The creation of MPEG-4 content and its delivery over DVB infrastructure

With the advent of Broadcast Digital TV (BDT), the advances in 3D visualisation, image processing and emergence of standards such as MPEG-4, which facilitates the efficient communication of rich multimedia content including video, audio and synthetic visual objects, the potential exists to revolutionise TV viewing. This paper describes the PISTE (Personalised Immersive Sports TV Experience) system, which is designed to address the complete needs of both broadcasters and viewers. In the development of such a system it is intended to provide large amount of novel applications. These include image processing techniques that provide augmentation of real events. Tools to provide the viewers with a deeper understanding of sports events through the use of textual overlays and athlete profiles, available whenever the viewer desires. The creation of MPEG-4 content, which is not standardised, but is essential for the acceptance of MPEG-4. The use of DVB (Digital Video Broadcast) which is central for the delivery of MPEG-4 content within MPEG-2 streams. In addition, this paper focuses on the creation of 3D animated MPEG-4 content through the use of an animation package. This content will be stored in BIFS (Binary Format for Scenes); the scene description language in MPEG-4 and the animation data is stored in BIFS-Anim.