Object-based audio: Opportunities for improved listening experience and increased listener involvement

A new television audio system based on the MPEG-H Audio standard is being designed and tested to offer interactive and immersive sound, employing the standard's audio objects, height channels, and higher order Ambisonics features. Object-based interactive audio offers users the ability to personalize their listening experience, setting their preferred language and dialogue level, or selecting elements to hear their home team or listen to their favorite race driver's radio. A fourstage process is introduced for implementing the complete system in TV networks. Additionally, the plant design, creative, and operational implications of producing content are discussed, based on the design and field testing of the system. Consumer reproduction implications are also presented, such as a 3D Soundbar prototype, the control of loudness in the system, and rendering for playback on both traditional and new media devices. © Copyright 2015 by SMPTE

Building the world's most complex TV network (A test bed for broadcasting immersive and interactive Audio1)

Fraunhofer and its partners have developed a TV audio system based on the new MPEG-H Audio standard, now part of the ATSC 3.0 A/342 standard adopted for Korean broadcasts in 2017. Given its complexity, a complete broadcast plant was built to test the features envisioned. At NAB 2015 we demonstrated "The MPEG Network" on the show floor. It was perhaps the most complex combination of broadcast audio content ever made in a single plant, involving 13 different formats. The network was designed to handle immersive audio in both channel and HOA-based formats, with each using audio objects for interactivity. Live mixing at a simulated sports remote was contributed to a network operating center, with distribution to affiliates, and then emission to a consumer living room, all using the MPEG-H audio system. Both system and equipment design are presented, including an Audio Monitoring and Authoring Unit to mix signals using existing consoles