While media organisations increasingly support non-linear experiences for the consumer, those are still limited to single channels and media domains. Although several media organisations have recently succeeded in breaking data silos, data sharing is mostly limited to the organisation. Thus, there are challenges for producing content feeding multiple channels with different granularities and structures, mainly related to data discovery, management and (re-)use. XRECO will create a new data-driven ecosystem for the media industry, focusing on facilitating data sharing, search and discovery and supporting creation of news and entertainment content, in particular, the creation and (re-)use of location-related 2D and 3D assets and the creation of XR experiences. The ecosystem core, represented by a Neural Media Repository (NMR), will foster inter-organisation content sharing and provide increased access to content for media creators, considering novel data monetization and rights management policies. A set of AI-based media transformation services are built around the NMR to produce novel media- and XR experiences, including 3D neural reconstructions, neural based device localisation, image stitching, de-/re-lighting and holoportation. The developed technology will be validated in use case scenarios for (i) the news media for XR-based broadcasting and automatic and customized multitarget news publishing, and for (ii) location-based information and entertainment content, with applications in tourism and the automotive industry.

The project will deliver MPAT – an extensible platform for the simple creation of interactive multi-media applications. In recent years the convergence of TV and online media has been increasing with dramatic pace. The boundaries between TV and personal media are dissolving rapidly. HbbTV is a key driver in this; enabling media companies to deploy interactive services for TV to a wide audience by building on top of a single standard. In many European markets, over 90% of Connected TVs, sold today, are HbbTV-enabled. Features including catch-up TV and interactive advertisements have already proved to be a great success because of their accessibility to the consumer and integration with the TV. Another recent milestone was the publication of HbbTV release 2.0, moving to state-of-the-art HTML5 and offering built in support for bi-directional multi-screen services as well as media and application synchronisation. Developing HbbTV applications from scratch requires considerable resources and for this reason they are often simply too costly for single formats or shows to contemplate. MPAT is the solution; motivated by a WordPress-like technical and business approach, MPAT makes application development affordable and sustainable while creating a new eco-system for content creators, theme and plug-in developers alike. With MPAT, media companies can semi-automatically author their set of customised applications that are then populated with content by the editorial staff or by linking MPAT to existing content management solutions. The open-source MPAT core will provide all the essential features to create compelling multi-screen experiences for HbbTV and other HTML5-based devices. The Consortium comprises key stakeholders from the HbbTV and media domain who will jointly deliver a sound and close-to-market solution thoroughly validated through an exhaustive set of pilots.

High quality public services constitute the backbone of citizens’ social welfare and are also essential to a region’s competitiveness and business entrepreneurship. Delivery of high quality public services is instrumental so that society and its economy can function. Despite this, the future provision of public services faces significant social challenges, as stated in H2020 “Understanding Europe - Promoting The European Public And Cultural Space”. Key challenges include those due to demographic change and others, related to the EU´s continued search for a model of advanced economic and social development compatible with demands for competition in a globalized economy. All of these longer-term challenges mean that public service provision must be reinforced on the basis of more and better innovation, and greater efficiency and productivity. CITADEL will create an ecosystem of best practices, tools and recommendations to transform Public Administrations (PAs) via an inclusive approach in order to provide stakeholders with more efficient, inclusive and citizen-centric services. The CITADEL ecosystem will allow PAs to use what they already know and new data to implement what really matters to citizens in order to shape and co-create more efficient and inclusive public services. CITADEL innovates by using ICTs to find out why citizens stop using public services, and use this information to readjust provision to bring them back in. Also, it identifies why citizens are not using a given public service (due to affordability, accessibility, lack of knowledge, embarrassment, lack of interest, etc.) and, where appropriate, use this information to make public services more attractive, so they start using the services. CITADEL will be implemented and validated in four use cases in Latvia, Italy, The Netherlands and Belgium.

The current European market for audio branding services is lopsided, both in economic terms as well as in aspects of cultural identity. In the slipstream of big U.S. companies like McDonald's, North American providers have captured the European (and worldwide) market for instore music and have held a strong position ever since. Today the worldwide market is effectively monopolised by two 'big players' from the USA. At the same time European creative industries active in this area are pushed into a corner of the European as well as the worldwide market and for the most part serve only niche businesses. The ABC DJ project seeks to provide European creative agencies in the field of audio branding with sophisticated ICT supporting tools. As a result they will be able to offer branding services and products of such high quality that they can successfully compete with the current big players, independently of their respective size – be it a big agency, an SME or a one-man business. Secondly, European creators of music, (independent) labels as well as respective multipliers will be actively included into the audio branding value chains and enjoy support and novel schemes from the monetisation of their works as instore music. The pool of music effectively exploitable for branding agencies and brand clients will thus grow significantly. The high number of creative micro-businesses and SMEs is tailor-made for an approach where many audio branding agencies serve the (diverse) needs of many brands, as opposed to the current 'one-sound-fits-all' situation.