Sound Matters in Multiscreen Content Delivery and Monetization

Jean-Christophe Morizur: Senior Director, Professional Solutions

Agenda

•  Consumer Trends •  Provider Challenges •  Sound Matters •  Delivering High Quality Multi-channel Audio •  New Avenues for Multi-Screen Revenues

Multiscreen Consumer Trends

•  Demand for Quality

•  Demand for anytime access to video content

•  Demand for advanced video services in the home

•  Demand for anywhere access to video content

•  The Living Room continues to rule

by 2016 about 352 million individuals will be paying to access OTT internet TV

programming

80% of US Pay TV subs have access to Multi-screen services

*Source: Generator Research - Digital Media Insight 2012

A new consumption model From “what’s on right now” To “what do I want to watch right now” To “ who else is watching right now”

CONTENT

ROLE OF DEVICES?

CONSUMERS THINK IN TERM OF

EXPERIENCING CONTENT,

NOT THE SPECIFIC TECHNOLOGY

*Source: Ericsson TV Consumer Lab Study - 2011

Sound Matters

80  million

39% of  all  consumers  are  willing  to  pay  more  for  higher  quality  audio CEA Consumer Survey, 2011

US  consumers  iden9fy  themselves  as  audio  enthusiasts

“Sound  is  50%  of  the  movie  experience”        –  George  Lucas  

“Long  ago  we  realized  sound  was  your  “special  friend”      because  sound  does  at  least  50%  of  the  job.”    –  Francis  Ford  Coppola

“You  need  to  hear  the  athletes  running,  the  bat  cracking  the  ball.  You  should  be  able  to  close  your  eyes  and  know  what  sport  is  on  TV,  whether  it  is  gymnas9cs,  track  and  field,  badminton,  whatever.” -­‐  Dennis  Baxter,  Emmy-­‐winning  sound  designer  for  the  Olympics  broadcasts

Percentage of US consumers who believe mobile devices provide excellent sound quality*

14% 10% 8%

Consumers increasingly are using mobile entertainment devices, but do not believe these devices provide excellent sound quality.

Content delivered with wide dynamic range (e.g.: movies) are resulting in a very poor playback experience on smartphones & tablet speakers.

*Source: CEA 2011

Opportunity for QoE improvement in Audio

Not loud enough

No surround sound

Speakers sound muffled

Can’t connect to my Home Theater

Service Provider Opportunities

•  Level up with the reference – HD PayTV and Blu-ray

•  Drive end user expectations for quality video/ audio

–  Service Providers can deliver a much better experience

–  Consumers aren’t sure what’s possible or available for quality audio

•  Deliver an optimal audio experience for all use cases:

–  Cinematic surround sound in the living room

–  Loud and clear playback over device speakers

–  Immersive surround experience over headphones

•  Ad Insertion – revenue opportunity

OTT/Online – Challenges

USER EXPERIENCE

QUALITY OF SERVICE

WORKFLOWS COMPLEXITIES

DEVICE FRAGMENTATION

MONETIZATION MODELS

LIVE AND FILE (VOD) SERVICES

CONTENT DELIVERY COSTS

Delivering a Quality Experience

All elements of the ecosystem need to be aligned to support a high Quality of Experience

Codec Scalability

and Efficiency

Adaptive Bit Rate

Support and Ad Insertion

One Stream for All

Devices

Device playback decoder behavior

Content Availability

Consumer Device Support

Consumer Experience

CALM Act Compliance

Operational Requirements

Business Requirements

Choosing a Multi-channel Audio Solution

5.0Mbps

QoE

QoS

384Kbps

3.5Mbps 192Kbps

1.5Mbps 192Kbps

1.0Mbps 128Kbps

0.8Mbps 96Kbps

0.0Mbps 32Kbps

5.1

5.1

5.1

5.1

2.0

1.0

MPEG DASH APPLE HLS

SMOOTH STREAMING

ENHANCE QoE/QoS LOWER CONTENT DELIVERY COSTS

Support Adaptive Bit Rate Switching

Ad Insertion

5.1

2.0

5.1 5.1 5.1

2.0

•  Unicast enables personalized ad insertion à $$$

•  But … Ad Insertion must be “seamless”

•  Main feed carries 5.1 – Ads are produced with stereo mix

•  The Problem? Switching from 5.1 to 2.0 without “glitches”

Encoder Transcoder

ENCODER DECODER

ONE decoder Implementation Tested for all devices

1

X

MULTIPLE decoder Implementations

No guarantee it works Poor QoE/QoS

No testing framework ENCODER DECODER CODEC B

END-TO-END SOLUTION

The guarantee that it works … in an open ecosystem

CODEC A Testing Framework

PC

TV    Set  Top

Smart  Phones Tablets

Blu-­‐ray  Home  Theatre

Game    Console

Note:  Above  companies  are  representaGve  samples  and  not  an  exhausGve  list.

OperaKng  Systems   Apps  Developers

Broad Support in Consumer Devices

Dialog  Enhancer Dialog  volume  boosted  

background  noise  subdued

Audio  Regulator Prevents  Audio  Distor9on

Volume  Leveling CALM  compliance

Surround  Sound  VirtualizaKon Immersive  surround  sound  over:  Stereo  

headphones  and  speakers

5.1  Pass-­‐Through Connect  to  Home  Theaters

Volume  OpKmizer Fine  Tune  Speakers  playback

Fixing the playback shortcomings

New Revenues Opportunities

•  Why is Surround Sound Essential?

•  Compete effectively against other HD services and packaged media (Blu-ray, UltraViolet, PayTV)

•  Offer the best viewing and entertainment experience

–  Increase ARPU and customer base

–  Develop offering and living room experience

•  Enable Targeted personalized Ad Insertion

–  Needs to work seamlessly

Bringing It All Together

17

Q&A