News Future Applications and Media

The aim of the Virtual Learning Environment of the German Federal Armed Forces (in German: “Virtuelle Lernumgebung der Bundeswehr”, VLBw) is to integrate all training facilities of the German Armed Forces into a common digital ecosystem – secure, interoperable and future-proof. The VLBw strengthens the digital sovereignty of the German Federal Armed Forces and gives teachers the freedom to design content and methods individually – for modern, mission-oriented training.

Video streaming has become an integral part of our daily media consumption and accounts for the majority (60 to 70 percent) of global internet traffic. The white paper provides guidelines to help decision makers, developers and consumers identify the complex and diverse relationships between streaming components and environmental impact, and promote sustainable solutions.

The “Corporate Star Awards” were presented at IBC 2024. The “Ecoflow” project won in the category “Best Carbon Footprint Improvement Initiative”. Fraunhofer FOKUS contributed its experience from the “Green Streaming” project to the initiative. In this project, scientists are researching technologies and solutions for energy-efficient and sustainable video streaming.

The 11th FOKUS Media Web Symposium (MWS), held in Berlin from June 11 to 12, was the meeting place for anyone interested in media technologies and applications. 230 participants from 21 countries participated in the conference, workshops, and tutorials.

Since March 10, 2024, the Future Applications and Media (FAME) business unit of Fraunhofer FOKUS is a member of the 5G-MAG Media Action Group. The 5G-MAG members are working on 5G-based technologies and advanced media applications.

The increased use of media on the internet is leading to rising energy consumption. The “Green Streaming - Technologies for a sustainable digital media value-chain” project aims to create energy-efficient solutions for the entire video streaming value-chain: from video creation, processing and delivery through to use on various end devices. The project is a part of the “GreenTech Innovation Competition” technology program of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection.

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) has honoured FOKUS researchers with the CTA Technology Achievement Award for their outstanding contributions to the CTA WAVE Streaming Media Test Suite.

The German DVB-I pilot project won the “IBC 2023 Special Award for Innovation” at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC). In the project, the DVB-I standard is being further developed to facilitate the continuous use of linear TV programs. Fraunhofer FOKUS provides a DVB-I client for Android TV and offers it to other project participants for testing and evaluation purposes.

Fraunhofer FOKUS has been organizing the FOKUS Media Web Symposium (MWS) since 2010. For its tenth anniversary, over 200 participants from 21 countries met in Berlin on the 13th and 14th of June, 2023. With its tutorials and workshop, the MWS once again offered the opportunity for deeper insights into Internet-based media.

Counterfeits of high-quality products such as medicines, cosmetics, watches, or food and beverages circulate in large numbers, especially in online retail. Consumers barely have a chance to verify the authenticity of a product. In the SmartID project, scientists at Fraunhofer are now developing a counterfeit-proof barcode system for authenticity verification simply by using a smartphone without accessing a database. The team is presenting a SmartID demonstrator for the first time at the Interpack 2023 trade fair for packaging in Düsseldorf.

The SVT4GS23 workshop will be hosted and organized as part of the 48th IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN) 2023. As part of a call for papers, contributions from industry and research can be submitted until May 31, 2023.

The 10th HbbTV Symposium took place on November 9 - 10 in Prague. FOKUS expert Louay Bassbous of the business unit Future Applications and Media participated in the annual key summit of the connected TV-industry, presenting the topics “Integrating DVB-I with HbbTV” and “Metaverse and the TV”. Both presentations are available to view and download.

In the “German DVB-I Pilot” project, partners taking part want to gain a view of the technical functions offered by the DVB-I standard, resulting in a future scenario of what a complete DVB-I ecosystem could look like.

After a three-year break, more than 200 participants from 26 countries met again at the 9th FOKUS Media Web Symposium (MWS) in Berlin on June 21 and 22. Under the motto “And still diving deeper”, the experts discussed topics such as Internet Delivered Media, 5G Media, streaming technologies, artificial intelligence, standardization, and market development.

The ACM Mile-High Video (MHV) presents an annual Best Video Blog Post Award. Among the 23 nominees, the post “Common pitfalls in MPEG-DASH streaming” by Daniel Silhavy, Stefan Pham and Mariana Avelino took third place this year. In their blog, the scientists from Fraunhofer FOKUS regularly report on the latest research results in interactive media applications.

In the “Virtual LiVe” project, the three Fraunhofer Institutes FOKUS, HHI and IIS are working with the creative industry and companies from the event sector. Together, they realized their first experimental laboratory concert within the framework of the project. On December 11 2021, the highly anticipated event took place at different locations simultaneously, showcasing the benefits of the implementation of immersive media technology into classic event formats.

At the HbbTV Symposium and Awards 2021 that took place in Paris, an independent jury of international industry experts selected the winners among 27 submissions from 9 countries. With their Dynamic Ad Substitution solution featuring full ad break replacement, Nowtilus enables targeted advertising in broadcast environments via HbbTV. This enables current TV devices to deploy addressable advertising, pushing the boundaries of linear monetization.

The magic of a live event comes from a variety of factors: The passion of the musicians, which is transferred to the audience. The interaction between audience and artists. The great aha moment of a spectacular stage set. How can these experiences be created in a hybrid format, especially in times of Corona? In the Virtual LiVe project, the three Fraunhofer Institutes FOKUS, HHI, and IIS are working with the creative industries and companies from the event industry on innovative concepts for hybrid live events.

Counterfeit-proof product protection and resilient supply chains are the goals of the Fraunhofer SmartID project. The Fraunhofer Institutes for Applied Polymer Research IAP, for Secure Information Technology SIT and for Open Communication Systems FOKUS are developing a novel marking system that can determine the authenticity of products via smart devices even while being offline, i.e. without access to a database. SmartID will be embedded in existing track & trace infrastructures and can be printed on products or their packaging using commercially available printing processes.

Fraunhofer FOKUS has been tasked by the Commission for Determining Concentration in the Media (KEK) with preparing an report on the usage coverage of video streaming offerings. The KEK is responsible for ensuring the diversity of opinion in the context of the national organisation of television programmes and makes corresponding decisions.