BEAVERTON, Ore. - Marylandian -- Versatile Video Coding (VVC) promises to play a pivotal role in driving advancements in video compression technology, with organizations across the globe recognizing its potential to significantly advance broadcasting, streaming and digital communications services by enhancing user experiences and reshaping the future of digital content delivery.

This was the central consensus of a digital panel discussion that featured:

• Madeleine Noland, President of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC);
• Yasser Syed, Lead for the Advanced Coding Technologies Group with the Society of Cable and Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE);
• Luiz Fausto, Coordinator for the Technical Module for the Brazilian Digital Television System (SBTVD) forum; and
• Alan Stein Former Chair of Marketing Working Group at the Media Coding Industry Forum (MC-IF).

The session was moderated by BizTechReports, and hosted by MC-IF, to explore the evolving landscape of VVC, a rapidly emerging video compression standard developed by the Joint Video Experts Team (JVET) in collaboration with the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). VVC promises significant enhancements in compression efficiency. Its potential applications span various sectors, from traditional broadcasting to emerging streaming platforms.

Enabling New Services and Use Cases

According to Noland, the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) has released its VVC (Versatile Video Coding) candidate standard for review and feedback. As part of the ATSC 3.0 suite of standards, she says, VVC is positioned as a natural progression from previous codecs like MPEG-2 and HEVC.

Noland stated that VVC's unique capabilities support a range of new services and use cases, including portrait mode video and low-latency applications, which introduce potential enhancements in viewer experiences.

Having just returned from a business trip to Brazil, she noted that VVC adoption will vary in different countries and markets, depending on existing systems and device availability.

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"It will be interesting to see what happens in different environments. One thing is implementing VVC within a greenfield environment, such as what the SBTVD forum is doing in Brazil to bring TV 3.0 to market. They are operating on a nice clean slate. It is a different story in places with an incumbent system; it will take a different path when it comes to adopting new video codec technologies," said Noland.

While the transition to VVC will take time, Noland believes its implementation will likely yield significant improvements in efficiency, quality, and service offerings within the broadcasting sphere.

The Greenfields of Brazil

SBTVD's Fausto, stated that Brazil plans to finalize standards for its TV 3.0 initiative by the end of this year and hopes to start deploying them next year. He expects to see significant testing of TV 3.0 services over the air next year, with full commercial services beginning in 2026.

Fausto made it clear that VVC in Brazil is crucial. It will open the door to broadcasting higher-quality content—like 4K or 8K videos. Moreover, he said that having receivers capable of decoding VVC will help regular TV and online streaming services, potentially making these services less expensive. Fausto believes that moving to TV 3.0 and adopting VVC will not only improve picture quality and efficiency but also open up new possibilities for viewers in Brazil.

"People are already used to high-quality free-to-air digital television in Brazil. We need to surpass this quality. We need to provide 4K or 8K over the air and demonstrate that it's clearly better compared to what people are already used to," said Fausto. So, choosing the most efficient video codec available—like VVC—makes sense in facilitating this jump," he said.

However, fully switching to TV 3.0 will take time because transmitters and receivers across the country will need to be replaced. As a result, different parts of Brazil—and different TV channels—may adopt TV 3.0 at different rates.

Efficiencies, Scalability and Compatibility

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SCTE's Syed reported that his team is evaluating unicast delivery and the ability for different codecs to coexist with emerging technologies like VVC codecs, which he described as a generational leap in performance, offering 40-50% better efficiency than its predecessors.

"It introduces bandwidth efficiencies, which allow you to scale more video. But then, on a single stream, you can do really interesting things, like upping the resolution and upping the frame rate, which is great for sports. You can bring in multi-camera applications. And if we are able to attach these capabilities to services that the viewer sees as an enhancement, that's the key. It's not just about swapping out the codec," said Syed.

He explained that one of the main benefits of VVC is that it can be tailored to meet current computational complexities by introducing both efficiency and scalability to support and enhance legacy and emerging services. The technology also offers potential cost savings across over-the-air and over-the-top distribution platforms by enabling a strategic alignment with industry advancements and consumer demands for efficient and high-quality content delivery.

Versatility Opens New Market Opportunities

To highlight VVC's "versatility" dimensions, Stein noted that the video codec has implications that extend beyond broadcast, streaming and television applications. He highlighted the successful implementation of VVC on cell phone technology, noting its efficient performance—even as a software-only encoder—and its minimal impact on battery life.

"I am encouraged by a statement made by an MC-IF colleague from Qualcomm, Aytac Biber, who recently noted that VVC on cell phone technology is actually working even in software. It's working with relatively light consumption on battery life. And that leads you to think maybe the world doesn't just need the chipset support to deploy VVC," said Stein.

Reflecting on VVC's trajectory, Stein compared it to previous coding technologies like MPEG-2 and HEVC, noting its standardization by MPEG in 2020 and projecting a similar timeline for adoption and implementation within application standards and market products. He also pointed to the burgeoning potential of the streaming market in developing economies, particularly in Asia, which could result in VVC surpassing North America and Europe.

[EDITORIAL NOTE: To see the full video of the roundtable discussion, please visit: https://bit.ly/3YmpPiq]