Several interesting points made in this presentation. One is, look to what
extent CBS went, just to make sure that local broadcasters kept exactly their
same role, even when transmitting TV over the Internet. Doing some major
cropping of the text, leaving out the stuff required to count viewers and so on:
"CBS All Access begins in the master control of its affiliates and O&Os where
Nielsen audio watermarking is added, ... Next, a feed of the signal leaving
master control is bridged off to the Syncbak transcoder, ... Once past the
station's firewall, the transcoded stream is sent on to the Syncbak data center
where geo-location is done, to match the correct station feed to the DMA where
the user device is located. The data center can locate a phone or other device
using GPS data, triangulation of cell towers or Wi-Fi hotspots, he added. The
authorized signal is then handed off to one of several content delivery
networks for delivery to CBS All Access customers."
Holy crap. Each user requesting service is localized first. Meanwhile, from a
central location, take the signal coming from each one of these local
broadcasters' studios, as an IP stream, and then send it right back where it
came from, unicast to that user, using a CDN that serves that user's particular
market area. Some choreography, to avoid changing the TV broadcast model. In
essence, emulate the restrictions of OTA RF propagation, artificially, over the
Internet.
(When I watch CBS prime time content from cbs.com, or even the 24/7 CBSN live
news, it sure seems like the more straightforward way of using the Internet!)
Then there's more:
"Another significant limitation was the record of failure broadcasters
worldwide have experienced ... when it comes to broadcasting a signal from
their antennas to mobile devices, said Seidel. ... The failures include TV
Globo in Brazil with a COFDM service, Qualcomm MediaFlo and Dyle in the United
States -the former using DVB-H and the latter using ATSC M/H-and others in
Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Hungary, he said. ... There were other
limitations as well, such as the 'very high' capital costs associated with
mobile TV for broadcasters and the aversion of cellular carriers to including
mobile TV receivers in their handsets, he explained."
Right. Live broadcast OTA TV to mobile devices is a bust. I think Seidel is
overly focusing on the limitations of OTA broadcast to mobile, though. My
thinking is, even live TV sent via the Internet, to mobile devices, is going to
be unsuccessful, most of the time (except maybe during special events like the
Superbowl). It's the on demand content that will succeed.
So I'm reading this, and here's one guy who ought to be unimpressed with ATSC
3.0. What's the point? And in fact,
"Following the presentation, one conference attendee asked Seidel whether CBS
All Access might someday make use of some of the capabilities of ATSC 3.0.
However, Seidel avoided mentioning the Next-Gen TV standard in his reply."
Duh, right? He just told you. He's using the Internet, he's emulating but
otherwise totally bypassing the broadcast tower's RF propagation contour, so
what aspect of ATSC 3.0 would even come to play? Only what is sent over the
Internet, which he is already doing without ATSC 3.0.
Bert
----------------------------------------------
https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/cbs-top-technologist-dissects-all-access
CBS' Top Technologist Dissects 'All Access'
Bob Seidel briefed SMPTE attendees on the mobile and OTT service
Phil Kurz 11 hours ago
LOS ANGELES-The story behind the tech strategy at the heart of CBS All Access
is really a tale of playing to one's strengths and circumventing one's
limitations to find success in the mobile and over-the-top world.
That was the main takeaway from an update on the four-year-old service
delivered by Bob Seidel, CBS vice president of engineering and advanced
technology at the SMPTE 2018 Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition.
OVERCOMING RESTRICTIONS
The network's strengths are well-known: a powerful programming lineup, a deep
content library of shows with some 10,000 episodes, a well-respected news
organization, world-class sports coverage and a lineup of daytime programming
and specials that is watched by millions. Add to that several popular new
series, such as "Star Trek Discovery," that are only available to CBS All
Access subscribers.
However, delivering CBS content to mobile and over-the-top devices came with a
set of restrictions that limited how the network could go about launching its
service, said Seidel.
"The main problem and challenges broadcasters are faced with today delivering
to mobile and over-the-top devices is that a license is granted by the network
to affiliate stations to broadcast content to their DMA," he said. "Therefore,
we had to develop technology that would 'geo-fence' the signal to just the DMA
they were authorized to distribute in."
Another significant limitation was the record of failure broadcasters worldwide
have experienced "independent of the technology or the modulation selected"
when it comes to broadcasting a signal from their antennas to mobile devices,
said Seidel.
The failures include TV Globo in Brazil with a COFDM service, Qualcomm MediaFlo
and Dyle in the United States -the former using DVB-H and the latter using ATSC
M/H-and others in Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Hungary, he said.
"These unsuccessful attempts led CBS to develop All Access," he said. "We
wanted to make sure we could deliver our linear broadcast content as well as
library content to hundreds of millions of existing devices," said Seidel,
adding that the network wanted to do this on all wireless networks, including
3G, 4G, LTE, eventually 5G, and via 400,000 U.S. wireless hotspots.
There were other limitations as well, such as the "very high" capital costs
associated with mobile TV for broadcasters and the aversion of cellular
carriers to including mobile TV receivers in their handsets, he explained.
FOLLOWING THE VIEWER
Against this backdrop, CBS developed its mobile and OTT service with the goals
of monetizing its content, enabling third-party audience measurement via
Nielsen on all screens without leakage and providing a revenue share for its
affiliates that contributed local news to the service geo-fenced by DMA.
CBS selected Syncbak as its All Access geo-fencing technology. Once Syncbak
verifies the market in which a device is located it connects users to the CBS
station in that market. If they should happen to be traveling, the connection
will shift to the market All Access viewers have entered; however, an element
of hysteresis is built in to prevent viewers driving between two cities from
being switched away from a sporting event, he said.
CBS All Access begins in the master control of its affiliates and O&Os where
Nielsen audio watermarking is added, which ultimately will allow the network
and station to know exactly how many viewers are watching the service, said
Seidel.
Next, a feed of the signal leaving master control is bridged off to the Syncbak
transcoder, which converts MPEG-2 video to MPEG-4, AC-3 audio to AAC and the
audio watermark to an ID3 tag -the packaging format used by iTunes to indicate
song title, author and other information, he explained.
Rather than iTunes-related info, CBS inserts source identification, date, time
and distributor codes. "We had to develop a method to deliver a sidecar data
signal that would give us access to the Nielsen data," he said.
Once past the station's firewall, the transcoded stream is sent on to the
Syncbak data center where geo-location is done, to match the correct station
feed to the DMA where the user device is located. The data center can locate a
phone or other device using GPS data, triangulation of cell towers or Wi-Fi
hotspots, he added.
The authorized signal is then handed off to one of several content delivery
networks for delivery to CBS All Access customers. The network uses load
balancing software to make sure the best performing CDN is selected and to give
subscribers the best possible viewing experience, said Seidel.
When the signal reaches the device, the CBS All Access application uses the
Nielsen software development kit to access the ID3 tag and return the data to
the ratings agency for accurate audience measurement.
Many service stacks defining video resolutions, MPEG-4 data rates and AAC data
rates are available to match device type and size. For the hearing impaired,
all closed captioning data is transcoded and made available on the service, he
added.
AT THE LOCAL LEVEL
Equipping local stations for CBS All Access has been simple and
straightforward. All that is required is a 1RU Syncbak device that takes in a
station's ASI signal and delivers back to the Syncbak data center IP packets. A
second such unit is installed for redundancy, and two different delivery paths
out of the station are in place to bypass any problem, such as a firewall issue
or rebuffering, he said.
CBS, which monitors all 200 stations' All Access service from New York City and
Los Angeles, provides each station with its own signal from the CDN for
monitoring, he added.
Beyond mobile devices, CBS All Access supports a wide range of OTT devices,
such as Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Xbox 360 and PlayStation, said Seidel.
In the four years since its launch, CBS All Access has developed into a service
that meets all of the network's business needs. "It's preserving the existing
business requirements that we have for our local affiliates," said Seidel. "It
is providing a real-time live linear viewing capability across the board. It's
measured by Nielsen, so we are getting accreditation."
CBS All Access is also helping the network, its owned stations and affiliates
lower the average age of its viewers by reaching a younger audience on the
devices they like to use, he added.
Following the presentation, one conference attendee asked Seidel whether CBS
All Access might someday make use of some of the capabilities of ATSC 3.0.
However, Seidel avoided mentioning the Next-Gen TV standard in his reply.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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