ImAc Consortium meets to discuss the next steps

The Catalan Media Corporation, CCMA hosted the fifth general assembly of the Immersive Accessibility Project at its TV3 headquarters in  Sant Joan Desp near Barcelona last week. All nine partners, comprising i2CAT, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, University of Salford, Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, Corporacio Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals SA, Institut für Rundfunktechnik Gmbh, Motion Spell, Anglatecnic SL and the Royal National Institute Of Blind People attended the three day meeting to discuss the progress made over the past few months and agree the next steps in the 30-month long project which is due to end in mid-2020.

 

The agenda was more or less dominated by the discussions on the impending user pilots which are scheduled for this summer. The German broadcaster RBB, CCMA and Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona will take the lead and conduct the user pilot for subtitling and sign language. The Royal National Institute of Blind People and  Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona are responsible for testing solutions for access to 360 content for people with sight loss. During these pilots, traditional tools such as audio description and audio subtitling will be tested in combination with spatial audio which is understood to be key for orientation in such environments.

 

The user pilots will also involve gathering feedback on the accessibility of the ImAc Player which is a web based player designed to play content in 360 with the above mentioned access tools. The player presents an accessible alternative to the traditional user interface and also allows the user to interact with the player with voice assistants such Alexa.

Follow @ImAcProject for further updates.

Tagged as: content production, design, immersive content, technical