The document discusses the BBC's use of high performance computing for video compression and artificial intelligence applications. It describes the BBC's research division and their work developing new video coding standards like HEVC and VVC to enable distribution of ultra high definition content. It provides examples of EU projects applying machine learning to video content and outlines the large computing resources needed for training deep neural networks on high resolution video.

1. BBC Media & AI
Large Enterprise Use Case
Luka Murn, Graduate R&D Engineer
11 April 2019
EOSC-hub Week 2019 | Prague

2. Contents
Introduction
BBC R&D
Video Compression
Use Case for High Performance Computing
BBC Media & AI

3. Introduction
BBC Media & AI

4. British Broadcasting Corporation
• Oldest and largest national
broadcaster in the world, established
in 1922 with over 20,000 staff
• 96% of UK adults use BBC TV, radio
or online each week
• 300 million requests for iPlayer,
Internet streaming catch-up TV, each
month
• BBC Archives is one of the largest
broadcast archives in the world with
over 12 million items
BBC Media & AI

5. BBC R&D
BBC Media & AI

6. BBC Research & Development
• At the forefront of developments in
broadcast technology, from colour TV to
High Definition TV
• 200+ highly specialist research
engineers, scientists, designers and
producers
• Work on every aspect of the broadcast
chain – Audiences, Production,
Distribution, Programmes
• Participate in many successful EC-
funded projects and contribute to the
setting of international standardsBBC Media & AI

7. Our Vision of the Future
• A new broadcasting system
with storytelling and IP at
its core
• Mass audience mobile
services enabled by 4G &
5G broadcasting
• Content tailored for
individual’s circumstances,
preferences and devices
BBC Media & AI

8. Enabling Technologies
• Ultra High Definition TV
(UHDTV) format will enhance
users’ quality of experience
o Spatial resolutions
3840×2160 (4K) and
7680x4320 (8K)
o Frame rate up to 120 fps,
extended colour gamut and
bit depth up to 12 bits per
pixel
BBC Media & AI
UHD
HD
SD

9. Enabling Technologies
• 4K UHD TV shipments exceeded
100m units, an increase by 32% in
2018
• 4K UHD TV market will continue
to grow at a double-digit
compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) throughout its forecasting
period to 20221
• BBC delivered FIFA World Cup
2018, Wimbledon 2018 and the
Royal Wedding in UHD HDR
BBC Media & AI
1Source: Futuresource, 2018

10. Enabling Technologies
• Distribution of high
resolution video content to
a large number of users
requires transmission of
extremely large amounts of
data
• Only made possible by the
application of video codecs
that reduce the size of
content sufficiently to be
stored and distributed on a
mass scale.
BBC Media & AI

11. Video
Compression
BBC Media & AI

12. Video compression standards
• H.265 / HEVC – High Efficiency Video Coding
o Current state-of-the-art ITU-T / MPEG standard for video compression.
o Targets all previous applications (low resolution) right up to UHD
• AV1 – AOMedia Video 1
o Developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia).
o Aims to provide a royalty-free video coding specification
• VVC – Versatile Video Coding
o Since April 2018 - standard under development by ITU-T/MPEG (beyond
HEVC).
o The goal is to reduce the bitrate by 50% compared to HEVC
BBC Media & AI

13. Joint Video Experts Team (JVET)
• Founded in April 2015
• Tasked with developing a
new video coding standard -
VVC
• Contributors:
BBC Media & AI
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
OCT-15
FEB-16
MAY-16
OCT-16
JAN-17
MAR-17
JUL-17
OCT-17
JAN-18
APR-18
JUL-18
OCT-18
JAN-19
MAR-19
Numberofcontributions
VVC Development

14. Versatile Video Coding
• Performance results
o Subjective evaluation on a
UHD sequence
o RD curves used for
comparison (PSNR and
Mean Opinion Score - MOS).
• HM – HEVC test model
• JEM – experimental software,
basis for VVC
BBC Media & AI
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
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8
9
10
0 20 40 60
MOS
Bit-rate [Mbps]
Manege, 3840x2160, 60 Hz
HM
JEM
AV1
“An Overview of Recent Video Coding Developments in MPEG
and AOMEDIA” in Proc. IBC 2018, Sept. 2018.
(DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1494930)

15. BBC R&D’s Video Coding team
• Contributes to
development of both
HEVC and VVC
standards
• Performs core
fundamental
research, looking at
new ways of
performing
compression based
on Artificial
Intelligence and
content analytics
BBC Media & AI
Media & AI
Video Coding
Standardisation
BBC R&D
Video Compression Research

16. COGNITUS H2020
• End-to-end platform to
aggregate User Generated
Content (UGC) during
events, enhance to Ultra-
High Definition (UHD)
quality and provide
semantic enrichment to
facilitate the smooth
integration in broadcast
productions
• http://cognitus-h2020.eu/
BBC Media & AI

17. JOLT H2020
• Harnessing digital and
data technology for
journalism
• Optimization of quality of
delivered video
• Advances in ML
application to large video
content databases
• http://joltetn.eu/
BBC Media & AI

18. Use Case for
High Performance
Computing
BBC Media & AI

19. Compression vs. Complexity
• Raw RGB video, 10 bits per pixel, 2160p60 = 14.93
Gb/s
• Highest average broadband speed in Europe
(2017/18) = 46 Mbit/s (Sweden)1
• Fast implementation can drastically compromise
the compression efficiency
• Advances in ML/AI open numerous new ways to
improve compression further
BBC Media & AI 1Source: Cable.co.uk and M-Lab, 2018

20. CPU Resources
• Video coding is a
CPU-intense process,
parallelizing processes
is a must
• Longest encoding run
time of 1 test point =
4.8 days
• Encoding run time of
all test points = 288.8
days
BBC Media & AI

21. GPU Resources
• Machine learning algorithms see increased use in broadcast
scenarios (video content adaptation, enhancement, production,
quality evaluation, delivery)
• Training 1 shallow neural network with a UHD sequence on 1
consumer GPU = 0.5 days
• Training 1 deep neural network with a UHD sequence on 1
consumer GPU = 0.8 days
• ML is heuristics-based = need for multiple network configuration
testing
BBC Media & AI

22. Our reasons for involvement
• A requirement to create a new broadcasting infrastructure
o Need for a flexible, transparent, provider-independent, auto-
scalable solution, deployed over either private or public
infrastructures
• Dynamic inspection and setup change based on
performance
• Scalability testing
o Large size of digital media libraries makes it very important to
provide guidance as to the level of resources needed
BBC Media & AI

23. Thank you
www.bbc.co.uk/rd
Email: luka.murn@bbc.co.uk
Twitter: @BBCRD
BBC Media & AI