Optimization of audience encoding in low-resolution soccer video sequences

Soccer is one of the most streamed video contents over the European mobile networks. However, technical limitations, such as stringent bandwidth constraints and reduced size of the mobile terminal displays, make the delivery of soccer videos with satisfactory quality a challenging task. In this work we propose the optimization of the encoding process by minimizing the bandwidth associated to the audience while preserving acceptable quality for the viewer. The macroblocks belonging to the audience are identified by means of a segmentation algorithm. For these macroblocks, the camera movements will be compensated using a single motion vector. The optimized sequence can be decoded by a baseline profile H.264/AVC decoder.