People, context, and devices: Defining the new landscape of TV experiences

Modern technologies (e.g., tablet, smartphone, large public displays) remove many of the constraints that define the scope of what television is or can be, but we often define it based upon our prior TV experiences with broadcast and cable television. This one-day workshop at TVX 2015 will address design challenges and opportunities (e.g., of video streams, social TV apps, second screens) in order to consolidate existing knowledge to describe the changing landscape of TV experiences. It's time to redefine what we think of when we say "television," and this workshop will engage participants in that process

Cross-Device Taxonomy:Survey, Opportunities and Challenges of Interactions Spanning Across Multiple Devices

Designing interfaces or applications that move beyond the bounds of a single device screen enables new ways to engage with digital content. Research addressing the opportunities and challenges of interactions with multiple devices in concert is of continued focus in HCI research. To inform the future research agenda of this field, we contribute an analysis and taxonomy of a corpus of 510 papers in the cross- device computing domain. For both new and experienced researchers in the field we provide: an overview, historic trends and unified terminology of cross-device research; discussion of major and under-explored application areas; mapping of enabling technologies; synthesis of key interaction techniques spanning across multiple devices; and review of common evaluation strategies. We close with a discussion of open issues. Our taxonomy aims to create a unified terminology and common understanding for researchers in order to facilitate and stimulate future cross-device research

Understanding and Designing Attention for Dual-Screen Media

Recently there has been a transformative shift towards engaging with mobile devices while watching television. Content creators, therefore, wish to create applications to support these behaviours to provide more engaging multi-device TV. Currently, their designs do not reflect the subtle variations in viewer attention, our physiological capabilities, or the additional mental effort such scenarios imply. We investigate this in two primary ways: by further understanding the current issues faced by users when dual-screening, and by designing a series of technological interventions for managing cross-device attention. First, we conduct two studies to better understand the user experience of second screening. Through a large-scale online questionnaire and a series of interviews we document the problems faced by users when second screening and how they compensate and mitigate for missing content when engaging with mobile devices. We then conduct an investigation to explore the effect of dual-screen visual complexity in terms of objective and subjective experience of participants when exposed to content of varying complexity across two screens.For our technological interventions, we first investigate how visual complexity on a mobile device may be varied to account for the perceived complexity of TV material by loading textual material at varying levels of complexity. We explore the tradeoff of user autonomy and content creator control by contrasting the effects of users adjusting the complexity themselves, and automatic adjustment around heuristics. Then, we consider how different audio-visual stimuli may be used to direct a user’s attention between screens at key moments. Finally, we explore how we can support users to reduce the switching costs and cognitive effort associated with engaging with cross-device media mirroring unattended visual information in the experience on an attended screen. Throughout the thesis we show that many of our interventions are a beneficial state of the art and form a series of guidelines for each. The thesis concludes by offering an outline of our contributions and a framework for others to extend our work

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

Understanding Timelines within MPEG Standards

(c) 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising 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.Nowadays, media content can be delivered via diverse broadband and broadcast technologies. Although these different technologies have somehow become rivals, their coordinated usage and convergence, by leveraging of their strengths and complementary characteristics, can bring many benefits to both operators and customers. For example, broadcast TV content can be augmented by on-demand broadband media content to provide enriched and personalized services, such as multi-view TV, audio language selection, and inclusion of real-time web feeds. A piece of evidence is the recent Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) standard, which aims at harmonizing the delivery and consumption of (hybrid) broadcast and broadband TV content. A key challenge in these emerging scenarios is the synchronization between the involved media streams, which can be originated by the same or different sources, and delivered via the same or different technologies. To enable synchronized (hybrid) media delivery services, some mechanisms providing timelines at the source side are necessary to accurately time align the involved media streams at the receiver-side. This paper provides a comprehensive review of how clock references (timing) and timestamps (time) are conveyed and interpreted when using the most widespread delivery technologies, such as DVB, RTP/RTCP and MPEG standards (e.g., MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MPEG-DASH, and MMT). It is particularly focused on the format, resolution, frequency, and the position within the bitstream of the fields conveying timing information, as well as on the involved components and packetization aspects. Finally, it provides a survey of proofs of concepts making use of these synchronization related mechanisms. This complete and thorough source of information can be very useful for scholars and practitioners interested in media services with synchronization demands.This work has been funded, partially, by the "Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional" (FEDER) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, under its R&D&i Support Program in project with ref TEC2013-45492-R.Yuste, LB.; Boronat Segui, F.; Montagut Climent, MA.; Melvin, H. (2015). Understanding Timelines within MPEG Standards. Communications Surveys and Tutorials, IEEE Communications Society. 18(1):368-400. https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2015.2488483S36840018

Supporting collocated and at-a-distance experiences with TV and VR displays

Televisions (TVs) and VR Head-Mounted Displays (VR HMDs) are used in shared and social spaces in the home. This thesis posits that these displays do not sufficiently reflect the collocated, social contexts in which they reside, nor do they sufficiently support shared experiences at-a-distance. This thesis explores how the role of TVs and VR HMDs can go beyond presenting a single entertainment experience, instead supporting social and shared use in both collocated and at-a-distance contexts. For collocated TV, this thesis demonstrates that the TV can be augmented to facilitate multi-user interaction, support shared and independent activities and multi-user use through multi-view display technology, and provide awareness of the multi-screen activity of those in the room, allowing the TV to reflect the social context in which it resides. For at-a-distance TV, existing smart TVs are shown to be capable of supporting synchronous at-a-distance activity, broadening the scope of media consumption beyond the four walls of the home. For VR HMDs, collocated proximate persons can be seamlessly brought into mixed reality VR experiences based on engagement, improving VR HMD usability. Applied to at-a-distance interactions, these shared mixed reality VR experiences can enable more immersive social experiences that approximate viewing together as if in person, compared to at-a-distance TV. Through an examination of TVs and VR HMDs, this thesis demonstrates that consumer display technology can better support users to interact, and share experiences and activities, with those they are close to

Proceedings of the 9th Arab Society for Computer Aided Architectural Design (ASCAAD) international conference 2021 (ASCAAD 2021): architecture in the age of disruptive technologies: transformation and challenges.

The ASCAAD 2021 conference theme is Architecture in the age of disruptive technologies: transformation and challenges. The theme addresses the gradual shift in computational design from prototypical morphogenetic-centered associations in the architectural discourse. This imminent shift of focus is increasingly stirring a debate in the architectural community and is provoking a much needed critical questioning of the role of computation in architecture as a sole embodiment and enactment of technical dimensions, into one that rather deliberately pursues and embraces the humanities as an ultimate aspiration

Music - Media - History

Music and sound shape the emotional content of audio-visual media and carry different meanings. This volume considers audio-visual material as a primary source for historiography. By analyzing how the same sounds are used in different media contexts at different times, the contributors intend to challenge the linear perspective of (music) history based on canonic authority. The book discusses AV-Documents (analysis in context), methodological questions (implications for research, education, and popularization of knowledge), archives of cultural memory (from the perspective of Cultural Studies) as well as digitalization and its consequences (organization of knowledge)

Is it just the Music? Towards an Understanding of the Festival-goer and their Experience at UK Music Festivals

Festivals are an adventure of the emotional and physical senses and can create unforgettable, exciting and thrilling memories of unfamiliar and unique experiences. With music festivals in particular, there is an additional emphasis on the chance to experience live music by often idolised musicians within a temporary community of shared musical interests. However, whilst a music festival may attract visitors through advertising an attractive and appealing line-up of popular acts, this far from guarantees a happy customer. There are many other elements that contribute to and impact upon the experience of the festival-goer (Morgan, 2008: 83). If these elements are managed well, this can result in benefits for both the consumer, through positive emotional and cognitive experiences, and for the organisation through repeat custom, recommendations and increased sales. However, if the festival fails and disappoints the consumer, this in turn can generate negative perceptions and an undesired reputation, hence reducing future attendance and sales. Thus, in order for festival organisers to achieve organisational success, they must respond and react to the needs and desires of their festival-goers. Therefore, this thesis aims to provide an exploratory analysis of the festival-goer and their experience at UK music festivals. More specifically, it examines who the festival-goers are and what experiences they seek. In doing so, the study aims to develop an experience value model, depicting the relationship between festival-goer characteristics and the value of experience attributes at UK music festivals. This research adopts a pragmatist philosophy and mixed-methods approach which is carried out across three phases: (i) interviews with festival-organisers; (ii) an online quantitative survey of festival-goers; and (iii), on-site interviews with festival-goers. The research results are analysed using appropriate methods including thematic coding, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and linear regression. The results identify common socio-demographic and psychographic characteristics amongst festival-goers to UK music festivals, whilst also indicating a distinction between those at rock or niche, and pop or mainstream festivals. The value of experience attributes is identified in seven areas: music, other entertainment, services, engagement, added value, ethics and image, all of which may influence the overall experience. The festival atmosphere is the most important experiential attribute; however, this research also demonstrates the significance of engagement and co-creation throughout the festival-goers’ journey. Most importantly, the results show that festival-goers’ socio-demographic and psychographic characteristics determine the value of experience attributes. Therefore, this research provides an original contribution to both theory and practice through the development of an experience value model, and by providing critica