The SVC4QoE project aims at answering a dual request of the Video Broadcasting Operators :

  • Lower the broadcast costs (CAPEX and OPEX),
  • Improve the end user Quality of Experience.

The proposed answer to this dual request is the combined use of both Scalable encoding (SVC) and automatic QoE measurement.

Video delivery today

  • The same content is delivered:
    • On different networks (Terrestrial, Satellite, Cable, ADSL, WiFi, 3G, …)
    • Towards different User Terminals (TV sets, PC, Tablet PC, Smartphone,…)
    • With different resolutions (HD TV, SD TV, CIF, QCIF, …)
  • Suffering more or less from various transmission impairments (erroneous data or loss of data)

What is the major consequence ?

  • Video is encoded separately as many times as:
    • Networks
    • Terminal families
    • Resolutions
  • Leading to a bad optimization of bandwidth resources
    • Ex: Simulcast of SD and HD programs in DVB-T networks

SVC4QoE technologies

  • SVC4QoE distributes efficiently several quality levels of the same content by using Scalable Video Coding
    • The original video sequence is encoded into several hierarchical layers which can be protected independently
    • The combination of these layers allows to build several streams targeting different resolutions (CIF, QCIF, SD, HD)
  • SVC4QoE makes use of Quality of Experience techniques to select the best quality to be displayed by the terminal

Objectives

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First, the project has the objective to define the architecture of the broadcast networks which will combine SVC and QoE technologies.

More specifically, the following points are addressed:

  • Definition of the SVC layers to be used,
  • Definition of new audiovisual quality measurement methods,
  • Transmission parameters (how to multiplex SVC layers, modulation, FEC,...),
  • Constraints of the SVC/QoE association on terminals.

The SVC4QoE project is also aiming at actually showing by means of a demonstrator the interest of the combination of the two technologies in a mobility context, on a DVB-T2 network. In case of a degradation of receiving conditions, in order to avoid a full loss of picture, a QoE probe embedded in the terminal will decide whether to display the data of the SVC enhancement layer in addition to those of the base layer which are transmitted in a more robust way.