Open Source in the Broadcast Environment

Phillip Blucas Louisiana Public Broadcasting

Objectives • Briefly explain what open source is • Discuss some projects that are useful for

broadcasters • Q&A

What is Open Source? • Software whose source code is available

to the public to copy, modify, or redistribute without royalties or fees

• Not shareware or payware (or necessarily freeware)

WinZIP, WinRAR, 7-Zip

WinZIP, WinRAR, 7-Zip

WinZIP, WinRAR, 7-Zip

Process Explorer

Copyright and Licensing • Each contributor retains copyright • Various licenses available (GPL, LGPL,

Apache, BSD, MIT) • Dual-licensing (x264, MySQL, Asterisk)

Licenses • BSD, MIT, ISC • Apache • GPL • LGPL

Revenue Sources • Paid support • Hold newest changes back • Consulting contracts • Damages from license violators • Donations

OSS in the IT World • Pervasive - Linux kernel, GNU tools (gcc,

glibc), Apache, MySQL, Perl, PHP, Java, X • Widely accepted • Viable alternative to closed source

OSS Advantages • Customization • Transparency • Cost • Quality

Barriers for OSS in Broadcast • Large budgets • Dedicated hardware • Support • Documentation and interoperability

Who is driving development? • Internet companies • IPTV and non-traditional providers • Some traditional broadcasters • Consumer electronics manufacturers • Video nerds

FFmpeg and Libav • Swiss army knife of multimedia • FFmpeg forked for internal reasons • Provides LGPL library and command line

tool

FFmbc • FFmpeg fork specifically for broadcast • Support for XDCAM, IMX, ProRes,

DNxHD, AVCIntra • Merge/Split audio tracks

FFmbc • Write AFD in MXF files • OP-1a Avid MXF • DPX encoding • DVCPROHD encoder in QT or MXF

VLC • Cross

platform media player

x264 • Open source MPEG-4/AVC encoder • ISO/IEC 14496-10/ITU-T H.264/AVC • GPL and commercial license

x264 • Won the last

five Moscow State University annual codec comparisons

x264 • 8-bit and 10-bit • 4:2:0, 4:2:2, and 4:4:4 • Lossless • Low latency tools • Periodic intra refresh

x264 • Blu-ray support – GDMX and Criterion • Interlacing – MBAFF • 3D – Frame packing, MVC pending • Some broadcast users • Even more Internet users

Open Broadcast Encoder • Already some in-house encoders in use • Use OSS projects to create a high-end

realtime encoder on commodity hardware • OBE for real time and video on demand

use cases

Open Broadcast Encoder • libmpegts – MPEG-2 TS mux library • OBE VoD – Fork of the x264 command

line program with audio, captions, and MPEG-2 transport stream support

• OBE RT – Real-time live encoding from (HD)SDI sources to UDP/RTP and ASI

Open Broadcast Encoder • LPB – Lottery drawings and legislative

coverage on SES-2 • Frikanalen – OTA DVB channel in Norway • WildTV, Najdi

x262 • MPEG-2 encoder based on x264 • Open source ATSC chain • Developed by me (shameless plug)

libzvbi • Library to parse VBI pulses • 608/708 Captions, XDS, Teletext • Already existed as part of Zapping TV

viewer

biTStream • C headers for reading/writing MPEG and

DVB PSI structures • Potential for ATSC support to create an

open source PSIP generator

dvblast • Stream TV channels to a network • Sources could be DVB satellite tuner, ASI,

or IP • Downlink diversity site

AviSynth • Powerful scripting language for

manipulating video • Wine support. Also avixsynth for Linux. • Standards conversion, grain removal,

color space conversion, de-banding, editing

AviSynth • Tons of 3rd party plugins • Pre-packaged scripts for common

restoration tasks

AviSynth • 24p to 30i • 720p and 1080i cross converting • Fix field blending in PAL/NTSC transfers • Botched deinterlacing • Restore 8mm film

Handbrake • Tool for

DVD conversion

SoX • Sound eXchange • Raw, Amiga, AIFF, Sun, WAV variants • Filtering system for effects • Merge, concatenate, mix

AtomicParsley • Tool for editing iTunes metadata with MP4

assets • Episode Number, Season, TV Network

Phil 3000 • Set of scripts for transcoding media at LPB • C# frontend talks to a Microsoft HPC

cluster with 4 nodes

CasparCG • Live production graphics system created

by SVT (Swedish TV) • Plays Flash content on-air

Ingex • Multi-camera tapeless recording • Commodity PC with SDI capture cards • Capture, log, generate EDL • DVCPro50/HD, IMX50, DNxHD, Avid

2:1/10:1/20:1 • Developed by BBC Research

Ingex Archive • BBC had 380,000 D3 tapes in 2006 • Archived uncompressed (SMPTE 384M

and 382M) in MXF OP-1A to LTO-3 tape • Simultaneously created viewing proxies

with x264 and FAAC

Media Loving Toolkit (MLT) • C framework for controlling media ingest

and playout • Could build playout server that can do

branding (crawls, lower thirds, bugs)

Lightworks • Open source

NLE (almost) • Yearly

subscription

OpenShot • Linux NLE • Built on

FFmpeg and MLT

Blender • 3D

modeling and effects

TeleKast • Prompter with

segments