Overview talks
Distribution Systems for 3D Teleimmersive and Video 360 Content: Similarities and Differences
Klara Nahrstedt, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Abstract: Over the last 20 years, we have seen a major progress in 3D teleimmersive systems. Over the last 5 years, we have seen an explosion of 360-degree video distribution systems. Both system categories are emerging on the market. So one wonders what the similarities and differences are between these systems in terms of their 3D volumetric multi-camera content distribution to the viewers. One may ask why we have different distribution systems for the 3D teleimmersive and video 360 content, and if they will converge. If the technologies converge, one could ask, what the enabling technologies will be. If the technologies do not converge, the question is what the barriers are.
In this overview talk, we will survey the 3D teleimmersive content and its distribution systems, as well as the 360-degree video content and its distribution systems. We will discuss the similarities and differences of these distribution technologies, their possible convergence and barriers to overcome.
Biography: Klara Nahrstedt is the Ralph and Catherine Fisher Professor in the Computer Science Department, and Director of the Coordinated Science Laboratory in the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests are directed toward 3D teleimmersive systems, multimedia distributed systems, Quality of Service (QoS) and resource management, Quality of Experience in multimedia systems, and real-time security in mission-critical systems such as trustworthy power grid. She is the co-author of widely used multimedia books `Multimedia: Computing, Communications and Applications’ published by Prentice Hall, and ‘Multimedia Systems’ published by Springer Verlag. She is the recipient of the IEEE Communication Society Leonard Abraham Award for Research Achievements, University Scholar, Humboldt Award, IEEE Computer Society Technical Achievement Award, ACM SIGMM Technical Achievement Award, and the former chair of the ACM Special Interest Group in Multimedia. She was the general chair of ACM Multimedia 2006, general chair of ACM NOSSDAV 2007 and the general chair of IEEE Percom 2009. She is the program co-chair of IEEE IoTDI 2018 conference.
Klara Nahrstedt received her Diploma in Mathematics from Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany in numerical analysis in 1985. In 1995 she received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in the Department of Computer and Information Science. She is ACM Fellow, IEEE Fellow, and Member of the Leopoldina German National Academy of Sciences.
Evolution of Video Streams at Netflix: Streaming Higher Quality at Lower Bitrates
Jan De Cock, Netflix
Abstract: Whether you’re watching The Crown or Bojack Horseman or Stranger Things, on your laptop or you mobile phone or a smart TV, using a choppy cellular connection or the fasted, Netflix engineers are committed to deliver the best video quality given your viewing conditions. Over the last years, the Video Algorithms team at Netflix has made significant progress in making our video streams more efficient. We have evolved from fixed-bitrate ladders, over per-title encoding, to fine-granular optimizations within a single stream. Combined with the introduction of a perceptual video quality metric (VMAF) and the integration of newer codecs (such as VP9 and AV1), we have been able to significantly reduce the bitrate of our streams at equivalent visual quality. This talk will give an overview of research and research and implementation challenges of recent developments in our Video Algorithms team. Aside from compression gains, we show how A/B testing guides us in making decisions that benefit our members across the device and network connectivity spectrum.
Biography: Jan De Cock joined Netflix as Senior Research Scientist in 2015, where he has been working on the introduction of optimized video streams, new codecs and profiles, A/B testing of video innovations and the evaluation of codecs and standards. Jan is general co-chair of the 2018 Picture Coding Symposium (PCS), and is active within JPEG as Ad Hoc Group chair for the work on Next-Generation Image Coding (JPEG XL). Before joining Netflix, he was active as Ph.D. researcher, post-doctoral researcher and assistant professor at Ghent University in Belgium, where he worked on a variety of national and international projects in collaboration with academic and industrial partners. He held postdoctoral fellowships from the Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT) and the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO). While in academia, he performed research on a range of topics in the field of video compression, including transcoding, scalable video coding, and high efficiency video coding. Jan holds M.Sc. (2004) and Ph.D. (2009) degrees in Computer Science Engineering from Ghent University, and graduated in 2017 as Master of Science in Business Engineering, majoring in Finance, at the same university.
VR360: State of the Art, State of the Industry & State of the Standards
Rob Koenen, Tiledmedia and TNO
Abstract: Rob Koenen will give an overview of the current status in VR360 technology and services. The talk will highlight what is happening in MPEG-I(mmerisve) and give details on MPEG’s standardization roadmap. The talk will also address the work of the VR Industry Forum in bringing about interoperable, high quality VR360 services. Lastly, Rob will discuss the state of the art in VR360 streaming.
Biography: Rob Koenen is a co-Founder and the Chief Business Officer of Tiledmedia, the leading tiled VR streaming company. He is also a Principal with the Media Networking group of TNO, The Netherlands’ largest independent research institute. Rob is the President of the VR Industry Forum, a cross-industry initiative that seeks to enable interoperable, high quality VR experiences for consumers. Rob’s activities include the development of multimedia technologies, systems and standards, and their application in novel services.
Mr. Koenen received his MSEE (‘ingenieur’) degree in 1989 from Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands where he studied electrical engineering, specializing in information theory. Prior to joining TNO, Mr. Koenen served as Intertrust Technologies’ Vice President of Standards and Community Initiatives.
Mr. Koenen has held many leading roles in multimedia standardization initiatives. He chaired MPEG’s Requirements Group from 1996 to 2005, and played a key role in the development of the MPEG-4 standard. He is co-editor of the MPEG-4 Systems Standard, initiated the MPEG Industry Forum in 1999, and served as its President for the first five years, successfully bringing MPEG-4 technology from a paper specification to a dominant market force. Mr. Koenen currently chairs several MPEG Ad Hoc Groups with a focus on MPEG-I(mmersive), and serves as an elected member on the Steering Group of HbbTV (hbbtv.org). Mr. Koenen is a Senior Member of IEEE, holds a number of patents on automated video quality assessment and other multimedia technologies, and is the recipient of the 1997 KPN Research ‘Diana’ award for outstanding research.
Media Distribution over Next Generation 5G Networks
Imed Bouazizi, Samsung Research America
Abstract: Recent developments in multimedia have brought significant innovation and disruption to the way multimedia content is consumed. With the emergence of VR and AR/MR applications, users can interact and navigate the consumed content along multiple degrees of freedom. This trend has made it clear that the amount of processing required to realize these use cases goes beyond the current capabilities of mobile devices and the gap is anticipated to widen in the near future.
With the introduction of the new 5G architecture, a solution to the growing demand for customized media processing might be in reach. In this talk, we describe how customized media processing can be realized in a 5G system, leveraging custom QoS, Edge Computing, and traffic isolation in dedicated network slices to enable new and customized media services to the end user. We show through two different application scenarios how such a realization may look like.
Biography: Imed Bouazizi received the M.S. degree in computer sciences from Technical University of Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany, and the Ph.D. degree from the RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, in 2000 and 2004, respectively. He is a Principal Researcher at Samsung Research America. His research interests cover immersive multimedia distribution and communication, including VR/AR, 6DoF media, and 5G architecture for media distribution, with a strong focus on standardization activities. He has contributed to the development of several standardization efforts in the most relevant organizations such as MPEG, 3GPP, ATSC, DVB, and the IETF.
