2-IMMERSE Getting Started

This project was originally developed as part of the 2-IMMERSE project, co-funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research Programme

Introduction

2-IMMERSE is an innovation project co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. It has developed a new open-source platform for object-based multiscreen entertainment. The open-source platform is based on reusable components that will accelerate the development of new immersive multi-screen experiences, encourage the take-up of the HbbTV 2.0 specification and contribute towards its evolution.

Customisable multi-screen experiences run in an ‘any device environment’ using broadcast and broadband delivered content and object-based production techniques to enhance audience interaction.

Programme exemplars based on high-value content forms including; MotoGP, the Emirates FA Cup final and award winning theatre productions, were created to define and demonstrate the core platform capabilities.

See https://2immerse.eu.

Directory structure:

• build Instructions for building 2-IMMERSE components from source.
• deployment Instructions and scripts for deploying a 2-IMMERSE platform instance.
• examples Example platform applications.
• docs Documentation and images.

Overview

The 2-IMMERSE Object-based Broadcasting Platform enables TV programming to be customised to suit the capabilities of available client devices and network bandwidth. Content can be adapted for a range of different environments allowing, for example, the presentation of football in a public fan-zone space to be quite different to the presentation in a home.

Object-based broadcasting is enabled through a Distributed Media Application (DMApp), a set of software components orchestrated across the participating devices by a cloud service platform. The DMApp components typically render media, support user interaction and/or implement application logic.

The common client software environment we have adopted to support this is HTML/CSS/JavaScript, and in particular HbbTV 2.0. The service platform we use is a containerised platform which can be deployed using any container orchestration system such as Kubernetes, Rancher or Docker-Compose.

Software Stack

The following diagram gives a high-level overview of the 2-IMMERSE software stack:

We have tested the 2-IMMERSE software with a number of PaaS and IaaS providers during development, including stand-alone setups that run locally without an internet connection.

Architecture

TODO: Link / reference to documentation in 2-IMMERSE/docs

Building

The build directory contains instructions for building the 2-IMMERSE software, together with some useful build scripts to automate the process.

Deployment

Deployment scripts are available here to spin-up a locally hosted, pre-configured instance of the 2-IMMERSE platform using Docker Compose. This is required in order to try out the examples. Follow the instructions for building the 2-IMMERSE software first.

Examples

A number of example DMApps are provided in the examples subdirectory and organised into an electronic programme guide (EPG) configuration file. See the examples documentation for how to run the samples. Follow the instructions for building and deploying and instance of the 2-IMMERSE platform first.

Licence and Authors

All code and documentation is licensed by the original author and contributors under the Apache License v2.0:

• British Broadcasting Corporation (original author)

See AUTHORS.md file for a full list of individuals and organisations that have contributed to this code.

Contributing

If you wish to contribute to this project, please see the governance model and the communication tools documents.