IIT-Kanpur & Prasar Bharati join hands to revolutionize NextGen broadcasting in smartphones!

IIT Kanpur has inked an MoU with Prasar Bharati, to transform the landscape of radio transmission in tandem with the next generation of broadcasting. In line with this, a Centre of Excellence for Media and Broadcasting Technologies, will be established at IIT Kanpur. The new centre will explore the avenue of Direct-to-Mobile broadcasting capabilities, to streamline radio signals with the global standards of 5G.

Need for an indigenous system of content convergence

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India's Public Service Broadcaster, Prasar Bharati, has realized the Indian market's immense potential for digital video and audio consumption and has set the ball rolling in this direction, to progress broadcasting tech accordingly. With a larger audience base shifting to smartphones, due to the shutdown of cinema halls and other such agencies, the need to have an indigenous convergence of 5G services in broadcasting is vital, more than ever.

As such, Prasar Bharti and IIT Kanpur have come together to explore, research, and develop the possibility of Direct-to-Mobile Broadcasting and Convergence at the new Centre of Excellence at the institute. Experts at the IIT will engage in the following projects with the help of Prasar Bharati funds to align new 5G technologies with artificial intelligence and advanced algorithms for audio-visual media:

• Next Generation Broadcast Technology Trial (Direct to Mobile Broadcasting, Convergence with 5G)

• Automatic Speech Recognition for Speech Subtitling (Making Broadcast Content in various Indian Languages Accessible)

• Archival Content Retrieval through Audio and Text Query

Alternative and newer means will be developed here to optimally utilise a valuable spectrum, to stream multiple high-definition video or audio services via broadcast-capable smartphones. This will effectively ease the burden on cellular networks, added reports. This will even pave the way for the development of a common broadcast infrastructure in the future, that will essentially deliver audio and broadcast content, directly to mobile phones.

IIT Kanpur's research will be pivotal to the development of an indigenous technology ecosystem

The long-term plan of this collaboration, is to sail India as a global leader in the convergence between radio and television broadcasting. The IIT Kanpur's research will be pivotal to the development of an indigenous technology ecosystem for Direct-to-Mobile Broadcasting, the CEO of Prasar Bharati added, while thanking the board for according its approval to this Centre of Excellence.

IIT Kanpur's Director also appreciated Prasar Bharati for funding these projects, to enable collaborative translational research for developing an in-house transmission channel. He stated that the Direct-to-Mobile converged platform trial will accelerate the transition to the next generation deployment, with ease. Further, new technologies such as automatic speech recognition for subtitling and archival content will enable the content to run in various Indian languages, creating an-all India ecosystem of content distribution.