Saturday, September 8 at 2:30 p.m. – Use of Automated, File-Based Quality Control Tools in a Broadcast Environment, by Dave Guerrero, Vice President and General Manager, Videotek® Test and Measurement, Harris Broadcast Communications Division.

This paper highlights the technology that engineers and technicians should employ in order to assess the quality of compressed, file-based audio and video content to enable maximum customer satisfaction.
The transition to file-based media assets at content playout facilities has proved daunting for Quality Control (QC) departments as they are faced with checking an ever-growing amount of compressed digital content. Poor video and audio quality are not acceptable in today’s competitive market where advertising revenues and customer satisfaction, as well as loyalty to the brand, are of paramount importance.
QC has historically been performed by in-house staff who monitor programme content in real time and write reports on the errors they observe. Rejected programmes are returned to content suppliers for necessary repair and re-evaluation prior to transmission. This represents a very time consuming and costly process for broadcasters.
Thoughtful use of technology is making it possible to not only evaluate erred content, but also to conveniently perform the necessary repairs while remaining in the compressed format.

Sunday, September 9 at 10:00 a.m. — Algorithms and Artifacts: A Practical Guide to Deinterlacing, by Leigh Whitcomb, Principal Engineer

This paper examines the challenges of deinterlacing and the algorithms used therein. The algorithms examined include field-based, fixed blending, diagonal interpolation, motion adaptive, motion compensated and film mode. Some guidelines for the means by which to create content to reduce deinterlacing artifacts are also discussed.
Deinterlacing is an important component of high-quality image conversion. However, it is a very complex process, and no algorithm is perfect. Every algorithm introduces artifacts that vary with image content. Today’s broadcasters have new challenges, as more artifacts are being generated in which film, video, graphics and overlays are increasingly being combined. To select the best deinterlacer for an application, it is important to understand the tradeoffs and the types of artifacts that may be introduced based on the image content and the deinterlacing algorithm selected. This paper sets out to address these challenges.

Stand 7. 621