Cross-device media: a review of second screening and multi-device television

Television viewers interacting with second screens has become a common sight in the modern living room. Such activities are a mixture of related, semi-related, and non-related browsing of content. This growing trend is revolutionising the way that broadcasters think about their content. Through the envisioned connected home, driven by end-to-end IP connected networks, television content creators and app developers are now considering the design space for multi-device, interactive experiences. In this review paper, we consider the pre-digital beginnings of such scenarios, and progress to discuss how the introduction of mobile devices has affected the TV viewing experience. We discuss dual-screen usage over a variety of contexts in the connected home, with a focus on ‘designed’ dual-screen experiences such as companion applications. We conclude with reflections on the future of this area so that app developers, broadcasters, and academics may push further the space and improve future dual- and multi-screen experiences

Investigating the effect of relative time delay on companion screen experiences

Mobile devices are increasingly used while watching television, leading to the development of companion apps that complement the content of programmes. A concern for these applications is the extent to which companion app and television content need to be temporally aligned for live synchronisation. In this study, 18 participants watched a nature programme while being shown companion content on a tablet. Temporal synchronisation of content between the devices was varied. Participants completed questionnaires measuring immersion and affect and were tested on their recall for companion app content. While there were no statistically significant effects on these measures, qualitative interviews with participants after viewing consistently revealed that longer 10s delays in content synchronisation were frustrating. This suggests that poor content synchronisation can produce a negative companion experience for viewers and should be avoided

STEER: Exploring the dynamic relationship between social information and networked media through experimentation

With the growing popularity of social networks, online video services and smart phones, the traditional content consumers are becoming the editors and broadcasters of their own stories. Within the EU FP7 project STEER, project partners have developed a novel system of new algorithms and toolsets that extract and analyse social informatics generated by social networks. Combined with advanced networking technologies, the platform creates services that offer more personalized and accurate content discovery and retrieval services. The STEER system has been deployed in multiple geographical locations during live social events such as the 2014 Winter Olympics. Our use case experiments demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the underlying technologies

Augmenting TV Viewing using Acoustically Transparent Auditory Headsets

This paper explores how acoustically transparent auditory headsets can improve TV viewing by intermixing headset and TV audio, facilitating personal, private auditory enhancements and augmentations of TV content whilst minimizing occlusion of the sounds of reality. We evaluate the impact of synchronously mirroring select audio channels from the 5.1 mix (dialogue, environmental sounds, and the full mix), and selectively augmenting TV viewing with additional speech (e.g. Audio Description, Directors Commentary, and Alternate Language). For TV content, auditory headsets enable better spatialization and more immersive, enjoyable viewing; the intermixing of TV and headset audio creates unique listening experiences; and private augmentations offer new ways to (re)watch content with others. Finally, we reflect on how these headsets might facilitate more immersive augmented TV viewing experiences within reach of consumers

IDMS solution for hybrid broadcast broadband delivery within the context of HbbTV standard

"© 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permissíon from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertisíng or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works."[EN] Inter-destination media synchronization (IDMS) is a key requirement to enable successful networked shared media experiences between remote users. This paper presents an adaptive, accurate and standard-compliant IDMS solution for hybrid broadcast and broadband delivery. Apart from providing multi- and cross-technology support, the presented IDMS solution is able to accomplish synchronization when different formats/versions of the same, or even related, contents are being played out in a shared session. It is also able to independently manage the playout processes of different groups of users. The IDMS solution has been integrated within an end-to-end platform, which is compatible with the hybrid broadcast broadband TV standard. It has been applied to digital video broadcasting-terrestrial technology and tested for a Social TV scenario, by also including an ad-hoc chat tool as an interaction channel. The results of the conducted (objective and subjective) evaluations prove the statisfactory behavior and performance of the IDMS solution and platform as well as in terms of the perceived quality of experience.This work was supported by Generalitat Valenciana, Investigacion competitiva proyectos, through the Research and Development Program "Grants for research groups to be consolidated, AICO/2017," under Grant AICO/2017/059.Marfil-Reguero, D.; Boronat, F.; Montagud, M.; Sapena Piera, A. (2019). IDMS solution for hybrid broadcast broadband delivery within the context of HbbTV standard. IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting. 65(4):645-663. https://doi.org/10.1109/TBC.2018.2878285S64566365

MediaSync: Handbook on Multimedia Synchronization

This book provides an approachable overview of the most recent advances in the fascinating field of media synchronization (mediasync), gathering contributions from the most representative and influential experts. Understanding the challenges of this field in the current multi-sensory, multi-device, and multi-protocol world is not an easy task. The book revisits the foundations of mediasync, including theoretical frameworks and models, highlights ongoing research efforts, like hybrid broadband broadcast (HBB) delivery and users' perception modeling (i.e., Quality of Experience or QoE), and paves the way for the future (e.g., towards the deployment of multi-sensory and ultra-realistic experiences). Although many advances around mediasync have been devised and deployed, this area of research is getting renewed attention to overcome remaining challenges in the next-generation (heterogeneous and ubiquitous) media ecosystem. Given the significant advances in this research area, its current relevance and the multiple disciplines it involves, the availability of a reference book on mediasync becomes necessary. This book fills the gap in this context. In particular, it addresses key aspects and reviews the most relevant contributions within the mediasync research space, from different perspectives. Mediasync: Handbook on Multimedia Synchronization is the perfect companion for scholars and practitioners that want to acquire strong knowledge about this research area, and also approach the challenges behind ensuring the best mediated experiences, by providing the adequate synchronization between the media elements that constitute these experiences

Creating and broadcasting video-based multi-platform experiences

The majority of TV consumers now watch TV programs in a multi-display environment. Second screens –most often smartphones - are generally used to check information not directly related to the events in the TV content being watched. Broadcasters have tried to orchestrate these different platforms, and there is reason to believe this contributes to user engagement. However, their success has been limited. This might be caused, at least in part, by the different formats of content being used: mobile apps show graphics and text similar to web content, while TV renders a continuous stream of audiovisual content. The arrival of virtual reality displays to the living room further increases the need for consistent experiences across displays. ImmersiaTV is an European H2020 Research and Innovation action that is redesigning the production and delivery process to offer a new form of broadcast multi-platform video. This novel form of multi-platform video is based on the following assumptions: 1. The arrival of head-mounted displays (HMD) to the living room further requires the delivery of content that is consistent across displays, giving freedom to the end-user to engage with content in one or another device. This means that content must be adapted to the specificities of each device, both in terms of content format and interactive input (or lack of interaction, for the case of the TV), but the end-user should be free to adopt one or another device at different moments of the program being broadcasted. 2. This new form of broadcast multi-platform video must seamlessly integrate with and further augment traditional TV and second screen consumer habits. For TV, this means that content can be consumed simply by sitting on the couch and watching, without further input, and that the audiovisual language used follows established conventions. For tablets and smartphones, it means that user input and social media integration must work seamlessly with the specificities of each device. To address these requirements, in the first year of the project we have designed and implemented an end-to-end production, delivery and rendering pipeline for offline content production which specifically addresses these needs. In this short article we outline the design principles, production and delivery methods as well as the tools used and developed for this purpose. Section 2 outlines the design principles adopted, and related academic work. Section 3 introduces the elements constituting the ImmersiaTV end-to-end pipeline and, where there exist, commercial alternatives. Section 4 introduce our main conclusions and further planned work within ImmersiaTV to address some of the limitations detected. The content examples are adapted from the first pilot of ImmersiaTV

Enhancing interaction with dual-screen television through display commonalities

Second screening - engaging with a mobile device while watching TV - is ubiquitous. Previous research demonstrates that this is hampered by cognitive and physical disjuncts between the simultaneous content streams. To engage effectively with more than one screen, users must manage their attention, for example, by frequently adjusting their gaze or posture. This can lead to cognitive effort, which leads to disengagement, content sacrifice, and ultimately, affects user experience (UX) negatively. In this paper, we look to improve the design of the dual-screen scenario through display commonalities; the mirroring of one content stream (e.g., TV material or second screen content) within the other. We evaluate this design space with professional broadcast practitioners, and then conduct an empirical investigation to determine the impact of the most successful methods towards understanding their impact, and designing towards positive UX with multi-device scenarios. Copyright is held by the owner/author(s)

Enhancing Interaction with Dual-Screen Television Through Display Commonalities

Second screening - engaging with a mobile device while watching TV - is ubiquitous. Previous research demonstrates that this is hampered by cognitive and physical disjuncts between the simultaneous content streams. To engage effectively with more than one screen, users must manage their attention, for example, by frequently adjusting their gaze or posture. This can lead to cognitive effort, which leads to disengagement, content sacrifice, and ultimately, affects user experience (UX) negatively. In this paper, we look to improve the design of the dual-screen scenario through \emph{display commonalities}; the mirroring of one content stream (e.g., TV material or second screen content) within the other. We evaluate this design space with professional broadcast practitioners, and then conduct an empirical investigation to determine the impact of the most successful methods towards understanding their impact, and designing towards positive UX with multi-device scenarios

HbbTV-compliant Platform for Hybrid Media Delivery and Synchronization on Single- and Multi-Device Scenarios

[EN] The combination of broadcast and broadband (hybrid) technologies for delivering TV related media contents can bring fascinating opportunities. It is motivated by the large amount and diversity of media contents, together with the ubiquity and multiple connectivity capabilities of modern consumption devices. This paper presents an end-to-end platform for the preparation, delivery, and synchronized consumption of related hybrid (broadcast/broadband) media contents on a single device and/or on multiple close-by devices (i.e., a multi-device scenario). It is compatible with the latest version of the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) standard (version 2.0.1). Additionally, it provides adaptive and efficient solutions for key issues not specified in that standard, but that are necessary to successfully deploy hybrid and multidevice media services. Moreover, apart from MPEG-DASH and HTML5, which are the broadband technologies adopted by HbbTV, the platform also provides support for using HTTP Live Streaming and Real-time Transport Protocol and its companion RTP Control Protocol broadband technologies. The presented platform can provide support for many hybrid media services. In this paper, in order to evaluate it, the use case of multi-device and multi-view TV service has been selected. The results of both objective and subjective assessments have been very satisfactory, in terms of performance (stability, smooth playout, delays, and sync accuracy), usability of the platform, usefulness of its functionalities, and the awaken interest in these kinds of platforms.This work was supported in part by the "Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional" and in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through R&D&I Support Program under Grant TEC2013-45492-R.Boronat, F.; Marfil-Reguero, D.; Montagud, M.; Pastor Castillo, FJ. (2017). HbbTV-compliant Platform for Hybrid Media Delivery and Synchronization on Single- and Multi-Device Scenarios. IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting. 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1109/TBC.2017.2781124S12