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Research and Development

The Technological Strategies Division worked on guaranteeing a single line of technological development in the Rai Group and experimenting the synergic use of the Broadcast and Telco technological platforms.

The functional coordination of the various internal technical operating structures and checking of the consistency of the technological decisions made by the various structures with the guidelines implements are aimed at identifying and exploiting every useful synergy.

Technological Strategies division also includes the Management of the Centre for Research and Technological Innovation in Turin, which has the mission, also, to address Rai’s research towards operating projects and the implementation of new technologies in the production and dissemination system.

The digital transformation

In the television market, the expansion and differentiation of the distribution platforms, and the renewal of the technical equipment on the professional and consumer markets, is founded on all areas of digital technology.

The public service role has to extend from the traditional platforms to those that are more innovative and to multimediality.

Rai Group’s technological choices to adapt the entire production process to the requirements of flexibility and effectiveness to feed an efficient multiplatform offering are addressed by a Digital Regulatory Plan.

The main activities focused on:

• the technical study and design of an adequate network infrastructure, with the use of fibre optics, to sustain the envisaged growth of interoffice connectivity (video, audio and data) due to the increase in quality (contents in HD 2K and 4K) and the renewal of production processes and infrastructures;
• experimentation of the contribution via Satellite KaSat within the regional sphere and for the proposition of new nomadic television production models.

Digital Terrestrial Television and DVB-T2

2012 witnessed the completion of the digitalisation of television in Italy.

Rai has played a leading role in this transition, which has taken several years, as driver of change and increasing the offer to the public.

Within this context, the ‘Telecomando’ (Remote Control) application has been developed. This application can be activated with decoders or interactive televisions tuned to a Rai channel, to easily explore Rai’s offering of radio and television, preventing the dispersive numbering of channels.
Receivers connected to the broadband network can access other interactive and multimedia applications, such as Rai Replay and TG Regionali on-demand, which will gradually become available.

Meanwhile there has been a slow but constant transferral of the terrestrial frequencies from television services to broadband mobile services and a continuing increase in video quality which requires more resources in terms of band/frequencies.

The DVB-T2 system, second generation DTT, makes it possible to almost double the potential of each terrestrial frequency compared to the existing DVB-T, allowing the broadcasting of at least 4 HDTV programmes to users, using the capacity of a multiplex. The new system requires the use of new receivers. The DVB-T2 standard has recently been enhanced with a new profile, called T2-Lite, for reception with mobile terminals.

With a view to assessing the performance of the DVB-T2 system, besides carrying out laboratory tests, an experiment is underway in Valle d’Aosta, with the aim of checking out the efficiency of the system in the different network configurations (SFN) and reception modes (fixed, portable and mobile) along with the coexistence on the same frequency of services for fixed and mobile reception.

UltraHD (Ultra High Definition) 3D Television and the Encoding of Signals

HDTV services are now available on the various platforms, mainly on satellite, but also on the terrestrial and cable networks.
Meanwhile, the research activity is focusing on future systems of Ultra High Definition (UHDTV-4K) and Full HD 3D television.
To optimise the transport of HD and 3D contents, an international study is being carried out into a new video compression standard HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding), the aim of which is to guarantee the same video quality using half the bit-rate currently necessary. Besides contributing to the definition of the specifications, the compression of the 2D, 3D-Stereo and Multiview signal on the video content typically used for broadcasting is currently being assessed.

Within this sphere, in collaboration with EBU and other European broadcasters, high quality sequences in 4K and Full HD 3D formats have been created for use at international level as reference for the development and assessment of future coding systems like the new HEVC standard.

Work continues on the production of experimental films in stereoscope, including the documentaries Le non persone by Roberto Olla, broadcast in the 3D version on Rai HD, Un Gigante on the life of Pope John Paul II and Venezia Carnevale 3D, as well as San Sepolcro, which explains the meaning of the sculptures of the church of the same name and the fair of S. Orso in Aosta Television adaptations of the theatrical productions Signorina Giulia by August Strindberg and Amleto 2 by Filippo Timi were also produced.

Innovative sound recording systems

So that HDTV can be an involving experience for the user, the associated sound experience has to be equally exciting.
Research and experimentation in the sound recording field with the use of holophonic and ambisonic microphones is focused on a very high quality sound system adapted to the different types of programmes.
Practical tests continued, with recordings at the Verdi Conservatory in Turin, at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome and at Turin’s Teatro Regio.

The Rai National Symphony Orchestra was also broadcast in 5.1 multichannel streaming via Internet during the concerts held at the Auditorium Toscanini in Turin, with the creation of an archive accessible by Web of the events recorded during the last symphonic season.

The television experience beyond the TV screen

Webcam and microphones built into televisions allow views to switch the TV on and off using voice control, also activating one application as opposed to another, or to use a gesture of the hand to scroll down a menu and select the contents.

New technologies also enable the use of the television set to offer people new services and enrich their entertainment and interactive experience.

This sphere comprised agreements with leading companies in the sector for the development and experimentation of on-line applications, through gold stamp receivers connected to the Internet, such as payment of the TV licence fee and post office payment slips.

The main applications created include:
• a prototype for use of television news, which automatically acquires news from the TV, creating links with similar web content, as customised in line with the user’s behaviour on the social networks;
• the prototype of a Rai Multiscreen channel, which envisages the reuse of existing contents, prepared for other platforms (e.g.: linear channels and IP contents), integrated and enriched with a new offering of services, some of which interactive. The apps developed make it possible to reach the different terminals present on the market (e.g.: smartTV, tablets and smartphones);
• the Rai viaggi project – interactivity for tourism, is a geo-referenced application for tablets and smartphones aimed at enhancing the value of tourism on the territory.

Users visiting one of the places included within the project can find out about points of interest, displaying a gallery of pictures, descriptions, films and audio recordings taken from Rai’s audiovisual archives. With this project, Rai has been awarded the Prize for Innovation (ICMT Prize) by Confindustria Sistemi Innovativi e Tecnologici.

The Digital Dimension of the Radio

Hybrid radio unites the power of a radio broadcasting station with the flexibility and interactivity of an Internet connection.

The Radio DNS project was conceived for the most common broadcasting technologies (FM, DAB+, DRM): after connection to a radio station (e.g.: Radio2 in FM) the receiver is able to obtain additional contents via Internet. In close collaboration with RadioRai, an experimental hybrid radio service was launched with the broadcasting of events and guests synchronised with the programme on air, with informative articles on news and traffic. An innovative application was also developed allowing the reception on smartphones of radio programmes enhanced with pictures and information, the guide to the week’s programmes, the podcasts of past programmes, the geo-localisation of users’ comments and the forwarding of photos to the production department.

Technical quality

Rai considers the commitment to technical quality to be one of the primary duties of the Public Service, as established by the Service Contract. Technological Strategies, with its sector dedicated to technical quality, is committed to the coordination of the activities that are performed on these topics in all the business sectors and in the promotion of attention to quality in all Group products/processes.

The commitment to quality was also subject to constant monitoring aimed at improving and maintaining corporate quality standards.

Deserving of mention are:
• Rai considers the commitment to technical quality to be one of the primary duties of the Public Service, as established by the Service Contract.
• the direct interface with users and with the Institutions following specific reports;
• the relationship with the Regional Committees for Communications (Co.Re.Com.) for checking and improving the quality perceived by users.

The strategic front of research

Significant results were achieved in the financing of research, maximising the presence in projects financed by the European Community and by the Regions.

A project is underway to enhance the value of the patents of the Research Centre, implemented through businessoriented training of researchers and participation in business consortia which have essential patents on widely used technologies.

Different high-tech projects are in progress in the respective sectors, including:
• the Muscade European project, which studies the future of 3D television without the use of glasses;
• the PrestoPrime project, relating to the study of techniques for multimedia archiving, which has led to the definition of a data model for the description of broadcasting rights, approved as the ISO/IEC MPEG 2 international standard;
• the ATLAS project, financed by Piedmont Region, which studies the automatic generation of subtitles for the hearing-impaired and the automatic translation of Italian Sign Language, to control avatars.

The ‘RaiNewsBook’ application allows users to interactively browse through a database of events, specifying search elements, such as people, organisations and places.
The application integrates different sources of information, such as websites, television news programmes and the Eurovision EVN service, as well as the Rai Multimedia Catalogue and general search tools such as Google, within a single ergonomic interface.

Within the scope of a collaboration with Tivù Sat, the ‘tivùon!’ application has been developed and tested for connected TVs. This app allows access, in a single integrated environment, to the on-demand offer of the different broadcasters.

International collaboration and Basic Research

The Technological Strategies Division with the Research Centre presides over the Technical Committee and the Work Teams on the Production Platforms, on the Metadata and on the Broadband Networks of the EBU (the European public radio broadcasters’ organisation). It guides the DVB committee for the DVB-S2 satellite platforms, actively participates in technical groups on digital terrestrial, mobile, satellite and cable television and is active in MPEG, EBU, SMPTE, DVB, ITU, DigiTAG, ETSI, CEI, HDFORUM Italia.

The Research Centre dedicates part of its resources to wide-ranging studies, often made possible by the collaboration with the BBC and ZDF/ARD Research Centres in Europe and the Japanese NHK and Canadian CRC Research Centres in the world. Additional agreements exploit the synergies with the Fiat Research Centre, Telecom Italia Labs, CSP, Fondazione Ugo Bordoni and the development laboratories of certain private Italian companies.