Subjective evaluation of scalable video coding for content distribution

This paper investigates the influence of the combination of the scalability parameters in scalable video coding (SVC) schemes on the subjective visual quality. We aim at providing guidelines for an adaptation strategy of SVC that can select the optimal scalability options for resource-constrained networks. Extensive subjective tests are conducted by using two different scalable video codecs and high definition contents. The results are analyzed with respect to five dimensions, namely, codec, content, spatial resolution, temporal resolution, and frame quality

Advanced solutions for quality-oriented multimedia broadcasting

Multimedia content is increasingly being delivered via different types of networks to viewers in a variety of locations and contexts using a variety of devices. The ubiquitous nature of multimedia services comes at a cost, however. The successful delivery of multimedia services will require overcoming numerous technological challenges many of which have a direct effect on the quality of the multimedia experience. For example, due to dynamically changing requirements and networking conditions, the delivery of multimedia content has traditionally adopted a best effort approach. However, this approach has often led to the end-user perceived quality of multimedia-based services being negatively affected. Yet the quality of multimedia content is a vital issue for the continued acceptance and proliferation of these services. Indeed, end-users are becoming increasingly quality-aware in their expectations of multimedia experience and demand an ever-widening spectrum of rich multimedia-based services. As a consequence, there is a continuous and extensive research effort, by both industry and academia, to find solutions for improving the quality of multimedia content delivered to the users; as well, international standards bodies, such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), are renewing their effort on the standardization of multimedia technologies. There are very different directions in which research has attempted to find solutions in order to improve the quality of the rich media content delivered over various network types. It is in this context that this special issue on broadcast multimedia quality of the IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting illustrates some of these avenues and presents some of the most significant research results obtained by various teams of researchers from many countries. This special issue provides an example, albeit inevitably limited, of the richness and breath of the current research on multimedia broadcasting services. The research i- - ssues addressed in this special issue include, among others, factors that influence user perceived quality, encoding-related quality assessment and control, transmission and coverage-based solutions and objective quality measurements

Digital recording of performing arts: formats and conversion

B

Multimedia delivery in the future internet

The term “Networked Media” implies that all kinds of media including text, image, 3D graphics, audio and video are produced, distributed, shared, managed and consumed on-line through various networks, like the Internet, Fiber, WiFi, WiMAX, GPRS, 3G and so on, in a convergent manner [1]. This white paper is the contribution of the Media Delivery Platform (MDP) cluster and aims to cover the Networked challenges of the Networked Media in the transition to the Future of the Internet. Internet has evolved and changed the way we work and live. End users of the Internet have been confronted with a bewildering range of media, services and applications and of technological innovations concerning media formats, wireless networks, terminal types and capabilities. And there is little evidence that the pace of this innovation is slowing. Today, over one billion of users access the Internet on regular basis, more than 100 million users have downloaded at least one (multi)media file and over 47 millions of them do so regularly, searching in more than 160 Exabytes1 of content. In the near future these numbers are expected to exponentially rise. It is expected that the Internet content will be increased by at least a factor of 6, rising to more than 990 Exabytes before 2012, fuelled mainly by the users themselves. Moreover, it is envisaged that in a near- to mid-term future, the Internet will provide the means to share and distribute (new) multimedia content and services with superior quality and striking flexibility, in a trusted and personalized way, improving citizens’ quality of life, working conditions, edutainment and safety. In this evolving environment, new transport protocols, new multimedia encoding schemes, cross-layer inthe network adaptation, machine-to-machine communication (including RFIDs), rich 3D content as well as community networks and the use of peer-to-peer (P2P) overlays are expected to generate new models of interaction and cooperation, and be able to support enhanced perceived quality-of-experience (PQoE) and innovative applications “on the move”, like virtual collaboration environments, personalised services/ media, virtual sport groups, on-line gaming, edutainment. In this context, the interaction with content combined with interactive/multimedia search capabilities across distributed repositories, opportunistic P2P networks and the dynamic adaptation to the characteristics of diverse mobile terminals are expected to contribute towards such a vision. Based on work that has taken place in a number of EC co-funded projects, in Framework Program 6 (FP6) and Framework Program 7 (FP7), a group of experts and technology visionaries have voluntarily contributed in this white paper aiming to describe the status, the state-of-the art, the challenges and the way ahead in the area of Content Aware media delivery platforms

Evaluation of the MDC and FEC over the quality of service and quality of experience for video distribution in ad hoc networks

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) offer an excellent scenario for deploying communication applications because of the connectivity and versatility of this kind of networks. In contrast, the topology is usually extremely dynamic causing high rate of packet loss, so that ensuring a specific Quality of Service (QoS) for real-time video services becomes a hard challenge. In this paper, we evaluate the effect of using Multiple Description Coding (MDC) and Forward Error Correction (FEC) techniques for improving video quality in a multimedia content distribution system. A hybrid architecture using fixed and wireless ad hoc networks is proposed, which enables the use of multipoint-to-point transmission. MDC and FEC mechanisms can be combined with multipath transmission to increase the network efficiency and recover lost packets, improving the overall Quality of Experience (QoE) of the receiver. Simulations have been analyzed paying attention to objective parameters (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio, Packet Delivery Ratio, Decodable Frame Rate and interruptions) and subjective parameters. Results show that MDC increases the probability of packet delivery and FEC is able to recover lost frames and reduce video interruptions in moderate mobility scenarios, resulting in the improvement of video quality and the final user experience.This work was supported by project MIQUEL (TEC2007- 68119-C02-01/TCM) of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. The authors would like to thank the Editor and the reviewers for helpful suggestions to improve the quality of this paper.Acelas Delgado, P.; Arce Vila, P.; Guerri Cebollada, JC.; Castellanos Hernández, WE. (2014). Evaluation of the MDC and FEC over the quality of service and quality of experience for video distribution in ad hoc networks. 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International Conference on Digital Telecommunications, pp 65–65Gandikota VR, Tamma BR, Murthy CSR (2008) Adaptive-FEC based packet loss resilience scheme for supporting voice communication over adhoc wireless networks. IEEE Trans Mobile Comput 7:1184–1199Gharavi H (2008) Multi-channel for multihop communication links. International Conference on Telecommunications, pp 1–6Grega M, Janowski L, Leszczuk M, Romaniak P, Papir Z (2008) Quality of experience evaluation for multimedia services. Przegląd Telekomunikacyjny i Wiadomości Telekomunikacyjne 4:142–153Hsieh MY, Huang YM, Chian TC (2007) Transmission of layered video streaming via multi-path on ad hoc networks. Multimed Tool Appl 34:155–177ITU—International Telecommunication Union (2007) Definition of quality of experience (QoE)”, Reference: TD 109rev2 (PLEN/12)ITU-R Recommendation BT.500-12 (2009) Methodology for the subjective assessment of the quality of television pictures. International Telecommunication Union, GenevaITU-T Recommendation P.910 (2000) Subjective video quality assessment methods for multimedia applications. International Telecommunication Union, GenevaKao KL, Ke ChH, Shieh CH (2006) An advanced simulation tool-set for video transmission performance evaluation. IEEE Region 10 Conference, pp 1–40Ke CH et al (2006) A novel realistic simulation tool for video transmission over wireless network. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Sensor Networks, Ubiquitous, and Trsutworthy ComputingKeisuke U, Cheeonn C, Hiroshi I (2008) A study on video performance of multipoint-to-point video streaming with multiple description coding over ad hoc networks. EEJ Trans Electron, Inf Syst 128:1431–1437Kilkki K (2008) Quality of experience in communications ecosystem. J Univers Comput Sci 14:615–624Li A (2007) RTP payload format for generic forward error correction. 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On the merits of SVC-based HTTP adaptive streaming

HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) is quickly becoming the dominant type of video streaming in Over-The-Top multimedia services. HAS content is temporally segmented and each segment is offered in different video qualities to the client. It enables a video client to dynamically adapt the consumed video quality to match with the capabilities of the network and/or the client's device. As such, the use of HAS allows a service provider to offer video streaming over heterogeneous networks and to heterogeneous devices. Traditionally, the H. 264/AVC video codec is used for encoding the HAS content: for each offered video quality, a separate AVC video file is encoded. Obviously, this leads to a considerable storage redundancy at the video server as each video is available in a multitude of qualities. The recent Scalable Video Codec (SVC) extension of H. 264/AVC allows encoding a video into different quality layers: by dowloading one or more additional layers, the video quality can be improved. While this leads to an immediate reduction of required storage at the video server, the impact of using SVC-based HAS on the network and perceived quality by the user are less obvious. In this article, we characterize the performance of AVC- and SVC-based HAS in terms of perceived video quality, network load and client characteristics, with the goal of identifying advantages and disadvantages of both options