Objectives

Digital media assets are proliferating and most organizations, large broadcasters as well as SMEs are building networks and technology to exploit them. The cross-media market for broadband media will, according to predictions, develop rapidly within the next 10 years. Traditional broadcasters, publishers and Internet content providers will migrate into increasingly similar roles as multimedia content providers. Fresh cross-media players are also entering the market, aiming to exploit different distribution channels (IP-based, mobile) and to reach personalized and fragmented audiences. In order to exploit the opportunities offered by the digital media market, content providers need to apply new business models, content representations and CRMs.

Digital technology today allows the user to manipulate or interact with content in ways not possible in the past. The combination of PCs and networks allows the individual to create, edit, transmit, share, aggregate, personalize and interact with multimedia content in increasingly flexible ways. The same technology allows content to be carried across different platforms. In fact, much of the information that reaches the user nowadays is in digital form: digital radio, music CDs, MP3 files, digital satellite and digital terrestrial TV, personal digital pictures and videos and, last but not least, digital information accessed through the Web. This information is heterogeneous, multimedia and, increasingly, multi-lingual in nature.

The development of methods and tools for content-based organization and filtering of this large amount of multimedia information reaching the user through many and different channels is a key issue for its effective consumption and enjoyment. In fact, despite recent technological progress in the new media and the Internet, the key issue remains “how digital technology will add value to present information channels and systems”.

The main objective of the REVEAL THIS project is the design, development and testing of an integrated infrastructure that will allow the user to store, categorize and retrieve multimedia and multi-lingual digital content across different sources (TV, radio, music, Web), with a view to personalize the user experience with these sources.

The architecture of the REVEAL THIS multimedia production line will include the following functional blocks:

• Cross-platform audio-visual portals/services
• Tools and systems for cross-media production/delivery
• Consumer interactivity, personalization and profiling

REVEAL THIS will develop and integrate technologies that will enable the user to interactively personalize her/his use of multimedia information (educational, entertainment, etc.) that reaches her/him through a multiplicity of channels that are currently independent of each other.