9th FOKUS Media Web
Symposium

In this tutorial, we will take a deep dive into media player related topics. The main part of this tutorial focuses on dash.js – the official reference client of the DASH Industry Forum (DASH-IF). The dash.js player uses the Media Source Extensions (MSE) and the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) for playback of DRM protected DASH content in browser-based environments. dash.js is a production-grade player used by the industry in commercial streaming projects. It also serves as an easy to extend client for the research community and is widely used in other open-source projects and by other organizations such as DVB, CTA-WAVE, HbbTV and 5G-MAG.

Since November 2019 Fraunhofer FOKUS acts as the official lead developer of the dash.js project. As part of this tutorial we share our experience and in-depth knowledge about best-practices in the context of open-source mediaplayer development and take a deep dive into the latest features and optimizations of the dash.js client. For that purpose, we cover topics such as multi-period playback, a key-enabler for server-side ad-insertion and gap handling to ensure robust player operation. Moreover, we focus on techniques such as MPD patching to improve the performance of the player while reducing the traffic on the server-side. In addition, we show how to optimize the CDN behavior using Common Media Client Data (CMCD) and introduce the latest changes and challenges in CMAF low-latency streaming.

Finally we provide a quick overview of other platforms and players such as AV Foundation, ExoPlayer.

This tutorial has the aim to be very practice oriented. Each of the main topics will be introduced by a theoretical part and showcased by a short demo afterwards. Participants are invited to ask questions and share their experiences at any time.

With streaming formats such as Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH) and HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), content providers can reach many devices (mobile, desktop, TV, etc.) over-the-top (OTT). The MPEG Common Media Application Format (CMAF) standard enables interoperability between both streaming formats by leveraging the same media format. HTML5 APIs Media Source Extensions (MSE) and Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) enable playback interoperability across all browser-based platforms.

In order to distribute premium content, Digital Rights Management (DRM) is needed to protect the media streams. A multi-DRM approach is required in order to protect content with more than one DRM system – the MPEG Common Encryption (CENC) standard enables this.

Latest advancements in stream tech focus on QoE. Therefore, we will cover deep encoding, making traditional, generic encoding ladders obsolete and thereby saving CDN costs while boosting the quality of experience. In addition, media streaming features such as SSAI, low-latency streaming, streaming analytics will be covered in the tutorial.

We will demonstrate the key technologies in multiple live demos and identify challenges and best practices when applying the technologies in production.

Foundations of Adaptive Streaming

• Streaming Formats: DASH, CENC, HLS, CMAF
• Streaming Quality: VMAF, SAND, CTA-2066
• Web Media APIs: MSE/EME, fetch(), XHR, WebSocket
• Standards update: DASH-IF, WAVE, DVB etc.

OTT Strategy

• Cross-platform deployment to SmartTVs, HbbTV, FireTV, Chromecast, AppleTV, iOS, Android, Desktop etc.
• Feature support: DRM, Codecs, Casting
• Dash.js

Ad supported video streaming services growing rapidly across the globe. Empowered by the ease of manifest manipulation techniques, flexible and scalable cloud infrastructures and widely adopted industry standard streaming formats like MPEG DASH and HLS, so called FAST (free ad supported streaming TV) services are becoming highly efficient approach to monetize content libraries. Creation of pop-up streaming channels, AVOD services and personalized content offerings wasn’t as easy as it is today. Server-Side Ad-Insertion techniques are the technical backbone for those services by providing the required functions to create and scale ad supported streaming services.

Sounds like a no brainer – but it isn’t. SSAI (Server-Side Ad-Insertion) workflows and architectures are complex and require seamless interaction of components including content sources, ad marker signaling, content and ad conditioning, stitching, playback as well as beaconing.

Within this tutorial, we will give an overview on Dynamic Ad-Insertion (DAI) infrastructures including SSAI OTT Streaming as well as Dynamic Ad Substitution (DAS). Focusing on technical guidelines we will analyze and discuss best practices along the value chain of ad supported streaming services including:

• Content encoding
• Ad marker / cue point signaling in TS, HLS and MPEG DASH following SCTE104 and SCTE35 specifications
• Content conditioning in encoding and packaging (IDR-frame decoration, A/V alignment)
• Dynamic Ad Substitution in HbbTV 1.5 / 2.0
• An outlook to SCTE224, ADB2 and HbbTV-TA

In this tutorial we will deep dive into 5G Media related technologies and standards. 5G is seen as enabler for many applications in the media industry. It plays a central role in the production, contribution and distribution of media content. Many broadcasters and streaming service providers are considering 5G in remote media production to cut production costs and time. 5G also supports media broadcasting capabilities which is updated in 3GPP release 16 to enable the reception of broadcasted media content even without mobile subscription. Trials in this area have successfully demonstrated these capabilities, especially for large live events. This tutorial will discuss all these media applications enabled by 5G and explains the key technologies that enable them.

The first part of the tutorial focuses on the basics of 5G Media and the evolution of 5G. In this part, we will discuss the key concepts and design principles of the 5G core network such as Network Function Virtualization and Service Oriented Architecture, and then dive deep into 5G media functions such as Network Slicing, MEC, eMBB and MBMS. The second part of this tutorial will focus on 5G media applications and application areas such as Network-Assisted Media Processing and Remote Media Production. Popular real-world 5G media applications and trials are also discussed in this part. The third and final part of this tutorial will focus on 5G media standards being developed by various standardization bodies such as 3GPP, 5G-MAG, ETSI and DVB. 5G-related media streaming protocols will also be covered in this part.