ILMETA – Interconnected Lab for MEdia Technology Analytics

• Subject Area: Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
• Term: Funded in 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 438822823

ILMETA (Interconnected Lab for MEdia Technology Analytics) is a large-scale networked device for investigating audiovisual media technology systems. The proposed infrastructure will enable research focusing on the media content (signals and metadata), in different areas such as media production, IP-based infrastructure and transmission (streaming, production, distributed data, etc.), technical content and signal analysis, and human perception and quality of experience (QoE).The content recorded and produced by means of appropriate media technology is modified along the chain from recording and transmission to presentation by different processing steps. A variety of persons are typically involved in these processes, for example the engineers of system manufacturers, streaming providers or network operators, directors of photography, colorists and end customers. Depending on their role in the process, they have different quality criteria with regard to the content, e.g. in terms of scene elements, sharpness, coloration, image noise, processing artifacts, etc. In addition to an analysis of the different instances of the content, specific metadata can be collected at different points of the chain for each processing step, in terms of system configuration, scene description, viewing behaviour, user ratings, etc. This metadata enables the reproducibility of the processing as well as a systematic investigation of the interaction of the technical system components and processing algorithms with the multimedia content itself, using the content as the essential "measurement information". The media signals resulting from the production process determine the effectiveness of all subsequent processing steps of the chain and their analysis. Content of high quality, and which is representative of practical applications, is only available to a limited extent for research purposes, also for copyright reasons. Appropriate content is particularly sparse for more recent immersive media formats such as 360° video or High Dynamic Range video. For the creation of such contents for scientific purposes, the production-related and corresponding laboratory technology represent decisive components of ILMETA. In addition to using the content to assess the subsequent processing steps, meta and measurement data with regard to the media production will be recorded, to analyze the production process itself. ILMETA, with the involved IP-based production technology and production-related measurement components enables research on recent developments in media production technology. The systematic analysis of media content requires corresponding computing resources as well as dedicated approaches for the storage and processing of the resulting heterogeneous research data. Therefore, a second essential component of ILMETA is an interconnected computing and storage infrastructure, as an analysis and thus development tool for an iterative improvement of the end-to-end chain.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: ILMETA – Interconnected Lab for MEdia Technology Analytics
• Instrumentation Group: 6760 Bildregie- und Kontroll-Einheiten, Steuergeräte
• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität Ilmenau
• Leader: Professor Dr.-Ing. Alexander Raake