Samsung Electronics is demonstrating for the first time a new subtitling format – HbbTV 2.0 – which at long last will bring accessibility for the deaf and hard-of-hearing to live streaming and on-demand content. The technology will be shown at IFA 2015 in Berlin, Germany, as part of the Hbb4All Pilot-A project, in collaboration with IRT and RBB, which aim to improve the delivery of a wide range of accessibility services.

Across Europe, broadcasters have the challenge of providing subtitles in a format that works on multiple platforms, so that they can help individuals who are deaf and hard-of-hearing, or simply do not have sufficient language skills to comprehend the content without text support – whether it is in the original or a foreign language.

While sub-titling technologies for traditional broadcast platforms are well established, today’s challenge is to provide subtitles that meet the specific needs of the users in terms of channel, platform and their consumption requirements. To provide accessibility services that are easy-to-use, are of a high quality and work on all platforms offered by on-demand and IP television, broadcasters need a well-conceived production and distribution strategy that allows them to exchange subtitles and re-purpose them automatically.

“Samsung is delighted to demonstrate its on-going commitment to supporting accessibility features in its TVs,” said Mi Young Yoo, Vice President of the Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “In order to support the work of the Hbb4All project and to be ready for this demonstration, Samsung has accelerated its implementation for EBU-TT-D based subtitles, and we are really grateful for the support provided to us by IRT, RBB and all other Hbb4All partners.”

HbbTV 2.0 adds support for EBU-TT-D as a subtitle format (TTML) for broadband content. On-demand content can be linked with out-of-band EBU-TT-D documents and content based on MPEG-DASH can have embedded EBU-TT-D subtitles. This in turn makes it possible to generate subtitles for live streaming via the Internet.*

The HbbTV terminals currently available in the market do not support subtitles for broadband content natively. However, these terminals provide sufficient information on the playback position for on-demand content directly to applications, so subtitles can be added in the application. This provides the flexibility needed to offer users customized subtitles, such as larger font sizes.

Samsung’s demonstration of the HbbTV 2.0 format is the first element of the Pilot-A project as proposed by the Hbb4All project. Demonstrations of HbbTV 2.0 will be available at IFA in Berlin in the ARD Digital Hall at the IRT and RBB booths, as well as at IBC, Amsterdam from Sept. 7-15, 2015 at the IRT booth.

*Source: Hbb4All website www.hbb4all.eu/home/hbb4allpilots/multiplatform-subtitle-services/

“As more and more businesses adopt the Internet of Things, we have a great opportunity to enhance customer value with increased productivity and profit,” Hong said. “Significant advancements can be made in the business process through the application of IoT in inventory management, energy efficiency and more. However, we first have to overcome the challenges of platform compatibility, data analysis and security in order to accelerate IoT adoption.”

As part of its commitment to the enterprise sector, Samsung will also introduce Samsung Business, a dedicated brand that unifies Samsung’s end-to-end business solution portfolio, including tailored offerings for industry-specific uses across retail, education, hospitality, transportation, and logistics.

The company will showcase its enterprise technology solutions and services at its exhibition booth (Booth #C30, Hall 2) from March 16 to March 20.

Samsung Business: Business Readiness for IoT

Samsung Business expands and unifies all Samsung business solutions, including Samsung KNOX for security and enterprise mobility management, Samsung SMART Signage solution, Samsung printing solution, and other business offerings – all optimized for enterprise-readiness.

The Samsung Business brand deepens Samsung’s ongoing commitment to providing business solutions for with enterprise-grade security, quality and reliability for a connected world. As a trusted partner of innovation, Samsung Business enables customers to achieve their business goals now in this transformative era.

Samsung Business Solutions in Action

Samsung will showcase its enterprise solutions and services across the industries of retail, education, healthcare, transportation, hospitality and finance. The six experiential zones at Samsung’s booth will highlight with diverse scenarios for customers to easily experience firsthand the user-friendly and secure experiences across Samsung devices, solutions and services.

Retail

Samsung allows retailers to create seamless, engaging and unique shopping and dining experiences by offering a broad portfolio of innovative and integrated solutions across digital signage and mobile devices.

• Mirror Solution – Features a digital mirror with Samsung Smart Signage that can be configured into VideoWalls. Customers can get a clear view on all angles of the clothes they are trying on, offering a practical solution and unique shopping experience.

Education

Samsung’s education solutions enrich the learning experience, enhance teaching effectiveness and allow administrators to run institutions more efficiently.

• Samsung School Solution – Provides an interactive and collaborative learning environment by integrating Samsung mobile devices with interactive learning tools. The solution makes classroom collaboration easier and more fun. Students are encouraged to actively engage in lessons through features such as screen-sharing, on-screen quizzes and digital handwriting using the S-pen. The intuitive management tools allow teachers to conveniently prepare class materials and maintain control over students’ learning devices and materials.
• Samsung Cloud Print Service – An intuitive and end-to-end document workflow solution that allows teachers and students to easily handle, manage and monitor printing devices and documents to improve productivity and flexibility.
• Workbook Composer for Education Vertical – Workbook Composer is an editing solution that allows scanned documents to be converted into a text document directly from the printer. People can select the areas they wish to scan, convert the areas into a file and then print the file or send it via email for further editing. It’s convenient and also a faster way to complete paperwork for educators and students.

Hospitality

Samsung delivers a more personalized and seamless hotel experience, while providing an advanced infrastructure to optimize operational efficiency.

• SMART Hotel Solution – A management solution that offers a premium in-room experience, including features like auto-adjustment of room lighting and blinds for optimal brightness levels. Samsung’s sleek full HD Hospitality Displays deliver exceptional picture quality. Samsung’s SMART hotel solution provides guests with customized content on the TV screen; guests can wirelessly view their mobile content on Samsung displays and vice versa for dynamic two-way viewing.
• Information Bulletin Touch – Greet guests with relevant messaging and real-time information on the vibrant 55-inch Samsung SMART Signage with touch functionality.

Healthcare

Samsung develops innovative mobility solutions that enable caregivers to provide better care and empower individuals with tools that enhance overall wellness.

• Preventive Mobile Cardiac Rehabilitation – Enables real-time, continuous rehabilitation monitoring of chronic cardiac conditions, giving healthcare providers vital information required for accurate decision making and precise care delivery. This solution is comprised of Samsung GALAXY devices and the wireless BodyGuardian cardiac sensor.
• Vidyo – The reach of healthcare extends beyond the walls of a hospital or clinic with video conferencing solutions from Vidyo on Samsung devices. The Samsung GALAXY and other Samsung portfolio products, using solutions based on the VidyoWorksTM platform, enable a variety of clinical services and workflows to be conducted through real-time video communication. These solutions enable patients in remote locations, including the elderly or non-ambulatory patients, to receive expedited care, and enable healthcare providers to leverage their specialists across greater populations, resulting in better outcomes and increased revenues.

Financial Services

Security and customer service are at the heart of Samsung’s business solutions for the financial services industry. Samsung’s enterprise devices and automated document management solutions transform financial processes for swifter, more personalized customer service, while ensuring security at every touch point.

• Secure & Pull Printing Solution with Samsung Business Core Printing Solutions – Financial staff can work smarter with secure document handling and printing. Authorized branch personnel can use Samsung SecuThru Lite 2 to easily pull confidential customer documents from the Samsung Multifunction printer and release them safely with ID card authentication. SecuThru Lite 2 ensures that only authorized personnel can retrieve documents, safeguarding customers’ personal information and privacy, which is critical to the financial industry

Transportation

Samsung’s transportation solution provides real-time information and analysis of data using digital devices for efficient delivery and transport processes. Solutions also include up-to-the-minute travel information and convenient, self-service options for an exceptional passenger experience.

• 24/7 Professional Grade Signage Solution – At airports, passengers can get real-time flight information such as arrival and departure times, flight and gate numbers with ease and accuracy in various locations on Samsung SMART Signage. Built for reliable 24/7 commercial operation for airport environments, these highly readable displays deliver sharp, crisp text and images in virtually any lighting conditions, thanks to 700-nit brightness levels.

Learn More About Samsung Business

To learn more about how Samsung Business can help your business now at CeBIT 2015, please visit www.samsung.com/business.

“We consider 5G to be a transformation of how networks are constructed and how radio resources are used,” said Chang Yeong Kim, Head of DMC R&D Center at Samsung Electronics. “To support 100 times greater throughputs at a fraction of the latency, we need to consider more than just a single network component; we need to look at how everything works together. At the same time, the evolution toward 5G must be an incremental process, introducing new technologies in the short- and mid-term that can be tried, tested and proven on commercial networks.”

mmWave Wireless Backhaul

Utilizing a 60 GHz spectrum, Samsung is rapidly nearing commercialization of a wireless backhaul solution that promises to support speeds of multi-Gbps—faster than legacy wireless backhaul solutions.

Samsung’s unique approach combines active and passive radio steering techniques to increase the effective range of a radio without exceeding the power output limits that exist in unlicensed bands throughout the world.

An active antenna array enables a beamformed radio signal to be directed at a passive lens antenna, which further focuses the radio signal toward a fixed point—similar to a contact lens focusing light into the retina of the eye.

By actively focusing the radio signal into a precise and highly accurate beam, the solution overcomes many of the environmental issues that affect communications in the 60GHz band.

The technology is initially intended to target flexible small-cell deployments, where wireline backhaul may be expensive or impractical to implement.

Additionally, the technology is designed to be easy to deploy and maintain, taking advantage of a small, lightweight and modular design with separate radio, antenna and processing modules in each unit.

Meanwhile, the use of active beamforming reduces the need to regularly calibrate the antenna orientation, further reducing maintenance requirements.

With small cell deployments expected to be a significant focus in 2015, this technology will be a solid enabler for high capacity and better coverage with lower CAPEX and OPEX.

Full Dimension Multiple Input Multiple Output (FD-MIMO)

With today’s MIMO solutions, antennas are configured to form beams in one direction—horizontally. In this way, multiple users can each receive a “unique” signal from the antenna, effectively allowing a cell’s capacity to increase since users in the cell no longer compete with each other for the same radio resources.

However, with only one-dimensional beamforming capability, users who are at the same horizontal angle from the antenna (even at different vertical angles) still receive the same signal and thus continue to share radio resources.

With the introduction of FD-MIMO and 2D-array antenna technology, wireless signals can be adaptively beamformed to specific users in both horizontal and vertical domains.

Additionally, with the adoption of advanced digital signal processing schemes, an FD-MIMO antenna system can support higher-order multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) which delivers a multi-fold improvement in system performance compared to conventional MIMO systems.

The technology is ultimately designed to deliver a unique, targeted radio signal to more than eight users in a cell at a time.

The innovative capabilities provided by FD-MIMO systems will also enable support for new deployment and operational scenarios, such as high-rise building support and multiple user services in crowded malls and stadiums.

Samsung is leading the standardization of 3GPP FD-MIMO in the upcoming Release 13 and exhibit this item at MWC 2015 includes an LTE Rel.13 pre-release eNodeB. It is characterized by its compact footprint with the 2D-array antenna, RF components, and baseband board being fully integrated.

 mmWave Mobile Radio Access

Samsung has made several critical steps toward demonstrating the viability and suitability of millimeter waves for the next generation of radio access technologies. The technology is expected to play an important role in delivering cost-effective gigabit data rates to users throughout an operator’s mobile network.

In October 2014, Samsung announced the “world’s first successful test” of mobile millimeter wave radio technology, establishing a throughput of 1.2 Gbps at 100 km/h, and establishing a new record for stationary communications of 7.5 Gbps.

The test utilized a licensed 28 GHz band and introduced Samsung’s Hybrid Adaptive Array antenna technology. Samsung believes that research into technologies such as this represents one of several critical milestones toward meeting the goals of 5G technology, including peak throughputs that are 100 times faster than those of LTE, and latencies one tenth of those we experience today.