applied to systems employing the
DVB standard without receiver equipment modifications. Although transmit DD can
provide a gain in NLOS situations, it can introduce degradation in LOS situation. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the effectiveness in real-word applications of novel diversity techniques for broadcast transmitter networks. Tests involved laboratory experiments using a wireless MIMO channel emulator and the deployment of a field measurement campaign dedicated to driving, indoor and rooftop reception. The relationship between the diversity gain, the propagation environment and several parameters such as the transmit antenna separation, the receiver speed and the Forward Error Correction Codes (FEC) configuration are investigated. Results includes the effect of real-word parameter usually not modeled in the software simulation analysis, such as antenna radiation patterns and mutual coupling, scattering vegetation impact, non-Gaussian noise sources and receiver implementation. Moreover, a practical analysis of the effectiveness of experimental techniques to mitigate the loss due to transmit DD loss in rooftop reception is presented. The results of this thesis confirmed, completed and extended the existing predictions with real word measurement results
Storia delle telecomunicazioni
Focusing on the history of scientific and technological development over recent centuries, the book is dedicated to the history of telecommunications, where Italy has always been in the vanguard, and is presented by many of the protagonists of the last half century. The book is divided into five sections. The first, dealing with the origins, starts from the scientific bases of the evolution of telecommunications in the nineteenth century (Bucci), addressing the developments of scientific thought that led to the revolution of the theory of fields (Morando), analysing the birth of the three fundamental forms of communication – telegraph (Maggi), telephone (Del Re) and radio (Falciasecca) – and ending with the contribution made by the Italian Navy to the development of telecommunications (Carulli, Pelosi, Selleri, Tiberio). The second section, on technical and scientific developments, presents the numerical processing of signals (Rocca), illustrating the genesis and metamorphosis of transmission (Pupolin, Benedetto, Mengali, Someda, Vannucchi), network packets (Marsan, Guadagni, Lenzini), photonics in telecommunications (Prati) and addresses the issue of research within the institutions (Fedi-Morello), dwelling in particular on the CSELT (Mossotto). The next section deals with the sectors of application, offering an overview of radio, television and the birth of digital cinema (Vannucchi, Visintin), military communications (Maestrini, Costamagna), the development of radar (Galati) and spatial telecommunications (Tartara, Marconicchio). Section four, on the organisation of the services and the role of industry, outlines the rise and fall of the telecommunications industries in Italy (Randi), dealing with the telecommunications infrastructures (Caroppo, Gamerro), the role of the providers in national communications (Gerarduzzi), the networks and the mobile and wireless services (Falciasecca, Ongaro) and finally taking a look towards the future from the perspective of the last fifty years (Vannucchi). The last section, dealing with training and dissemination, offers an array of food for thought: university training in telecommunications, with focus on the evolution of legislation and on the professional profiles (Roveri), social and cultural aspects (Longo and Crespellani) as well as a glance over the most important museums, collections and documentary sources for telecommunications in Italy (Lucci, Savini, Temporelli, Valotti). The book is designed to offer a compendium comprising different analytical approaches, and aims to foster an interest in technology in the new generations, in the hope of stimulating potentially innovative research
Quality of Experience in Immersive Video Technologies
Over the last decades, several technological revolutions have impacted the television industry, such as the shifts from black & white to color and from standard to high-definition. Nevertheless, further considerable improvements can still be achieved to provide a better multimedia experience, for example with ultra-high-definition, high dynamic range & wide color gamut, or 3D. These so-called immersive technologies aim at providing better, more realistic, and emotionally stronger experiences. To measure quality of experience (QoE), subjective evaluation is the ultimate means since it relies on a pool of human subjects. However, reliable and meaningful results can only be obtained if experiments are properly designed and conducted following a strict methodology. In this thesis, we build a rigorous framework for subjective evaluation of new types of image and video content. We propose different procedures and analysis tools for measuring QoE in immersive technologies. As immersive technologies capture more information than conventional technologies, they have the ability to provide more details, enhanced depth perception, as well as better color, contrast, and brightness. To measure the impact of immersive technologies on the viewersâ QoE, we apply the proposed framework for designing experiments and analyzing collected subjectsâ ratings. We also analyze eye movements to study human visual attention during immersive content playback. Since immersive content carries more information than conventional content, efficient compression algorithms are needed for storage and transmission using existing infrastructures. To determine the required bandwidth for high-quality transmission of immersive content, we use the proposed framework to conduct meticulous evaluations of recent image and video codecs in the context of immersive technologies. Subjective evaluation is time consuming, expensive, and is not always feasible. Consequently, researchers have developed objective metrics to automatically predict quality. To measure the performance of objective metrics in assessing immersive content quality, we perform several in-depth benchmarks of state-of-the-art and commonly used objective metrics. For this aim, we use ground truth quality scores, which are collected under our subjective evaluation framework. To improve QoE, we propose different systems for stereoscopic and autostereoscopic 3D displays in particular. The proposed systems can help reducing the artifacts generated at the visualization stage, which impact picture quality, depth quality, and visual comfort. To demonstrate the effectiveness of these systems, we use the proposed framework to measure viewersâ preference between these systems and standard 2D & 3D modes. In summary, this thesis tackles the problems of measuring, predicting, and improving QoE in immersive technologies. To address these problems, we build a rigorous framework and we apply it through several in-depth investigations. We put essential concepts of multimedia QoE under this framework. These concepts not only are of fundamental nature, but also have shown their impact in very practical applications. In particular, the JPEG, MPEG, and VCEG standardization bodies have adopted these concepts to select technologies that were proposed for standardization and to validate the resulting standards in terms of compression efficiency
Radio Communications
In the last decades the restless evolution of information and communication technologies (ICT) brought to a deep transformation of our habits. The growth of the Internet and the advances in hardware and software implementations modified our way to communicate and to share information. In this book, an overview of the major issues faced today by researchers in the field of radio communications is given through 35 high quality chapters written by specialists working in universities and research centers all over the world. Various aspects will be deeply discussed: channel modeling, beamforming, multiple antennas, cooperative networks, opportunistic scheduling, advanced admission control, handover management, systems performance assessment, routing issues in mobility conditions, localization, web security. Advanced techniques for the radio resource management will be discussed both in single and multiple radio technologies; either in infrastructure, mesh or ad hoc networks