CPTO, 9-11 dicembre 2025

RAI CRITS organised a workshop dedicated to virtual production with volumetric LED wall technology, offering participants a high-level training experience.

These LED walls are defined as ‘volumetric’ because they are often configured with a floor and ceiling, creating an immersive environment that wraps actors or presenters in a virtual space in real time. This approach overcomes the limitations of previous technology, the green screen, which forces performers to work in a completely green environment, devoid of visual references, often generating a sense of alienation.

The practical initiative was carried out in collaboration with the EBU’s LED Virtual Production group and with the support of Sony, involving key figures from the RAI company’s management, including TV Production and Technologies.

LE FIL ROUGE –Vietato non toccare

Among of Rai’s initiatives on accessibility and inclusion, Rai Valle d’Aosta has produced the episode “Vietato non toccare” of the series Le Fil Rouge, a program by Paola Corti and Ilaria Macrì. The episode follows a group of blind and visually impaired visitors of the Unione Italiana Ciechi e degli Ipovedenti-Valle d’Aosta in the Rai Museum of Radio and Television.

On the final day of the 49th FIAT/IFTA Annual Conference, Laurent Boch and Silvia Proscia from CRITS presented the project “Evaluation of Mass Digitisation through Retrospective Quality Control.”

In the occasion of IBC 2024, the most important European fair on broadcasting taking place in Amsterdam on 13-16 September, Rai Research Centre participates in a DVB-NIP (Native IP) demonstration, coordinated by the satellite operator Eutelsat and in collaboration with the technology partner Inverto.

Thanks to this novel technology, TV broadcasting can extend beyond legacy and Smart TVs to reach also  personal devices for a unified viewing experience.

As part of its studies and experimental activities on 5G Broadcast, the standard of the 5G family to deliver TV  to mobile terminals, Rai-CRITS participates in the European 5G Broadcast handset Task Force, gathering members of the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) and BNE (Broadcast Network Europe), with the aim of promoting the introduction of 5G Broadcast functionality in smartphones and preparing the roll-out of 5G Broadcast services in Europe.

The EBU Data Technology Seminar (DTS) is a reference event for operators in the radio and television sector for the in-depth analysis and discussion of technologies related to Artificial Intelligence and data analysis. This year too, Rai contributed significantly to the event, through participation in the Program Committee, moderation of the sessions and scientific presentations proposed by its researchers.

During the last meeting of the RAN4 (Radio Access Network – Radio Performance and Protocol Aspects) Working Group of the 3GPP which took place in Athens, the Rai Centre for Research, Technological Innovation and Experimentation (CRITS), represented by Assunta De Vita (as EBU delegate), participated in the work that led to the conclusion of the standardization activity of the 5G Broadcast technology.

Now all the essential elements of 5G Broadcast are part of the 3GPP standards: further features and improvements are still being studied and will be proposed for the introduction of future releases of the standard, but with this Release 18 the standard is ready for the broadcasting of TV services towards mobile phones.

From classical music to folk rock, from dance to Latin dances, through performances of ‘musical’ live painting: sounds, movements, and gestures capable of challenging and overcoming deafness. Because it is deafness that unites artists with cochlear implants from Italy, Austria, Finland, Germany, and Portugal who – on Sunday, March 3rd at 5:30 PM, at the Rai Auditorium ‘Arturo Toscanini’ in Turin, was livestreamed on RaiPlay – will bring to life “Sound Sensation. Music Without Barriers”.

The Rai Centre for Research, Technological Innovation and Experimentation presented two contributions at the recent International Broadcasting Convention (IBC 2023) held in Amsterdam  last September.

The articles illustrate the results of the National project ‘5G Audiovisivo 2022’ promoted and funded by the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy  and co-ordinated by Rai Way, which applies 5G technologies to the whole chain of production and distribution of digital contents.

During the COMSOL Conference 2023 held in Munich last October, CRITS presented a study on the propagation of the DAB/DAB+ signal in motorway tunnels. The analysis, based on Finite Element Electromagnetic Simulation (FEM) and measurements obtained in the field, provides useful suggestions for the design of systems to extend the digital radio service in tunnels.

The CRITS plays a prominent role in the recent television production “Clorofilla,” where CRITS researchers contribute their expertise in Virtual Production, an innovative technology that provides an extraordinary experience for viewers.

Immersed in virtual settings created entirely through the use of Unreal Engine, the hosts take the audience on an original and entertaining journey into the world of botany. Viewers will have the opportunity to analyze constantly changing plants that grow in real-time.

CRITS contributes to the training initiative

The presentation was made during DVB World 2022 event in Brussels.

The 2022 announcement of the FIAT/IFTA’s Media Studies Commission has been published online.

The EBU AI and Data Initiative is the EBU’s cross-disciplinary exploration of AI and data in PSM, including regulatory aspects, technologies, organizational matters, skills, strategy and content developments. The AIDI Group defines the Initiative’s strategy and priorities and meets online once a month to discuss on-going work, common issues, and future opportunities. 

The initiative is managed by the Rai CTO Area Departments – Centre for Research, Technological Innovation and Experimentation (CRITS) and Information Technology ICT of Turin, with the support of the International Relations and European Affairs Department.

Collaboration agreement between “Aree protette delle Alpi Cozie” and “RAI Research Center” for experimenting drones in naturalistic environment

The 2021 announcement of the FIAT/IFTA’s Media Studies Commission has been published online.

Rai realized four virtual LIS interpreters, developed by adopting the latest computer graphics technologies and the use of innovative platforms.
This research activity will allows RAI to manage the entire process of generating new contents in LIS for future services for deaf people.

For the first time in more than 25 years the FIAT/IFTA Executive Council and the IASA Board have decided to join forces and organize a joint conference with an integrated programme.

As part of a collaboration with Rai WAY, the electromagnetic behavior of an open GTEM cell at different operating frequencies (from 250 MHz to 1 GHz) has been analyzed, implementing an accurate finite-element model of the device. The analysis, conducted both from a simulation and an experimental point of view, has allowed to characterize this electromagnetic structure as to the field uniformity, a quality necessary to carry out field probes calibration or electromagnetic compliance tests.

A new method to generate and transmit alarm signals to alert the population in the event of natural disasters, embedded in satellite TV transmissions has been devised by Rai-CRITS and proposed to DVB. The prototype developed in the project allowed us to test in the laboratory the effectiveness of the method and the backward compatibility with existing DVB-S/S2 receivers.

E’ stato pubblicato il nuovo numero della rivista Elettronica e telecomunicazioni interamente dedicato al 5G.

As part of the activities promoted within the EBU relating to the study of future technologies for the distribution of audiovisual content and TV services for 5G, Rai Centre for Research, Technological Innovation and Experimentation (CRITS), in collaboration with BBC, IRT, Qualcomm Inc., Ericsson and Plum Consulting/SG3, has contributed to the development of various methodologies for the numerical modeling of future 5G broadcast network scenarios, analyzing possibile critical issues.

These studies, submitted and discussed within the 3GPP groups, have been published as EBU Techical Review.

It’s online the 2020 announcement of the FIAT/IFTA’s Media Studies Commission.

Last December the neo dott. Ing. Giuliano Cammarata graduated with a 110/110 score at the Polytechnic of Turin with the thesis entitled “The preservation of films. Strategies for scanning, archiving and restoration proposed as part of the DigiMaster RAI project“. The thesis, starting from the practical experience of internship carried out at Centro Ricerche, Innovazione Tecnologica e Sperimentazione (CRITS), investigates the digitalization and digital preservation workflows of films with special focus on 35mm format.

On last October 26th, CRITS experimented, in collaboration with RAI Gold, the new application RAI Bridge. Designed entirely by CRITS, RAI Bridge is not just a companion screen application, but a true end-to-end system for creating interactive experiences with TV programs.

During the recent “COMSOL Conference 2019” held in Cambridge, the Research and Technological Innovation and Experimentation Center (CRITS) in collaboration with Tecnologie Riprese Esterne of Turin (ING-PROD) presented a work entitled: “Design and optimization of circularly polarized antennas for mobile shooting of sports events”, receiving the prize “Best Paper Award”. This activity, concerning the project of antennas used during the last “Giro d’Italia” in May, is part of the long tradition of research and innovation in support of the transition to digital for shooting sports events on the move.

The Research and Technological Innovation Center presented two papers at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) held in Amsterdam, the leading international convention along with NAB Show in Las Vegas on broadcasting technologies and new media. The two papers, the first about radio services on smart speakers and the second about regional content on DVB-T2, were presented on Saturday the 14th at the Conference.

Both papers were included in the prestigious IET’s Journal “The best of IBC 2019”, an acknowledgement to the 10 best papers of the IBC Conference: it’s the first time two papers from Rai reach this achievement.

On Sunday 15th September MediaRoad awarded the winners of the Sandbox Prize in a Ceremony taking place at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC2019), Amsterdam. Judy Parnall, EBU Technical Committee Chair, presented the awards to two startups and one Sandbox among the most innovative.

The annual metadata workshop took place in Geneva at the headquarters of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU-UER). RAI CRITS presented three speeches related to the following topics: an approach for the creation of datasets for AI; an information model and related tools developed for the planning and execution of television productions based on the simultaneous and automated use of multiple drones; a dashboard for the integration of AI services for multimedia content analysis.

The future DVB-I standard aims to deliver TV programmes over the Internet, so that they can be received and displayed by a variety of connected receivers (TVs, PCs, tablets, smartphones) with the same ease of use as today’s traditional TV programmes received from an antenna.

The new DVB-I services will be discovered by means of an installation procedure functionally equivalent to a frequency scan, and included in a channel list having a Logical Channel Numbering (LCN) harmonised with broadcast services.

In Italy, radio is one of the most popular media, thanks to its immediacy and ubiquity. DAB+ is the technology chosen by most European countries for the digital evolution of radio. Reliability, sound quality, transmission efficiency, energy efficiency, textual and graphic information services: DAB+ Digital Radio overcomes analogue radio in several ways.

The standard has been successfully adopted by several European countries: as Norway, Germany, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, Italy. Among them, Norway has begun the FM switch-off at the beginning of 2017, and other countries have plans for the Digital Switch-Over.

On this website is available the following document

“Consultazione dei soggetti di cui all’articolo 1, comma 6), lettera a), punto 2 della legge 31 luglio 1997, n. 249”

The advent of the Internet and the proliferation of digital services have led to a radical change in the way people enjoy radio and television. The plethora of products, services and content available on the Internet has accustomed its users to interactivity, the ability to search and choose when and what media content to listen, transforming the traditional radio and television listeners into an active consumers, capable of expressing their tastes and preferences. Paradoxically, the vast amount of content available has created an informative overhead and created the problem of finding the most suitable content for each user.
Recommender Systems represent the technological response to the need of relevance. In this context, the broadcaster has the opportunity to evolve its communicative paradigm: in addition to broadcast its content, it can propose the most relevant to its users.

Optical fibres are now increasingly popular in telecommunications, due to their extremely high bandwidth, their very low attenuation, their complete immunity to electromagnetic interference and their reduced diameter and weight.
For these reasons, they are playing an increasing role in trasporting TV content, both for in-building TV signal distribution within the multi-service optical infrastructure, which is mandated in all new buildings (Italian Law 164, 2014) and for TV consumption via broadband networks, which will benefit from ongoing investments in FTTH (Fiber to The Home) architectures, where the fibre is terminated at each building. In Italy, network operators are launching massive optical fiber investment plans over the next five years, not only to cover the most densely populated areas (A and B) but also for less profitable areas (C and D).

The Radio Group of the EBU Strategic Programme, co-chaired by Rai Research Centre, has updated the guidelines for Digital Radio Deployment in Europe, included in the EBU R138 recommendation.

Personalized Linear Radio is based on the idea of replacing part of the audio of linear radio with personalized and user-specific audio content. Audio content can be downloaded from the Internet or from other sources. The context can be the profile of the listener, her mood and activity she is doing, her position, the weather conditions, and all the factors that contribute to characterizing the listener’s status. The ultimate goal of the service is to improve listeners’ user experience, giving them targeted content, while optimizing the use of network resources.

The DVB is currently starting a Commercial Study Mission casting DVB’s Vision for Satellite Broadcasting, looking at the near- and long term, and going beyond classic geostationary satellite constellations, anticipating a successful bringing into use of future low earth orbiting payloads.

Rai-CRIT will participate in these activities, according to its leaderschip role and active participation in the DVB technical module dedicated to satellite transmissions, aiming at evaluating opportunities, times and methods for new standardisation activities.

WiB  (Wideband Reuse-1 Broadcasting) is a new system concept for DTT where potentially all frequencies within the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band are used on all transmitter  sites (i.e. reuse-1).

More pixels or best quality pixels? The problems of a higher resolution signal against an improved quality signal. The challenges of Rai and Reserch Centre towards a high technical quality television.

The High Dynamic Range allows a significantly improved image. The pixels that compose the image are high quality compared to the current pixels, with more information content. The signal reproduced on the new HDR screens is more dynamic and therefore with a much higher brightness, as well as with a superior detail perception.

Rai is planning to extend DAB+ services to the most important Italian urban areas and to the motorways (including service continuity in tunnels). Radio service transmission inside tunnels requires methods such as the installation of radiating cables (“leaky-feeders”) along the tunnel ceiling. This approach is costly, thus leading RAI Research Center to investigate the feasibility of an alternative approach using direct RF irradiation by means of antennas positioned outside the tunnels (not far from the entrance) or internally.

In the modern digital age, a big challenge lies in the ability of collecting, connecting, analysing and presenting heterogeneous content streams, accessible through different sources, and published through different media modalities. At this purpose, the project is aiming at identifying an end-to-end workflow for data driven journalism.

MIND is the “Content Management” and “Multichannel Publishing” system that allows to associate and synchronize images and textual information with each of the DAB+ radio channels distributed across the network nationwide. Its ability to synchronize with the channel’s schedule and to choose and create new content to be transmitted, allows to get a channel dynamism even without a continuous publisher’s intervention.

RaiPlay, the new Rai multimedia portal released in 2016, is available as a browser and as an application for mobile devices and smart TVs. CRIT has overseen the software development of the TV version and interactive decoders to DVB MHP standard with gold stamp.

The film and television have undergone an extraordinary evolution in the technical means as in content. The need to keep up with the times and with a society living in ever-increasing pace has profoundly changed the way of realizing television and radio programs. The manner of conducting the programs has changed dramatically from the fifties to the present, from a television in black and white that “entered” into the homes with discretion and played just a few hours of the day of a program like the present with channels broadcasting 24 hours daily and characterized by fast tempos and rhythms. the user is also changed, now the viewer quickly select with the remote control a number of channels to decide what to watch and with TVs connected to the network selects the contents and realizes its own schedule. People with disabilities and the elderly, by contrast, strongly demanding the reduction of the complexity of television and the reduction of technological barriers. The project Stretch TV, launched by RAI – Centre for Research and Technological Innovation and RAI – Social Secretariat, aims to develop a technological solution that allows to significantly improve the usability of television content by persons with sensory disabilities and / or cognitive and the elderly.

The RAI internal project for the digitisation of archive audiovisual material currently stored on physical legacy carriers. It aims at the preservation of RAI  contents produced and communicated to the public till present day. The Centre for Research and Technological Innovation is involved together with other RAI departments, namely Teche, ICT, and Produzione-TV.

Today, TV content can be distributed via Internet as OTT (Over The Top) delivery, allowing to expand the traditional offer with on-demand services. As the QoS (Quality of Service) cannot be guaranteed on the Internet as on a private IP network, during the years specific network architectures have been designed and developed (CDN: Content Distribution Network) and adaptive streaming protocols (ABR: Adaptive Bit-Rate), in order to optimise the data stream according to the broadband connection and the kind o terminal associated to each user.