This book helps address the skills shortage and support expansion of IPTV across the globe. Telecom operators, wireless mobile providers, cable TV companies, media companies, broadcasters, video production companies, and Internet portal companies worldwide are either offering IP video services or actively investigating their deployment. This book increases the reader’s knowledge of IPTV, which in turn leads to greater confidence in dealing with day-to-day planning and management of IPTV systems.

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Foundations of Voice and Speech Quality Perception starts out with the fundamental question of: “How do listeners perceive voice and speech quality and how can these processes be modeled?” Any quantitative answers require measurements. This is natural for physical quantities but harder to imagine for perceptual measurands. This book approaches the problem by actually identifying major perceptual dimensions of voice and speech quality perception, defining units wherever possible and offering paradigms to position these dimensions into a structural skeleton of perceptual speech and voice quality.

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Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is a very attractive means for human-machine interaction. The degree of maturity reached by speech recognition technologies during recent years allows the development of applications that use them. In particular, ASR shows an enormous potential in mobile environments, where devices such as mobile phones or PDAs are used, and for Internet Protocol (IP) applications.

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Advances in technology, such as MP3 players, the Internet and DVDs, have led to the production, storage and distribution of a wealth of audio signals, including speech, music and more general sound signals and their combinations. MPEG-7 audio tools were created to enable the navigation of this data, by providing an established framework for effective multimedia management.

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This book provides a unified overview of techniques for encryption of images and video data. This ranges from commercial applications like DVD or DVB to more research oriented topics and recently published material. This volume introduces different techniques from unified viewpoint, then evaluates these techniques with respect to their respective properties (e.g., security, speed…..).

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This all-inclusive, expertly structured contributed volume will serve as an indispensable guide for professionals or researchers working in areas like networking, communications, data compression, multimedia processing, streaming architectures, and computer graphics. Beginning with a concise overview of the fundamental principles and challenges of multimedia communication and networking, this book then branches off organically to tackle compression and networking next before moving on to systems, wireless multimedia and more advanced topics.

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“This updated edition introduces the recent international standards, applications, and the technical issues of the Eureka-147 DAB System.” (Radio, September 1, 2004)

“I had great pleasure reading this book…I highly recommend it….” (Journal of Audio Engineers Society, Vol.52, June 2004)

“…second edition is even more complete and comprehensive…straightforward, down-to-earth language…very understandable to the non-initiated…” (EBU Technical Review, April 2004)

“…this fully updated new edition introduces the recent international standards, applications, and technical issues of the Eureka 147 DAB system.” (IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society Newsletter, January 2004)

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Internet TV is the quintessential digital convergence medium, linking television, telecommunications, the Internet, computer applications, games, and more. Soon, venturing beyond the convenience of viewer choice and control, Internet TV will enable and encourage new types of entertainment, education, and games that take advantage of the Internet’s interactive capabilities. What Internet TV is today and can be in the future forms the context for this book.

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The Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is regarded as the best-of-the breed of proven messaging technologies, surpassing SMS and electronic mail to offer a truly multimedia experience to mobile users. The first commercial solutions appeared on the market in 2002 and the penetration rate of MMS is now quickly approaching the required level for mass-market adoption. By leveraging accessible technologies, MMS has gained wide acceptance from major market players and provides great business opportunities for the whole telecommunications industry.

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“…a very good explanation of an interesting topic…the overview of SIP is excellent…a call flow explains the complex sequence of events very well…” (Computer Bulletin, September 2002)

“This book is like a good tour guide.It doesn’t just describe the major attractions; you share in the history, spirit, language, and culture of the place.”
–Henning Schulzrinne, Professor, Columbia University

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