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Exploitable results
Film and television archives represent an invaluable resource for Europe's broadcasters, publishers and filmmakers. With the explosion in the number of broadcast, satellite and cable channels, as well as video-on-demand, video, DVD publishing and multimedia services, high quality programme material is in increasing demand. But at present, the level of exploitation of moving picture archives is limited by the high cost and lengthy processing time required to restore archive assets to meet viewers' expectations. This is all set to change, however, with a series of cost-effective restoration solutions that open the door to more widespread use of film archives.
These developments arise from BRAVA, an IST-funded project to improve the speed and efficiency of film restoration. Its goal was to enable the widest possible access to valuable archive material by significantly enhancing the efficiency of the video and film programme restoration process. Building on the results from an earlier project (AURORA), BRAVA focused on reducing the restoration time by developing algorithms capable of analysing the image in detail.
The problems of archived film:
"Broadcast archive programmes are affected by a whole range of defects", explains Jean-Hugues Chenot, BRAVA Project Manager at Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA) based in Paris. "Some of them, such as noise and grain, unsteadiness, dirt and drop-outs, and flicker, can be corrected adequately by current tools. But often the work is time-consuming and for some defects current techniques just aren't up to the job. In BRAVA we aimed to cater for all the different defects that can affect picture quality in real-time or at least close to real-time."
Film restorers work in one of two ways. In tape-to-tape restoration (also known as linear editing), the input video stream is re-mastered on the fly as it is fed directly from player to recorder. In the alternative technique, known as disk-to-disk restoration, the whole video is stored as a file on a digital storage system (a massive computer disk) where it can be manipulated using editing tools. This mode, also known as non-linear editing, is much more flexible. For instance, it allows the restorer to access individual frames for fine-grain repairs, to edit the sequencing of images (timeline), and to work on the video and audio channels independently. BRAVA produced results for both real-time and non-linear editing.
Next generation restoration - a result!
One of BRAVA's main results was a series of complex algorithms called Archangel Ph.C (Phase Correlation motion compensation). Jean-Hugues Chenot explains: "These algorithms detect complex frame-to-frame changes in image contents and are able to compensate on a pixel-by-pixel basis, to give the highest results in picture quality".
The algorithms form the basis for Archangel, a commercial product marketed by the British company Snell and Wilcox Ltd. Archangel is a family of professional next generation products for real-time restoration, aimed principally at broadcasters, archive holders and post-production houses. The equipment is available in a number of formats depending on its application. Broadcasters will use it for re-mastering material for transmission; DVD and programme producers for using archive footage.
Several sets of the Archangel equipment are already in daily commercial use. Close liaison is being maintained with these initial investors who are being supplied with hardware/software upgrades as appropriate. Other spin-off developments, called Shakeout and HD-Prefix, are also now commercially available from Snell & Wilcox.
Video analysis and control in real-time:
Another key development was the Real-Time Controller, a suite of editing tools designed to accurately control the Archangel real-time restoration equipment. This Linux-based system can be inserted in almost any editing chain, tape-to-tape or non-linear. It gives operators a clear view of the source programme, with automatic shot detection and activity reports, and allows users to prepare parameters to control the real-time restoration equipment.
"The system allows the operator to focus all his attention on the picture, not on the interfaces", says Jean-Hugues Chenot, "But at any time, he can stop the linear operations, come back to a specific point, change a setting or correct a problem, and resume operations". In a separate mode, the operator can use the same tool to assist in preparing the work for the restoration process and to evaluate the cost and quality that can be reached.
This system is currently being brought to market by INA and SGT, a BRAVA partner, as a low-cost alternative to high-end restoration tools.
Going digital:
The broadcasting industry is moving rapidly towards an all-digital environment and future production and editing systems will be fully networked. BRAVA's work on disk-to-disk systems addressed this trend. It attempted to combine in one environment the best of real-time restoration tools (Archangel plus the Real-Time Controller), with the best of non-linear editing tools. "The principle is to replace the tape-to-tape editing system by a non-linear digital editing system that offers the operator a much wider range of functionalities", notes Jean-Hugues Chenot.
This system is currently at proof-of-concept stage. A first prototype was assembled and demonstrated in INA during the summer of 2002. While the potential is clear, further effort is required on integration and to solve some technical questions. Work on these is continuing within INA and the system is expected to reach commercial maturity in a few years.
A further outcome was a series of software plug-ins developed during the course of the project at Trinity College Dublin, another BRAVA partner. The platform chosen was Adobe Premiere, one of the leading commercial video-editing applications. Premiere does not have a simple mechanism for allowing the user to interact with plug-in parameters and therefore considerable effort was devoted to developing this capability. TCD intends to licence these for use within broadcasting and post-production.
Overall, the BRAVA results have advanced the state-of-the-art for film restoration. Armed with these tools, European broadcasters and publishers will be better able to meet the growing demand for high quality archive material. The partners are committed to further developing the systems to exploit the lead this gives them in the emerging film archives market.
Promoted by: IST Results Service
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