DTVAG Forum: Audio for a New Television Landscape

Presenters:
Roger Charlesworth, DTV Audio Group - New York, NY, USA
Tim Carroll, Dolby Laboratories - San Francisco, CA, USA
Scott Kramer, Netflix - Los Angeles, CA, USA
Sean Richardson, Starz Entertainment - Denver, CO, USA
Tom Sahara, Turner Sports Vice President, Operations and Technology, Turner Sports - Atlanta, GA, USA
Jim Starzynski, NBCUniversal - New York, NY, USA; ATSC Group - Washington D.C.

We appear to have now entered the post-television, television era. In a few short years, the entire nature of television distribution and consumption has changed so significantly as to be unrecognizable. Ubiquitous and inexpensive wireless and broadband networking; smart TVs and mobile devices; and massively-scalable cloud computing have created a completely new entertainment distribution system, upending the traditional broadcast model, and changing viewing habits forever. The transition from “hardwired” to “virtualized” distribution has expanded the possibilities for television audio innovation, further raising the bar on ultimate quality of premium viewing experiences, while presenting creative challenges in translating these experiences to an ever-widening range of devices.

The advent of affordable consumer 4K and HDR on smart TVs and other devices has radically transformed the at-home viewing experience. Combined with the story-telling power of premium episodic content and streaming movies, upscale home viewing has supplanted cinema as the ultimate Hollywood entertainment consumption experience. Audio has been front and center in this transition as more and more premium content becomes available in Dolby Atmos immersive surround.

The dramatic resurgence of surround sound, and emerging interest in next-generation enhanced-surround, is built on the ability to virtualize surround presentations over a growing range of devices and environments including increasingly sophisticated immersive-audio-capable soundbars and TV sets, alongside enhanced surround virtualizing headphones, earbuds and mobile devices.

Please join us for a discussion of how the post-television era is re-inventing television sound.

The DTV Audio Group Forum at AES is produced in association with the Sports Video Group and is sponsored by: Brainstorm, Calrec, Dale Pro Audio, Dolby, Lawo, Sanken, Shure

“The rule book for television distribution is being completely re-written. The migration away from traditional broadcasting to IP delivery continues to accelerate the uptake of advanced encoding solutions and sophisticated audio services. This transition creates new challenges in providing quality and consistency across an ever-widening range of devices and environments. Please join the DTVAG for a discussion of these and other important television audio issues.”

~ Roger Charlesworth, Executive Director, DTV Audio Group