Inventor plays leading role in Rai’s patent licensing efforts
Vittoria Mignone shares her experiences as an inventor, standardisation participant and patent portfolio manager for the Italian state broadcaster
By Jacob Schindler
Not many people get a front row seat for the entire life cycle of a standard-essential patent. Vittoria Mignone, research and development manager for Italian public broadcaster Rai Radiotelevisione Italiana, is one of the few.
An electronic engineer by background, Mignone helped to develop new error protection technologies for terrestrial broadcasting, for which she was named co-inventor on multiple patent applications. These technologies were adopted during the standardisation of DVB-T2, the second-generation digital video broadcast transmission protocol.
As a manager of Rai’s patent assets, Mignone also participated in the formation of the DVB-T2 patent pool administered by Sisvel, a highly successful programme which is notable for its complete coverage of the relevant patent rights and strong returns generated for Rai and nine other rightsholders.
Mignone kindly agreed to speak with Sisvel Insights about her time in the R&D lab, in standards meetings and in the patent pool formation process. She also talks about her experience as a woman in these sometimes male-dominated settings, and shares insights on the latest exciting frontiers in Rai’s R&D efforts.
Vittoria Mignone, Research and Development Manager, Rai Research and Head of Fixed Mobile Network Department, Rai CRITS
The Rai Centre for Research, Technological Innovation and Experimentation (CRITS) has a storied history stretching back to the 1930s. How has its focus evolved to the present day?
The centre was founded in 1930 with the name "Research Laboratory", and it is now one of Europe’s main research centres in the radio and television sector. Its mandate has always been to drive the technological evolution of TV and radio in Rai, Italy’s national broadcaster. Originally its activities were mainly devoted to the development of the equipment to be used in Rai. Nowadays, nobody can produce equipment on their own, and the focus is on working in cooperation with the industry and other actors in the media sector to develop technologies. The goal is always to enable Rai to maintain its fundamental role as a media company at the service of the public, while guiding and stimulating the digital transformation of the media industry in Italy.
Could you please tell us a little bit about your background and how you came to work on broadcast technologies as a researcher?
My cooperation with Rai Research Centre started during the preparation of my master’s thesis on digital satellite broadcasting (studies that were central to the development of game-changing DVB-S technology, the first digital system for broadcasting). After graduating in electronic engineering at the Turin Polytechnic, I was recruited to Rai Research Centre to participate in the process that led to the first DVB standard for terrestrial transmission (DVB-T), which is currently in operation in many countries, including Italy.
What led to the development of the DVB-T2 standard? What improvements did it offer over its predecessors and what market need did it satisfy?
Twenty years after the specification of DVB-T, and with the second-generation standard for satellite broadcasting DVB-S2 showing 30% capacity improvements, thanks to more advanced modulation and coding techniques, in 2008 the DVB community started working at a second-generation terrestrial standard. DVB-T2 offered performance approaching the so-called Shannon limit (a threshold that cannot be overcome), with a 50-60% increase in capacity over DVB-T and system configurations better able to adapt to different networks. DVB-T2 is currently being launched in Italy, together with more advanced HEVC coding. This will mean increased picture quality and, after the full migration from DVB-T to DVB-T2, the chance to offer programmes in UltraHD.
We understand you are one of the inventors who contributed patented innovations to the DVB-T2 standard. Can you explain in (layman’s terms) your inventions/patents and what technical problems they solved?
A standard includes a lot of different technologies, that together make the difference. The contribution offered to the standard by Rai patents was to adapt the error protection system of the DVB-S2 standard to the impairments of terrestrial transmission channels, enabling optimised performance. The invention we contributed to the DVB-T2 standard allowed the two systems to use the same error protection, thus reducing the time to market of the technology.
Is working on standards-related R&D different from working other kinds of R&D? Is there anything about the standard-setting process that you feel non-participants do not understand well?
In a globalised world, with technological evolution moving faster every day, standards are essential to guide innovation. From a company’s perspective, participation in standard development ensures that its own requirements are represented and that the new technologies can meet its customer delivery needs. In my experience, working on standards-related R&D has always been an eye-opener, offering the challenging opportunity to cooperate with and challenge researchers with different areas of expertise who are all working to the same objective of producing a successful standard.
You have a role in both inventorship and patent licensing for RAI. In many other companies, these roles are separate. Can you explain how each of these two roles helps you to succeed in the other?
Patent licensing in Rai is managed by Rai Com, the subsidiary of the Rai Group that promotes and distributes Rai's content rights in Italy and worldwide. Rai-CRITS, Rai’s R&D function, supports Rai Com from the technical perspective. As a researcher, I started participating in patent licensing activities for Rai in a technical advisory role, and this helped me to understand the importance of patents beyond their technical aspects. Research is often considered merely as a cost; patents can change the perspective, supporting the idea that research can become income. Finally, and most important, I gained competence in managing patent rights from a commercial and legal perspective. All this means I can provide well-rounded input to RaiCom.
The DVB-T2 pool is unique in that it offers complete coverage of the relevant patents. What do you recall about the process of pool formation? How was consensus formed among the patent owners?
DVB fosters the formation of voluntary joint licensing programmes covering DVB specifications. So, the start of the process was quite straightforward. Nevertheless, the process of pool formation and consensus building was not always simple, given the heterogeneity of membership and the contrasting strategic approaches towards patents taken by the different patent owners. However, thanks to the experience and competence of Sisvel, who guided the pool during the formation process, we were able to achieve consensus and to tailor the pool to market needs by reaching the important target of having all the relevant patents in a single pool.
Women have been under-represented as inventors in some fields of technology and also among senior licensing executives. How have you dealt with this in your career, and have you seen these dynamics change over time?
Under-representation of women in many fields is still a reality. It is very clear in technological roles but also present in patent licensing activities. This is a heritage that comes from the past, where traditionally women were considered neither suited to nor interested in STEM subjects. Yes, things have started to change over recent years but unfortunately, we are still far from an equitable 50-50. Personally, I have generally experienced neither discrimination nor difficulties, but it is true that in my working life I have frequently been either the only woman in the room or one of only a few women surrounded by a multitude of men. So, continued attention to the subject of women’s under-representation and positive action to reduce the gap are still essential.
As an inventor and a licensing professional, do you have any message for policymakers in Europe about how to encourage and reward fundamental contributions to technology standards?
Standards are essential to reduce gate-keeping and to promote common growth and universal coverage. In particular, standards are important for consumer technologies – such as broadcast ones – that are largely based on hardware rather than software, where upgrades are not possible and the complexity of implementation requires wide adoption to reduce costs. Policymakers need to encourage the development of technological standards and implement common regulation to make SEPs available to implementers on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. This benefits all stakeholders: the SEP owners, whose innovations are rewarded; the SEP implementers, who can have access to the technology; and, finally, customers, who get a wider offer of products in a competitive market.
Looking ahead, which of your current R&D projects are you most excited about?
5G/6G (together with AI) offers enormous opportunity in the field of content production and distribution. Media companies must continue exploring these new frontiers of technology to offer viewers new perspectives for content consumption that meet their evolving needs. In particular, we are working on 5G Broadcast, a 5G technology to offer TV services on users’ personal devices. Watch this space!