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BizTechReports Q&A: Alan Stein Makes Case for MPEG-H Audio in the ATSC 3.0 Standard
[September 16, 2015]

BizTechReports Q&A: Alan Stein Makes Case for MPEG-H Audio in the ATSC 3.0 Standard


ROCKVILLE, Md., Sept. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- As the ATSC 3.0 deliberates over what direction the future of sound in broadcasting will take, BizTechReports' Lane Cooper had a chance to catch up with Alan Stein, Vice President of Technology at Technicolor - and a Technicolor fellow - to get his take on what the MPEG-H Audio Alliance proposal has to offer. The MPEG-H Audio Alliance is an initiative led by Technicolor, Fraunhofer and Qualcomm. The discussion ended up exploring the role of open standards in this process and its relationship with innovation, mobility and long-term total cost of ownership of providing next generation audio experiences to consumers.

Here is what he had to say:

Q: As you make your case for the MPEG-H Audio, one thing I have heard stressed is that the MPEG-H Audio is based on open standards. I understand that the MPEG-H Audio is a collection of patents, but what does it mean to say that they are part of an open standard?

Alan: The MPEG-H Audio standard was developed in MPEG with several companies participating, each bringing what they believed to be the best next generation technology to be evaluated in the technical community. Each proponent of a technology had to propose particular test scenarios for the technology they championed. Eventually MPEG agreed to test scenarios and the best ones were selected and specified in the MPEG-H Audio standard.

In my opinion, t's very different from how some others do it, where a single company may create a pseudo-standard internally without the benefit of peer review or testing against other systems, and then submit that specification document to ETSI for review and approval. Ultimately, ETSI may review it to say "this looks like a standard and we don't see anything wrong with it." But that's not the same as taking technology though a more rigorous competitive approach.



In MPEG, there's reference software, so in addition to writing documents and submitting these documents explaining what the technology is supposed to do, you also have to submit the software embodiment of that technology to a peer review process. This allows for independent verification that the technology does in fact work in the way that is described in the specification. This is all done in a publicly-available manner to verify what's in the standard.

I believe this is a huge distinction vs more proprietary technologies.


To view the rest of the interview, visit:

http://biztechreports.com/blog/2015/09/16/mpeg-h-audio-alliance-makes-its-case-for-adoption-in-the-atsc-3-0-standard/

About BizTechReports:

BizTechReports is an independent reporting agency with offices in Washington, San Francisco and Toronto. We analyze user trends in business technology. Our reports explore the role that technology products and services play in the overall economy and/or in specific vertical industries. It is the mission of BizTechReports to put enterprise technologies into a context that business decision-makers can understand and appreciate.

Contact:

Lane Cooper

Editorial Director

BizTechReports

888 418 1156 x 101

[email protected]

www.biztechreports.com

Twitter: @LaneCooperTL

PRLog ID: www.prlog.org/12493928

 

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/biztechreports-qa-alan-stein-makes-case-for-mpeg-h-audio-in-the-atsc-30-standard-300144381.html

SOURCE BizTechReports


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