Completed projects: Media transmission over networks - digital TV - interactive TV

Projects: Media Transmission in Networks - Digital TV - Interactive TV

2013 – 2016 - Global ITV: Interoperability of Interactive and Hybrid TV Systems. A new advanced scheme for future services and applications in a global environment.

• Coordinator: Marcelo Knorich Zuffo
• Description: Global ITV aims to create a framework that will allow the exchange of new HbbTV applications in the European and Brazilian scenarios planned for the period 2015-2020, including an analysis of the legacy middleware currently in use, such as GINGA in the Brazilian case. Additionally, the solution architecture will allow the expansion of the solution to other DTT scenarios: Japan, China, etc., thus creating the basis for a truly global HbbTV market. The proposal will take into account new user trends, such as video on demand, the use of social networks, and the use of "second screens" concurrent with TV programming. The project was selected by the MCTI/CNPq Call for Proposals No. 13/2012 - Brazil-European Union Cooperation Program, focused on the area of ​​Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The project is coordinated, on the Brazilian side, by Prof. Marcelo Zuffo, from the Interdisciplinary Center for Interactive Technologies of the University of São Paulo (CITI/USP), and, on the European side, by Ralf Neudel, leader of the broadcasting research group at the Institut für Rundfunktechnik GmbH (IRT), Germany. In total, this project comprises 17 partners, both European and Brazilian. Processes: CNPq No. 490088/2013-9; FP7-ICT-2013-EU-Brazil No. FP7-614087.

2011 – 2017 - Advanced Remote Viewing Applications Program, Optportals SAGE Project.

• Coordinator: Tereza Cristina Melo de Brito Carvalho
• Description: Several significant technological advances have occurred in recent years, raising digital production and display to levels previously unimaginable. These technological advances include the introduction of high-resolution scanners, digital image compression, distributed data storage and processing on high-capacity networks, and digital capture and projection in super-high-definition (images with a resolution equivalent to 4 times higher than HD). The combination of these technologies defines the basic infrastructure for scientific and cultural applications that demand advanced visualization schemes. The manipulation of visual data at the highest resolutions allowed by the state of the art in technologies for transmission, processing, capture, and display of moving images represents a major research challenge worldwide. In Brazil, few research groups are aware of these technologies, which are still restricted due to the difficulty in acquiring encoders, cameras, and 4K projectors. Aware of this, RNP, through an R&D Program in Advanced Remote Visualization Applications, is funding three working groups that aim to explore three complementary aspects of the 4K technology domain: (i) Creation of Visual Content; (ii) Content Distribution; and (iii) Display Methods. These working groups are coordinated respectively by researchers from Mackenzie Presbyterian University, UFPB/LAVID, and USP. Project certified by the National Research and Education Network on 04/05/2023. Project certified by the coordinator Tereza Cristina Melo de Brito Carvalho on 15/08/2014.

2011 – 2014 - GT-IMAV: Working Group on Instrumentation and Monitoring for Video Applications.

• Coordinator: Regina Melo Silveira
• Description: Projections indicate that video will be responsible for 90% of network traffic by the end of the decade. Considering the high cost of producing the media itself and, especially, the high consumption of network resources by applications that use it, it becomes extremely relevant to monitor such usage, thus avoiding a mistaken or distorted view of this consumption. Within this scenario, it is necessary to develop mechanisms and tools that allow for a clear view of the effectiveness of video consumption, as well as measuring viewer engagement. What tools can be developed to evaluate this consumption? What should be measured, that is, what are the parameters and metrics, and how to obtain them in order to measure the effectiveness of the use of video applications? These are questions that the project aims to answer with the objective of developing tools that address these needs in an integrated way, evaluating them within a scenario of video use as an instrument for teaching/learning.

2008 – 2012 - Development of Methodology, Techniques and Software Engineering Tools for Interactive Digital TV Applications.

• Coordinator: Wilson Vicente Ruggiero
• Description: Project funded by CAPES for the training of human resources in the area of ​​digital TV. Project certified by the coordinator Wilson Vicente Ruggiero on 02/18/2014.

2008 – 2010 - IPTV-P2P: Network Aware Peer-to-Peer Media Distribution System.

• Coordinator: Tereza Cristina Melo de Brito Carvalho
• Description: The IPTV-P2P project is a continuation of the last stage of a previous project, entitled "Quality of Service and Digital Rights Management in IPTV Transmissions". In this latest project, distributed storage techniques and peer-to-peer (P2P) networks were studied and employed in the creation of an IPTV architecture for offering linearly transmitted content on TV channels of an IPTV system at any time to system users, thus making the time when the user can watch certain content more flexible. Several improvements and new functionalities were implemented in the prototype, such as the ability to choose which part of a content to watch, and various improvements in the process of content sharing by users in the system. The hierarchical tracker system, developed to provide location characteristics and control planes, is particularly noteworthy. Project certified by Ericsson Telecommunications - Headquarters on 04/05/2023

2007 – 2008 - GT Overlay - Overlapping Services Networks.

• Coordinator: Regina Melo Silveira
• Description: This project aims to investigate and specify a network of overlapping services, focusing on enabling the integration between multiple media distribution services. To this end, the RNP's RVD network and the Management Platform already developed in the GTVD and GTGV Working Groups are considered. In short, the proposal is to enable integration between multiple instances of the developed video distribution management platform, through the optimization of media transmission between each instance and, primarily, throughout the RNP's RVD network, which would represent the backbone of the entire service network, enabling the operation of each instance on a national scale. To achieve this objective, it is necessary to develop a service infrastructure whose function will be to provide management and control mechanisms over existing services, minimizing problems arising from control overload and optimizing the transmission of inter-domain media streams, thus enabling increased scalability of the solution. In order to provide the aforementioned increase in scalability, as well as greater robustness to the entire solution, a second area of ​​work will be to address specific improvements within the scope of the solutions already developed. For the analysis of the service infrastructure to be developed, a third and final area of ​​work will be to implement, within the capabilities of PlanetLab, the service overlay network, in order to validate and evaluate it.

2006 – 2008 - IPTV for Home Personal Domains.

• Coordinator: Tereza Cristina Melo de Brito Carvalho
• Description: The objective of this project is to specify and implement an IPTV solution for home environments with built-in DRM (Digital Rights Management) features. The home environment in this case can range from a single family home to more complex environments such as a student residence or a hotel. In the first case, it is assumed that the family has a subscription to an IPTV provider, but may receive visitors who have subscriptions to other providers. Although the subscription grants access to various channels, not all family members can access all channels (for example, children could not watch adult channels). In the case of student residences, different students may have different subscriptions. And lastly, in the case of a hotel, the hotel itself has an IPTV provider subscription and resells its usage rights temporarily to its guests, and also allows its guests to use their own subscriptions from the hotel's network infrastructure. Within the same environment, therefore, there can be subgroups with differentiated access rights. Each subgroup is associated with a domain. People belonging to a domain can access protected or unprotected content, using DRM mechanisms. Project certified by Ericsson Telecommunications - Headquarters on 04/05/2023.

2006 – 2007 - GTGV - Video Management Working Group - Phase 2.

• Coordinator: Regina Melo Silveira
• Description: This Working Group aims to continue the work already begun in 2005, which specified and developed a platform for integrating digital media distribution services to support, in a standardized way, the media distribution services of RNP, in particular video-on-demand and live video streaming services, resulting from the work of the Digital Video Working Group. The developed multimedia service management platform aims to assist in the management and monitoring of media distribution, in order to optimize resources and centralize management actions. The platform has an access portal with functionalities for publishing, searching, displaying media, customizing access, administration and service management. Access control has authentication and permission mechanisms, controlling media storage and retrieval operations, entity registrations, configurations, policies, administration statistics, system management, among others. The repositories store video media files (encoded in MPEG 1, 2, 4 or Windows Media), and service management files and metadata (based on MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 standards) with descriptions of multimedia content and services. There is also a management module responsible for managing configuration, distribution, customization, and adaptation policies, as well as monitoring sessions and the status of each service, their respective execution environments, and the elements of the distribution network. The proposal for the second stage is to implement the pilot video management service on the RNP network. The activities for this new stage comprise four lines of work: Integration of the Digital Video Network servers into the management platform; Refinement and optimization of the developed prototype; Integration with tools/services of the Measurements 2 and Digital Video Working Groups; and Dissemination.

2005 – 2008 - Quality of Service and Copyright Management in IPTV Systems.

• Coordinator: Tereza Cristina Melo de Brito Carvalho
• Description: This project is being developed in three work packages: WP1 - Creation and assembly of an IPTV laboratory with transmission and reception of HDTV quality signals, using Internet 2 (Advanced Internet). WP2 - Specification of a DRM (Digital Rights Management) architecture for IPTV systems. WP3 - Specification and implementation of a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) environment for IPTV transmission. Project certified by Ericsson Telecommunications - Headquarters on 04/05/2023.

2005 – 2007 - Collaborative Environment.

• Coordinator: Graça Bressan
• Description: Collaborative environment supporting high-definition video and digital media transmission: Duration: 18 months; Funding: FINEP-RNP; Value: R$ 300,000.00. This project is being developed through a collaborative research effort involving, in addition to LARC, INPE, CCE-USP, and the Siemens research center. Within LARC, this project is directly coordinated by Prof. Dr. Graça Bressan. Currently available applications for audio and video conferencing over IP technology are geared towards narrowband, resulting in low audio and video quality, leading to poor interaction and making their use unfeasible in situations requiring higher quality. The GIGA network offers new challenges and opportunities, being suitable for the development of applications that allow communication through high-quality audio and video, using high-definition images and video with quality of service specifications. The large satellite projects developed by INPE, specifically through the LIT laboratory, stand to gain significantly from a high-speed communication infrastructure. This infrastructure should offer resources for communication between teams in different locations, with visualization of procedures through high-definition images and the exchange of high volumes of data in real time. Currently, these activities require the mobilization of all personnel involved, who must be present at the location where the data is received. The availability of equipment that meets these needs complements and enables this research effort, which will result in highly useful systems in other situations such as distance education and telemedicine. It should be noted that the development will be based on open software platforms so that the applications can be used in other environments with this characteristic, regardless of the equipment used.

2005 – 2007 - IPTV USP.

• Coordinator: Tereza Cristina Melo de Brito Carvalho
• Description: Research Project: IPTV: Period: 2005-2007 - 24 months Partner: Ericsson Research Sweden, Ericsson Research Canada Sponsor: Ericsson Brazil, Ericsson Research Sweden, Ericsson Research Canada; Value: R$1,000,000.00. Areas: Video Transmission and Compression, IPTV, HDTV. In this context, one of the objectives of this project is to develop an infrastructure and applications for streaming rich media (video, audio and associated data) over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This includes VoD (Video on Demand), rich media live transmission, multicast, compressed and uncompressed transmission and streaming for different classes of devices (e.g., desktop, laptops and handhelds). In addition, three other objectives should be accomplished. The first one is to perform tests and their analysis about End-to-End QoS for IPTV traffic over local, metropolitan and wide are networks involving Internet 2 infrastructure. Another important objective is to assess the current state of DRM (Digital Rights Management) and propose solutions for some security challenges in this context, such as key management and user privacy in unicast and multicast transmissions. Finally, an assessment of the state of the art and practice related to digital video and audio compression should be produced.

2005 – 2006 - MAESTRO: Authoring, Production and Exhibition of Hypermedia Documents for Interactive Digital TV.

• Coordinator: Luiz Fernando Soares
• Description: This project, coordinated by Luiz Fernando Soares (PUC-RJ) and in which LARC participated, aims to develop mechanisms, infrastructure, and tools for the production of synchronized multimedia content and its display on the user's terminal, and should be considered an extension of the FlexTV middleware. Its requirements include: 1) Allowing the synchronized display, temporally and spatially, of the various media objects that make up a non-linear program; 2) To allow the user to interfere with the display of content, altering its display format or even the content itself. 3) To allow the user interactive access to cultural content and citizen services, keeping them socially included in a society increasingly dependent on communication and information technologies. The project objectives are: Survey of the State of the Art in Media Synchronization; Conception of a Conceptual Model for the Representation of Interactive Programs and Media Synchronization; Specification and Development of the Authoring Environment; Specification and Development of the Formatting Environment for the Provision of Media Synchronization.