The television signal that we can see in our living room, after being generated in a TV studio or in an external shooting site, in order to reach our TV set, makes use of a rather complex and articulated telecommunications network. Broadcasting from the closest TV transmitter represents only the last part of this network.

The “Networks and Protocols” project has the task of studying the transport networks for TV signals from the shooting point up to the transmitters, with the purpose of guiding and accompanying the technological evolution of Rai networks.

The article describes the results obtained in the framework of the collaboration between the RAI Research Centre and the Department of Computer Science of the University of Turin in the definition of a model of integration of heterogeneous data from different knowledge bases (television archives, EPG , audience, social networks, etc.) that contribute to the definition of “second life” of television content, since its production, the next broadcast and continuing with comments and content generated by users on the web.

The proposed model allows to represent through a single graph of understanding the different entities and relationships that emerge from the television domain analyzed.

The 3D VMS, acronym of 3D Virtual Microphone System, is a sound recording system that thanks to a microphone array and a processing system patented by RAI with the University of Parma allows the synthesis of virtual microphones (Virtual Microphones) whose orientation and directivity can be controlled and modified in real time.

Hyper Media News is a system able to integrate the information automatically generated by ANTS with the information on the web and made available through the daily online information sites.
The Hyper Media News system, together with ANTS, has already been successfully demonstrated on several occasions during international scientific conferences and during the Prix Italia 2009.

BRIDGET (BRIDging the Gap for Enhanced broadcasT) is a project co-funded by the European Commission in the context of the VII Framework Program. The project is active between November 2013 and October 2016 and sees the involvement of 9 European partners among which RAI.