Photo – Copyright: Daniel Delang, Munich; published with kind permission of the photographer and BR
In the first half of 2016, the ORPHEUS project team completed work on two reports that laid the foundations of an object-based production system for live radio. The new approach developed by ORPHEUS will revolutionize the future of broadcast through object-based technology, changing the way we produce, publish and listen to radio programmes.
In April 2016, the ORPHEUS consortium published its public report on “Requirements, designs and workflows of an object-based production environment” (D3.1). The report outlines how the move from channel-based and hard-wired audio handling to a completely IP-based world will transform legacy broadcast production and workflows. The need to design, set up, maintain and constantly expand previous unidirectional, exclusive infrastructures will disappear with the switch to omnidirectional and omnipresent scalable IP-based networks.
The second report, which was finished as a confidential deliverable in July 2016, defines an initial reference architecture specification. The reference architecture will change the capturing, editing, processing, provisioning and reproduction of sound in a way that enables exploring new dimensions and delivering new listening experiences. It covers the whole sound chain from microphones to loudspeakers or headphones.
In addition, the paradigm shift of object-based broadcasting provides for the first time in the development of media technology the opportunity to make any production universally adaptive. This adaptive characteristic is not limited to the technical capabilities of devices but includes also individual listening conditions and personal preferences as well as ample possibilities for enabling real interaction with content.
Werner Bleisteiner, BR