PHILADELPHIA—Comcast’s cable operating brand Xfinity has detailed its plans to use a variety of new technologies and experiences to deliver what it is billing as NBCUniveral’s “most dynamic viewing experience” of the Olympic Winter Games.

The experiences are designed to showcase capabilities of the operator’s cable and broadband platform that greatly improve streaming, image quality, personalization and discovery in ways that its competitors can’t match.

“The Olympic Games capture the attention of the nation like no other sporting event, making them a perfect stage to showcase what Xfinity does best when it comes to live sports,” said Vito Forlenza, vice president of sports entertainment, connectivity and platforms, Comcast, which owns NBCU. “By uniting our most exciting features and advanced technologies on top of our superior network, we’re creating the ultimate viewing experience that lets fans choose how they want to engage with all the excitement coming out of Milan Cortina.”

During the games, Fan View, Multiview, and RealTime4K new technologies will be making their Olympic debuts.

With thousands of hours of coverage across NBC, USA Network, CNBC and Peacock, Xfinity’s Fan View is the easiest way to find and watch the action, no matter where it’s airing. The on-screen companion brings the most advanced features together, allowing fans to personalize, navigate, and control how they watch without ever taking their eyes off the big screen.

Fan View allows customers to:

• • Select their favorite Olympic sports, automatically creating a customized viewing experience based on those selections.
• • Find live programming, highlights, the latest medal counts, scores, competition stats, and the daily schedule – all in one place.
• • Launch flyover tours of the key sporting venues in and around Milan- – including ski slopes, snowboarding halfpipes, and the bobsled track – to immerse themselves in the beauty and spectacle of the host country.

Another major new feature is Multiview. Fans can watch up to four channels of NBCUniversal’s coverage at the same time with Xfinity Multiview - no flipping required.

Plus, with the new “Create Your Own Multiview,” fans can customize their multiview experience by choosing the channels they want to watch - whether that is all four channels airing Olympics coverage, two channels airing their favorite events, or a mix with other live sports.

In terms of 4K coverage, Xfinity customers can enjoy USA Network’s coverage of the Winter Olympics with its new RealTime4K technology. Delivered to the home over Xfinity’s network just seconds behind the action in Milan Cortina, RealTime4K offers stunning contrast, brilliant colors and lifelike detail with Dolby Vision and an immersive audio experience with Dolby Atmos.

Xfinity is also launching a dedicated Peacock 4K channel on Super Bowl Sunday, so customers can lean back and enjoy NBCUniversal’s coverage of two of the biggest sporting events of the year, the Milan Olympics and the Super Bowl LX, with RealTime4K technology, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Available within the channel guide on Xfinity X1 and the Xfinity Stream app, the channel will air live Olympics coverage in the morning before shifting to Super Bowl LX programming - including the pregame, halftime, and postgame shows - and then returning to Milan Cortina for special Primetime and late-night coverage on NBC and Peacock.

During the games, viewers will also be able to catchup with AI-powered highlights.

Available on DVR recordings of NBC’s daytime and primetime coverage, AI Highlights automatically tags key moments like competitions, interviews, studio analysis, and medal ceremonies so fans can quickly catch up on the biggest action of the day without sifting through the entire recording.

Highlights Zone offers a curated collection of short-form video playlists featuring top highlights, features, interviews, and trending clips from all 16 Olympic sports so customers can relive every top moment of the Games. Customers who personalize their viewing experience with their favorite sports will also find a special playlist curated just for them, focusing on the sports they care about most.

NEW YORK—NBCUniversal will present a full day of 4K HDR live coverage on Feb. 8 of the Super Bowl LX and the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games on NBC and Peacock.

The 17 hours of coverage starting at 7 a.m. ET marks the first time a Super Bowl and Olympic Games will be presented in 4K HDR on the NBC broadcast network and the Peacock streaming service.

The Feb. 8 begins with live Winter Olympics coverage starting at 7 a.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, followed by Super Bowl pregame coverage at noon ET, game coverage at 6:30 p.m. ET and finishes with Primetime in Milan beginning at approximately 10:45 p.m. ET – providing fans with 17 hours of 4K HDR coverage.

These technological firsts are part of what NBCUniversal is calling “Legendary February”, an unprecedented month of major sporting events on one network, with Super Bowl LX, the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, and NBA All-Star Weekend.

“When you’re about to present the biggest month in U.S. sports media history, you want to make sure you’re giving fans the best experience possible – so that’s exactly what we have planned on NBC and Peacock for Super Bowl LX, the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, and NBA All-Star Weekend,” said Rick Cordella, president, NBC Sports. “Building on NBC Sports’ long-standing commitment to innovation across all platforms, we’ll be celebrating the action on the field, slopes and court with our signature storytelling, state-of-the-art production, and dynamic streaming features that together bring these incredible sporting events to life for audiences at home.”

As part of Legendary February, Peacock will also debut fan-favorite feature Multiview in beta on mobile during the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics and offer new sharing options for Olympic-related clips and mini-games.

In an industry first, Peacock’s popular Multiview feature will extend to mobile, launching in beta for the Winter Games. The four-box vertical display will showcase the top four events at any given time, as well as an event-specific Multiview for curling, all curated by NBC Sports producers. This builds on Peacock’s expansive experience for Legendary February that was previously announced, including Winter Olympics Highlights playlists in vertical video, the new feature Rinkside Live, mini-games and trivia.

In addition, for the first time, Peacock users will be able to share their favorite Winter Olympics Highlight clips and trivia and Prediction Game results with friends and family directly from mobile via text and social networks. The ability to share their wins creates an opportunity to spark friendly competition and foster connections – all while they are watching the world’s greatest sporting event unfold.

“Peacock is the first streamer to deliver major live sports at this scale, seamlessly presenting many simultaneous events, with millions of people coming to the platform at once, over several days,” said Patrick Miceli, CTO of NBCUniversal Media Group and Global Streaming. “This impressive performance is possible because of Peacock’s industry-leading infrastructure that supports unmatched reliability, especially under peak demand.”

Tech Highlights For Legendary February

NBC Sports also announced that its Super Bowl LX, which will be produced by Rob Hyland and Drew Escoff, an award-winning team who have worked on more than 10 Super Bowls combined, will use more than 80 cameras and 150 microphones, In addition, NBC will use new technologies like Weather Applied Metrics, which quantifies how past, present and future weather conditions impact the game. Fans will also see a new graphics package.

For the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, fans can expect richer storytelling through increased aerial coverage via the more-extensive use of live drones, behind-the-scenes audio from team radio stations – translated live in real-time using AI as needed, and more access to friends and family reactions, including heart rate monitors and corresponding onscreen graphics.

For the first time in over 20 years, NBC will produce NBA All-Star Weekend onsite in Los Angeles, with a focus on getting fans closer to the action than ever before. New camera angles include additional views of the rim, super-slo-mo capabilities on nearly every camera, SkyCam, and Nucleus Pico mini cameras mounted at floor level on the basket stanchion, along with the new Peacock feature Courtside Live.

STAMFORD, Conn.—Charter Communications’ Spectrum brand has expanded the range of devices that can offer 4K content on the Spectrum TV app to compatible Apple TV 4K and Roku devices.

The Spectrum TV app's 4K content is already available on the Xumo Stream Box, which is a joint venture between Charter and Comcast.

The move will give Spectrum TV customers with Apple TV and Roku devices access to 4K content when it is being offered by ESPN, Fox and NBC.

"With the addition of Apple TV 4K and Roku, more Spectrum customers can enjoy the clarity that 4K brings, all within the Spectrum TV App," said Elena Ritchie, senior vice president, video at Spectrum. "Viewers can experience their favorite 4K live events with stunning picture quality, vibrant colors, and razor-sharp detail, making their viewing experience more immersive and enjoyable."

In the upcoming weeks, Spectrum said that the following 4K programming would be available:

• ESPN College Football's 4K Game of the Week, with select games in 4K throughout the season
• FOX's Big Noon Kickoff, select Saturdays during the college football season (check local listings)
• Syracuse vs. Notre Dame college football, November 22 at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC
• Indiana vs. Purdue college football, November 28 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC
• Spectrum TV customers can find available 4K content in a dedicated section on the home screen of the Spectrum TV App. Additionally, when using a Xumo Stream Box, customers viewing HD content that is also available in 4K will be prompted with an on-screen message providing the option to switch to the 4K channel.

To watch 4K content through the Spectrum TV App, Spectrum said that customers need a Spectrum TV package that includes access to the ESPN, Fox or NBC network carrying the 4K event. Additionally, they must have a 4K TV connected to a Xumo Stream Box, Apple TV 4K 2nd generation and later, or compatible Roku TV or Roku streaming device, using a 4K-supporting HDMI cable. The picture resolution settings on the device should be set to 4K or 2160p, depending on the device.

Researchers in the U.K. have confirmed what many in the broadcast industry have known for years: most viewers have trouble detecting 8K—or even 4K—video resolution.

According to the researchers at the University of Cambridge and Meta Reality Labs, the human eye has a resolution limit: in other words, there are only so many pixels the eye can see. Above this limit, a screen is giving our eyes more information than they can detect.

To calculate the resolution limit, the researchers conducted a study that measured participants’ ability to detect specific features in color and greyscale images on a screen, whether looking at the images straight on or through their peripheral vision, and when the screen was close to them or further away.

The precise resolution limit depends on a number of variables, including the size of the screen, the darkness of the room, and the distance between the viewer and the screen. However, for an average-size U.K. living room, with 2.5 meters (~8 feet) between the TV and the sofa, a 44-inch 4K or 8K TV would not provide any additional benefit over a lower resolution Quad HD (QHD) TV of the same size.

The researchers have also developed a free online calculator where users can enter the size of their room and the dimensions and resolution of their TV to determine the most suitable screen for their home. Their results are reported in the journal Nature Communications.

Display resolution is considered equally important for the many other screens consumers use, on phones or computers, whether they’re used to take pictures, watch films or play video games, including games in virtual or augmented reality. Even car manufacturers are offering higher and higher resolutions for in-car information displays and satnav screens.

“As large engineering efforts go towards improving the resolution of mobile, AR and VR displays, it’s important to know the maximum resolution at which further improvements bring no noticeable benefit,” said first author Dr Maliha Ashraf from Cambridge’s Department of Computer Science and Technology. “But there have been no studies that actually measure what it is that the human eye can see, and what the limitations of its perception are.”

“If you have more pixels in your display, it's less efficient, it costs more and it requires more processing power to drive it,” said co-author Professor Rafał Mantiuk, also from Cambridge’s Department of Computer Science and Technology. “So we wanted to know the point at which it makes no sense to further improve the resolution of the display.”

The researchers created an experimental set-up with a sliding display that allowed them to measure exactly what the human eye can see when looking at patterns on a screen. Instead of measuring the specifications of a particular screen, they measured pixels per degree (PPD): a measurement of how many individual pixels can fit into a one-degree slice of your field of vision. Measuring PPD helps answer a more useful question than ‘how high is the resolution of this screen?’ Instead, it answers the question ‘how does this screen look from where I’m sitting?’

The widely accepted 20/20 vision standard, based on the Snellen chart that will be familiar to anyone who has ever had their vision checked, suggests that the human eye can resolve detail at 60 pixels per degree.

“This measurement has been widely accepted, but no one had actually sat down and measured it for modern displays, rather than a wall chart of letters that was first developed in the 19th century,” said Ashraf.

Participants in the study looked at patterns with very fine gradations, in shades of grey and in colour, and were asked whether they were able to see the lines in the image. The screen was moved towards and away from the viewer to measure PPD at different distances. PPD was also measured for central and peripheral vision.

The researchers discovered that the eye’s resolution limit is higher than previously believed, but that there are important differences in resolution limits between color and black-and-white. For greyscale images viewed straight on, the average was 94 PPD. For red and green patterns, the number was 89 PPD, and for yellow and violet, it was 53 PPD.

“Our brain doesn’t actually have the capacity to sense details in color very well, which is why we saw a big drop-off for color images, especially when viewed in peripheral vision,” said Mantiuk. “Our eyes are essentially sensors that aren’t all that great, but our brain processes that data into what it thinks we should be seeing.”

The researchers modelled their results to calculate how the resolution limit varies across the population, which will help manufacturers make decisions that are relevant for the majority of the population: for example, designing a display which has retinal resolution for 95% of people rather than an average observer.

Based on this modelling, the researchers developed their online calculator, which enables people to test their own screens or help inform future buying decisions.

“Our results set the north star for display development, with implications for future imaging, rendering and video coding technologies,” said co-author Dr Alex Chapiro from Meta Reality Labs.

Over the past several decades as many television markets worldwide transitioned to higher definition video, BBC, NHK, EBU and ITU all conducted research that agreed with these findings.

PARAMUS, N.J.—Sony Electronics has launched the PXW-Z300, a flagship handheld XDCAM camcorder featuring 1/2-inch 4K 3-CMOS Exmor R sensors, the latest BIONZ XR image processing engine, and a dedicated AI-processing unit. The camcorder is equipped with a professional lens system that includes three independent manual control rings. The new camcorder is ideal for a wide range of applications including news, sports, corporate, faith, events, documentary, live programming, and reality and is planned to be available by fall.

The PXW-Z300 combines exceptional image quality, a 17x optical zoom lens, and Electronic Variable ND filter with versatile operational capabilities. In addition to high-quality 4K 60p recording, it features AI-powered subject recognition for precise autofocus performance. The camera introduces a new articulating Flexible LCD Arm for adaptable capturing styles and a Side V-Mount that allows smartphones or data transmitters to be securely attached.

Sony says the PXW-Z300 is the world's first camcorder to embed digital signatures directly into video files, addressing the evolving needs of the content creation industry, including the growing demand for content authenticity.

The PXW-Z300's network functionality has been enhanced through improved communication device integration, which supports modern production workflows that utilize 5G and cloud technologies. This enables live streaming from shooting locations and efficient file transfer over networks.

“This latest camcorder has new enhancements, including content authenticity capabilities, that will be very beneficial for those in the news and production industry, whether they’re capturing action-packed content, breaking stories, or producing educational documentaries,” said Kento Sayama, deputy head, media segment, imaging solutions at Sony Electronics.

Imaging Capabilities
The camcorder features 1/2-inch back-illuminated 4K 3-CMOS Exmor R sensors and the BIONZ XR image processing engine, enabling excellent color separation, F12 sensitivity, and 4K 60p recording. It incorporates a 17x optical zoom lens with F1.9 constant maximum aperture and three independent manual control rings for traditional camera operation.

By utilizing the digital extender function, individuals can achieve 1.5x zoom in 4K mode and up to 4x zoom in HD mode with minimal resolution degradation, making the camera suitable for a wide range of capturing scenarios, including news gathering and event documentation.

Additionally, the camera is equipped with an Electronic Variable ND filter that seamlessly adjusts transmission from 1/4 to 1/128, along with optical image stabilization. This allows for smooth brightness adjustment and stable capture when moving between locations with varying light conditions, such as from bright outdoor areas to dim interior spaces.

AI Processing
The PXW-Z300 incorporates a dedicated AI-processing unit in addition to its image processing engine. This enables high-precision subject (human) recognition based on face, eye, skeletal structure, and posture information. The system can maintain autofocus on subjects even when they are facing away from the camera or wearing facial coverings. It also features an auto-framing function that automatically adjusts composition to keep human subjects centered in the frame.

The camera also features a 3.5-inch high-brightness LCD monitor with approximately 2.76 million dots. It provides excellent visibility even in bright conditions and is significantly brighter than its predecessor, the PXW-Z280. It incorporates the newly developed Flexible LCD Arm with three-axis movement, which allows flexibility in adjusting the monitor's position and angle. This enables the camera to accommodate various shooting styles. Operators can adjust the viewing distance when capturing content with the camera on their shoulder, position the LCD monitor at the camera's optical center for stable waist-level capture, or flip it forward for self-recording.

Additionally, this camcorder will be offered as an all-in-one solution (VTK-Z300) that also includes wireless digital audio and accessories, such as a tripod and transport bag for capturing great video and audio on the go.

Enhanced Network Functions
The camera supports new workflows utilizing 5G and cloud technologies, allowing immediate transfer of recorded material from shooting locations and live streaming through smartphone or Wi-Fi/wired LAN connections. Recorded content can be transferred via network to cloud-based media sharing services or on-premises storage in high-quality, efficient formats.

For proxy material transmission at lower bit rates, the camera newly supports the HEVC codec, enabling higher quality and compression rates. Additionally, it can transfer clips in chunk format (segmented recording) during shooting. This eliminates the need to remove media and transfer material after shooting, allowing editing to begin as material arrives, according to Sony.

The camera supports common video streaming protocols including RTMP/RTMPS and SRT, enabling live broadcasting from remote locations. By attaching Sony’s PDT-FP1 Portable Data Transmitter (sold separately) to the Side V-Mount and connecting it to the camera, users can simplify integration and achieve a more stable transmission of video material.

Furthermore, the PXW-Z300 utilizes cloud services such as Ci Media Cloud, a cloud-based solution for media collaboration. This allows the camera to support more immediate and efficient video production workflows with material sharing and collaboration among project members, and live streaming with multiple cameras when combined with Sony’s M2 Live Cloud Switcher.

Support for Various Recording Formats and Looks
The PXW-Z300 supports various recording formats designed for a wide range of video production applications, including news footage and documentaries. It offers standard support for MXF file recording in formats adopted by the XDCAM series, such as MPEG HD422, XAVC Intra (4K/HD 4:2:2 10bit), and XAVC Long (4K 4:2:0 8bit/HD 4:2:2 10bit), as well as MP4 proxy recording in HEVC.

The camera also accommodates diverse looks. In addition to S-Cinetone, ITU709, and 709tone available in Sony’s Cinema Line series, XDCAM, and HDC series, it supports HLG Live, HLG Mild, HLG Natural, and user 3D LUTs. Users can import custom 3D LUTs (.cube files) from memory cards.

The camera is compatible with Sony’s mobile application Monitor & Control, which supports multicamera shooting by allowing angle confirmation, camera settings adjustment, and remote operation from smartphones or tablet devices.

Additionally, the camcorder enables the recording of up to four channels of audio—including shotgun microphones and Sony’s UWP series of wireless microphones—via XLR inputs and the Multi Interface shoe. Future support will provide proxy 4-channel audio recording.

First Camcorder to Support Recording of Authenticity Information in Video
The camera supports the C2PA standard for recording authenticity information and is the world's first camcorder capable of recording video with embedded digital signatures. Expanding authenticity initiatives from still images to video helps fill the growing need for improved content reliability demanded by news organizations in recent years, Sony said.

The PXW-Z300 is scheduled to be exhibited at the Beijing International Radio, TV & Film Exhibition 2025 (BIRTV), in Beijing, China, starting Tuesday, July 22, 2025. It will also be shown at the IBC Show, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam.

SHENZHEN, China—Viltrox has launched the DC-A1 camera monitor, a 7-inch ultra-bright 1920-by-1080 full high-definition (FHD) touch screen, designed to meet the needs of filmmakers and photographers looking for a compact, clear monitor.

The DC-A1, which supports signal input and output up to 4K, delivers lossless, high-definition HDMI 2.0 signals for a clear, smooth monitoring experience, Viltrox said.

The 2,800-nit ultra-bright high-resolution wide-angle display works well in strongly illuminated, complex lighting environments, ensuring clear visuals in any situation, especially when shooting outdoors shooting. The new monitor includes a detachable, easy-to-use sun hood, the company said.

Equipped with advanced monitoring tools and functions, such as 3D LUT, gyroscope, focus peaking, false color and anamorphic desqueeze, the DC-A1 delivers precise image control to enhance shooting accuracy and efficiency, it said.

The DC-A1’s custom Lookup Table (LUT) import enables seamless color consistency from on-set monitoring to postproduction, it said.

The monitor’s tactile knob and button controls enable users to navigate functions easily and quickly with one hand. The customizable preset buttons help them instantly access key monitoring features with one touch, it said.

The touch screen ensures all functions are at a user’s fingertips to support an intuitive and seamless creative process. Pinch-to-zoom allows for detailed inspection of every corner of the frame, it said.

With versatile power supply options, the DC-A1 ensures uninterrupted operation in any environment, making it well-suited for extended shooting sessions. The monitor supports three power sources: the included NP-F series lithium batteries, DC IN (direct current) and USB-C charging.

The quiet cooling fan automatically adjusts speed according to the temperature of the monitor, ensuring stable operation even during long hours of work and keeping the monitor cool without excessive noise. The monitor measures 7.4 x 4.3 x 1.1 inches (188 x 110 x 28 millimeters) and weighs 0.7 pounds (348 grams).

The DC A1 monitor comes with a hard carrying case, custom-designed tilt and swivel mount, NF-F550 battery, quick-release sun hood, custom-fit screen protector, HDMI cable, mini HDMI cable and USB-C power cable.

The monitor has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $278.

More information is available on the company’s website.

There’s a lot to be said for clarity—not just on screen but also in messaging.

Sometimes when reporting, certain gems unearthed during interviews simply don’t fit with the subject of the story and get left in the dust.

One such jewel was an observation Advanced Television Systems Committee President Madeleine Noland made during our interview for a story looking at industry reaction to the “Future of Television Initiative” report. But it is far too important to let go by the wayside.

Referring to the South Koreans, who launched ATSC 3.0 in 2017 to have 4K television transmitted over the air for the 2018 Winter Olympics, she said: “They didn’t even need to give it a name. They just went out with UHD because 4K is better than 2K. So easy, so simple. 4K over the air—done.”

Why was the move so easy, so simple and done? “They got new spectrum to do it [to put 3.0 on air]. They didn’t have to worry about this simulcast and this channel-sharing stuff,” she said.

That statement was a real eye-opener. I have always reported on the transition from the point of view of tech. What are the technical consequences of channel-sharing? What can broadcasters do? What can’t they do, and what will they be able to do someday when it goes away?

Noland, who leads the organization responsible for the technical standard, however, set all of that aside and focused her comment on what’s really important: the TV viewer.

South Korea’s 3.0 marketing message was simple to viewers. What’s better? A or B? 2K or 4K? No need to get into the weeds. No need to promote the finer points, such as HDR, immersive audio, start-over, games or advanced alerts.

Here, however, there were no separate channel assignments for 3.0, just channel-sharing and a strict limit on the number of bits that can be allocated to NextGen TV.

Right now, some readers are saying to themselves something like: “Most viewers can’t even tell the difference between 2K and 4K,” or “HDR is the big thing, not 4K,” or “We’ll transmit 1080p HDR and let the set upscale to 4K—no big deal.”

True, true and true, but that’s not the point. Clarity in messaging, not the video image, is the point. Simple and easy for the consumer to understand and done for the broadcaster.

What U.S. broadcasters are left with is what Robert Folliard, senior vice president of government relations and distribution at Gray Media, calls a “worst of all worlds” situation where broadcasters can neither maximize the use of their channel assignments for 1.0 or 3.0.

Even worse, the level tech playing field broadcasters were hoping to play on with competitors may be passing them by. Consider the Super Bowl. Fox Sports produced the game in 1080p HDR, and Fox’s streaming service Tubi as well as some distribution partners like Charter Spectrum TV distributed in it 4K.

But what about Gray Media, which along with some other OTA broadcasters, is actively promoting the benefit of watching NextGen TV for the enhancement HDR brings to the viewing experience?

Basically, it’s doing the best it can do. For the Super Bowl, WVUE, Gray Media’s Fox affiliate in New Orleans, worked with its 3.0-channel sharing partners to enable its 3.0 stat mux to allocate more bits to the high-motion presentation of the game to NextGen TV viewers.

Before that step, however, Gray took the Fox 720p distribution feed, up-mapped it to 1080p and converted it to 1080p HDR. “We would have gladly taken the 1080p native HDR feed, and we have the capability to handle that,” Folliard said in response to an email inquiry following the game. “For now, however, it is still up-mapping.”

That’s a tiny example of why some, including yours truly, were so disappointed with the long-awaited Future of Television Initiative report.

We were promised “a road map for a transition to ATSC 3.0” by former FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel. What we got instead looked more like a Festivus airing of grievances that laid out no easy, simple path to being done.

NEWARK, N.J.—Panasonic next month will release new 4K 60p 10-bit professional camcorder models, including the AG-CX20, HC-X1200 and HC-X2100 for video production, broadcast and distribution applications.

The compact, lightweight camcorders feature a 25-millimeter wide-angle lens and 24 times optical zoom, as well as many improvements over past models that are beneficial in video production, Panasonic said.

They include:

• Improved, high-resolution OLED viewfinder with 1,770 dots and larger eyecups.
• USB-C port, replacing the USB port, with the ability to provide power to the camcorder.
• Low-bit rate recording mode (via next firmware update) for FHD MP4 recording, with support for 28 Megabits per second (50p/59.94p), 24 Mbps (23.98p) and 20 Mbps (25p/29.97p).
• Improved low-speed zoom that is about 2.8 times slower than the previous model.
• Added shooting guideline display to enable users to check composition and horizontality.
• Enhanced network functionality with support for Wi-Fi 5 GHz (except for the HC-X1200) and USB tethering (available only on the AG-CX20 and HD-X2100).
• Improved operability via the dedicated HC-ROP app (except for the HC-X1200) with support for live view function.

The integrated lens offers an optical 24 times zoom that ranges from 25 mm wide-angle to 600 mm telephoto. The i.ZOOM achieves 32 times at 4K mode and 48 times at FHD mode. The 4-Drive Lens System drives the four lens groups independently, thus achieving the optical 24 times zoom and compact body size, it said.

Two manual rings are provided, one for focusing and the other for zoom or iris operation. ND Filters can be selected from 1/4, 1/16, 1/64 and Clear, while glass is used as a countermeasure against scorching from sunlight condensation, Panasonic said.

Superior focusing speed, stability and tracking performance for both 4K and Full High Definition (FHD) are achieved via Face Detection AF/AE together with the precise focus lens drive. Face Detection AF/AE provides precise focusing and sufficient exposure for subjects. Subject tracking with color recognition can be activated by touching the LCD panel, Panasonic said.

In addition to OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), Electronic Image Stabilization operates to detect and correct handshake in 5 axes, including rotational blurring. This provides strong correction under unstable conditions, such as low-angle and high-angle shooting. The Ball O.I.S. System reduces friction on the drive section, achieving delicate correction even for small-amplitude handshakes, the company said.

The camcorders support a variety of bit rates and formats, including 4:2:2 10-bit internal recording with a maximum of 29.97p in UHD and 59.94p in FHD. When set for 10-bit recording, the camcorder delivers 4K 60p 4:2:2 10-bit HDMI output, enabling high-image-quality capture with an external recorder. HEVC recording (LongGOP/10-bit 4:2:0/MOV) is also supported for recording UHD 59.94p at a high bit rate of 200 Mbps, the company said.

The new camcorder models will be available via Panasonic’s channel partners in early March.

More information is available on the company’s website.

GARBSEN, Germany—Miniaturized camera technology pioneer Proton Camera Innovations will unveil the Proton 4K, which it has dubbed as the world’s smallest 4K broadcast-quality camera, during the Hamburg Open 2025 industry conference set for Jan. 15-16 at the Hamburg Messe and Congress in Hamburg, Germany.

The compact camera, measuring 1.1 inches by 1.1 inches by 1.3 inches (28 millimeters by 28 mm by 33 mm) and weighing 1.3 ounces (37 grams), the Proton 4K enables 4K capture in spaces and setups previously believed to be inaccessible, the company said.

The camera relies upon the company’s proprietary Polaris imaging chip and offers a 97-degree wide-angle view and the ability to use lenses from 35 degrees to 124 degrees to capture distortion-free visuals in various shooting conditions, it said.

Its ultra-low power consumption (just 6 watts) and ¼-inch thread for easy mounting make the Proton 4K well-suited for drones, remote mounts and portable rigs, enhancing its versatility for cinematographers, directors and broadcasters, according to Polaris. The camera also offers on-board stereo audio and tally light, the company said.

“We’ve received incredible feedback from early adopters who are keen to move into 4K production,” Proton Camera Innovations CEO Marko Hoepken said. “At the price we have been able to offer, we represent a far more scalable and flexible proposition than our competitors; entry-level production companies are able to future-proof their setups and become 4K ready, while major global broadcasters and sports events are able to kit out production trucks with multiple units, remaining confident of the build quality, reliability and usability that they have already come to expect in Proton cameras. The new Proton 4K is a truly a game-changer in miniaturized, high-resolution production.”

The Proton 4K is priced at $2,115 (2,000 euros).

More information is available on the company’s website.

See Proton Camera Innovations at Hamburg Open 2025 booth B6.512.

SOUTHWICK, Mass.—Hitachi Kokusai will focus on two 4K UHD camera systems built for live video production during 2024 NAB Show New York, Oct. 9-10 at the Javits Center in New York.

The company’s SK-UHD7000 incorporates three 2/3-inch CMOS image sensors with native 4K resolution to enable the capture of 3840x2160 UHD video. The global shutter technology in the sensors minimizes unwanted artifacts, such as flickering and banding, which could otherwise occur when capturing video on TV sets, at event venues and in worship environments with LED lighting and large LED displays, the company said.

The camera was built to ensure extraordinary sensitivity and consistent results for 4K productions across diverse scenarios. For example, its sensitivity of F11 at 59.94 frames enables high-quality acquisition in low lighting conditions, while a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 62 dB provides ultra-quiet images, Hitachi Kokusai said.

These qualities and all other performance benefits carry over to the SK-UHD7000-S2, a nearly identical model built for users who want high-quality 1080p productions today and a cost-effective path to 4K/UHD in the future. The latter is achieved through a license-upgrade option that provides immediate entry to the 4K/UHD production world, it said.

Introduced in April at NAB Show, Hitachi Kokusai’s DK-H700 4K box camera sits at the opposite end of the design scale, providing users with a compact POV solution that can reliably support focused applications in professional AV, government, broadcast and venue applications. Using the same UHD sensor as the DK-H700, SK-UHD7000 and SK-UHD7000-S2, the DK-H700 blends effortlessly with these cameras, the company said.

The DK-H700 is a multiformat solution that complies with ITU-R.BT-2020 wide color gamut specs and operates within Rec. BT.2100 High Dynamic Range standards. These qualities allow content creators to produce independent programs in a dual workflow configuration for HDTV or UHD SDI output formats, it said.

See Hitachi Kokusai at 2024 NAB Show New York booth 837.

More information is available on the company’s website.

SWANSEA, U.K.—QuickLink will show its QuickLink StudioPro 4K video production platform at IBC 2024, Sept. 13-16, at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center.

“Our 21 years of experience developing high-end broadcast-quality solutions are built into QuickLink StudioPro, which is aimed at simplifying multi-camera live video production,” said QuickLink CEO Richard Rees. “We have seen incredible adoption of StudioPro with those who prefer easy-to-use integrated solutions whilst maintaining high-quality standards. For those making the move to the cloud, StudioPro Cloud provides anywhere-access to video production utilizing the power of the cloud, offering a fully flexible solution.” 

With one frame of delay, the ultra-low latency production solution ensures flawless synchronization between stage speakers and large projected screens or video walls for live presentations, the company said.

StudioPro is much like a video-based Microsoft PowerPoint. Each scene is like a slide, allowing users to add multiple layers, effortlessly switching between scenes to create productions, it said.

Using built-in QuickLink StudioCall technology, remote guests are seamlessly integrated with Teams, Zoom, and Skype calls, other camera feeds, audio sources, images, videos and graphics. Designed for both large-scale and intimate productions, StudioPro ensures content remains on-brand and unforgettable to audiences, broadcasting to multiple physical, digital and social destinations, supporting multi-aspect ratio output at the same time, it said.

QuickLink StudioPro also supports ASIO audio devices over IP and offers advanced audio mixing capabilities, allowing for precise tuning of audio. The platform's AI-driven advanced noise reduction, echo cancellation and Studio Audio features ensure crystal audio quality, it said.

See QuickLink at IBC Show Stand 7.A55.

More information is available on the company’s website. 

PARIS—Among the many firsts set to happen during the Olympic Games Paris 2024 will be a commercial free hour during NBCUniversal's live coverage of the Opening Ceremony on Friday, July 26th on NBC and Peacock. 

Other firsts in this year’s coverage include a record amount of 4K, HDR coverage, the use of NextGen TV broadcasts by a few Gray Television stations to deliver 4K HDR and immersive sound and the extensive use of AI technologies. 

The commercial-free hour, which begins at 1:30 p.m. ET on July 26, is being sponsored by six Team USA sponsors: The Coca-Cola Company, Delta, Lilly, Toyota Motor Corporation, Visa, and Xfinity.

Brand logos for each sponsor will have a presence onscreen and will rotate throughout the hour in 10-minute increments.

“We are proud to partner with these six Team USA partners to bring fans the first-ever commercial-free hour of coverage for an Opening Ceremony,” said Dan Lovinger, president, Olympic & Paralympic Partnerships, NBCUniversal. “The Opening Ceremony will be packed with emotion and evoke a profound sense of unity for everyone watching. Running commercial-free will help to amplify this grand spectacle.”  

"At The Coca-Cola Company, we believe in the real magic that can happen when the world comes together, so being a part of this spectacular presentation of the Opening Ceremony on NBC is a tremendous opportunity to celebrate and share those unifying and inspiring moments,” said Robin Triplett, vice president integrated marketing at Coca-Cola North America. “We’re proud of our 96-year long relationship with the Olympic Movement and look forward to bringing our portfolio of brands to fans throughout the Olympic Games Paris 2024.”

NBCUniversal and its parent company Comcast have brought in around $1.2 billion in advertising for the games, a record according to Next TV. 

The Opening Ceremony is expected to be a spectacular event. Unlike previous Opening Ceremonies featuring athletes in a stadium, the Opening Ceremony for the Paris Olympics will be held on the River Seine and will feature a four-mile-long flotilla of nearly 90 boats that will carry thousands of athletes from more than 200 countries. Award winning director Thomas Jolly is the Artistic Director for the Opening Ceremony.

Coverage will be hosted by NBC Olympics primetime host Mike Tirico alongside Emmy Award-winning talk show host and Grammy Award-winning artist Kelly Clarkson and Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback and two-time Super Bowl champion Peyton Manning. Additionally, NBC Sports’ Maria Taylor will be featured on the Team USA boat, while TODAY Show hosts Savannah Guthrieand Hoda Kotb cover the ceremony on a bridge along the route. Opening Ceremony reporters include Melissa Stark and Andrea Joyce, who will report from the red carpet.

PHILADELPHIA— Comcast has unveiled new details of its plans for offering enhanced 4K from Xfinity and said that its first enhanced 4K feeds will be available as part of USA Network’s 24/7 coverage of the Paris Olympics. 

Enhanced 4K combines 4K video delivered via Comcast’s network, Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range and Dolby Atmos immersive audio with ultra-low latency ensuring on-screen action lags live action from Paris by only seconds, it said.

“The Olympics is the best example of how Comcast can bring together its fantastic sports content, entertainment platforms, and innovative technology and connectivity offerings to deliver one-of-a-kind experiences to customers,” said Vito Forlenza, vice president of Sports Entertainment at Comcast. “By premiering enhanced 4K during Paris 2024, fans of the Olympics will be among the first to experience this new innovation and enjoy all the live action in stunning picture and audio quality, with significantly less delay compared to anything else in the market.”

The launch of enhanced 4K follows a successful trial of the technology during the 2024 Super Bowl.

X1 customers can find the enhanced 4K feed within X1’s Olympics destination, which features curated and personalized access to every minute of coverage across the networks of NBCUniversal, including NBC, USA Network, E!, CNBC, GOLF Channel, Telemundo, Universo, two new Paris Extra channels featuring 24/7 Olympics programming, as well as streaming on Peacock. Accessible by saying “Olympics” into the voice remote, the destination features new capabilities that make enjoying coverage of the games simple, easy and intuitive. 

The Comcast described the new capabilities as follows: 

• Personalized experience across devices. Customers can choose their favorite sports to build a custom destination that makes it simple to find live coverage, event replays and a personalized playlist of highlights. Favorites carry over to the Xfinity Stream app for viewing on the go.
• Comprehensive and interactive schedule of events. An interactive daily schedule, giving customers one comprehensive guide of all live and upcoming events airing across NBCUniversal’s cable and broadcast networks and streaming on Peacock. 
• Catch-Up Highlights on X1 enable customers to jump to top moments in recorded primetime and daytime coverage on NBC as well as men’s and women’s basketball, soccer, and golf.
• 4K, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos on Xfinity Stream. Watching via the Xfinity Stream app enables customers to view 4K picture quality while watching USA Network’s 24/7 coverage. For the first time they also will be able to unlock Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos immersive sound via the Xfinity Stream app on compatible streaming devices and TVs.
• Team Comcast Profiles of 16 Olympians and Paralympians.
• Venue Tours.
• Xfinity Sports Zone App, featuring Odds Zone, a new sports betting experience that makes it easy for customers to follow live odds and initiate wagers on the DraftKings Sportsbook mobile app.

More information is available on the company’s website.

NASHVILLE—TNDV has announced a complete refresh of its Aspiration production truck’s video, audio and IT infrastructure that brings the truck directly into the 4K world from 720p/1080i HD.

When TNDV hit the road with its Aspiration production truck in 2011, the 40-foot vehicle was celebrated as the first truck in the Southeast US to support live multicamera 3D productions. While 3D has faded, Aspiration found new life as the main truck for small to mid-sized corporate and entertainment events, and as the secondary truck for large broadcast and in-venue productions.

With the video, audio and IT infrastructure upgrade that now offers a 12G ecosystem, HDR processing capabilities, and modern systems from Evertz, Studer and Sony and other vendors, Aspiration is now positioned for success over a wider set of production scenarios. That includes sports production, with Aspiration serving as the main production truck for a 12-camera Tennis Championship match broadcast on the SEC Network in late April.

Its first post-refresh event, The March Madness Music Fest in April, Aspiration joined forces with TNDV’s Vibration audio truck at Hance Park in Phoenix to produce live performances for the three-day music festival, which coincided with the NCAA Final Four. Aspiration’s updated technology infrastructure, which includes Sony HDC-4300L 4K cameras, an Evertz NEXX router, and a Studer Vista 5 audio console, helped TNDV elevate the in-house AV experience for attendees. TNDV also switched and fed live video and audio to a third-party broadcast truck that brought select performances to air on CBS affiliates nationwide.

TNDV President Rob Devlin noted that the company wanted to increase audio capacity for multitracking – at 128 inputs, the Studer Vista V doubles the previous amount – and ensure that Aspiration could accommodate 12G throughput from the camera to the truck output. Transitioning to 12G would also slim down the infrastructure on board.

“We wanted to keep the video and audio as pure as possible,” he said. “The NEXX router was an essential part of this strategy. We historically had five or six purpose-built components to handle specific processing tasks. The NEXX brings responsibilities such as multiviewing, frame sync and audio embedding and de-embedding into a compact 5RU frame that fits easily on our truck, and it manages signal traffic without employing any compression to maintain purity. The fact that all embedding and de-embedding is achieved on the router inputs and outputs allows us to deliver the best possible audio quality from our Studer Vista 5 for live music and television.”

Like TNDV’s flagship Exclamation truck, the Studer console connects to ProTools and Sound Devices Pix multitracking systems and provides support for more discrete audio feeds to the truck than the original Aspiration supported. TNDV has also added DirectOut’s Prodigy units across its fleet (including Aspiration) to support varied audio workflow needs, including MADI transport, audio conversions, monitoring and sample rate processing.  

TNDV Founder Nic Dugger said Aspiration was the first truck he built for the company and the second he brought into service. 

“Aspiration has remained relevant because it can navigate tight streets and comfortably fit into small spaces, and remained affordable thanks to its modest technical infrastructure,” said Dugger, who served as March Madness Fest’s director this year. “Acting as the director for the new and improved Aspiration’s first event reinforced how much TNDV has grown over 13 years. Our refresh balances the costs of premium core systems with a streamlined infrastructure that can operated by a small crew. We are seeing strong interest from clients seeking affordable, high-end 1080p and 4K shoots requiring eight or more cameras.”

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.—Sling TV has announced that it will begin offering its first 4K streams of sporting events and that the first 4K stream will be the July 16, 2024 Fox Sports’ broadcast of the MLB All-Star Game. 

The move will allow Sling TV subscribers, in certain markets, to enjoy live events in stunning 4K resolution, on supporting Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices.

“At Sling TV, we’re all about delivering the ultimate gameday experience,” said Seth Van Sickel, senior vice president, product & operations, Sling Video Services. “With live sports now in 4K, we’re upping our game and giving fans front-row seats to every thrilling moment. Get ready to see your favorite sports like never before, with crystal-clear action that brings you right into the heart of the play!”

Competitor Fubo TV has been offering 4K streams on some sports events since 2019.; YouTube TV launched 4K in 2021. 

Sling TV reported that it will continue to offer a lineup of top and most-watched sports available in 4K for no additional cost, including NBCUniversal’s 24/7 coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics on USA Network and college and pro football games on FS1, ESPN and more.

For more information and additional 4K details visit sling.com/4k. 

Walmart is reportedly about to release a new 4K streaming box/smart speaker hybrid device for Google TV that could retail for as low as $50, according to a report in The Verge. 

News about the Onn “Pro” Google TV 4K streaming box was leaked by Youtuber Superdell-TV earlier this week in a livestream. The box would be an upgrade of the Onn streaming box, which is basically Walmart’s brand name of the Google TV box and also supports 4K. The upgrade includes support for 4K, Chromecast and Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision.

The yellow box, which looks like a square Google Nest Mini includes 3GB of RAM, 32GB storage and supports Wi-Fi 6. It has one HDMI, one USB 3.0, and an ethernet port. 

The “leak” occurred when Superdell was able to purchase the box for $50, perhaps in error, as Walmart has not announced or made the box available for public sale yet, according to TV Tech sister brand Tech Radar, which has more details.

GRASS VALLEY, Calif.—AJA Video Systems has released Dante AV 4K v1.1, the first update for its Dante AV 4K-T and 4K-R transmitter/receiver converters, which enable the transport and control of ultra-low latency, professional quality 4K/UltraHD/2K/HD/VESA Dante video and audio to/from 12G-SDI or HDMI 2.0 devices over a 1 GigE Dante AV network. 

Available as a free download, the robust update extends the capabilities of both devices with user-inspired improvements that answer modern workflow demands and provide AV professionals with more flexibility in the field as they integrate high-quality, visually lossless video into a diverse range of AV-over-IP environments.

“There’s no singular path to video over IP, and workflows vary broadly, depending upon the approach, so we’re continuously investing in bringing new features to AJA’s 4K-R and 4K-T that give users the tools they need to achieve their vision,” explained AJA president Nick Rashby. “AJA Dante AV 4K v1.1 boasts a ton of new great features for users to explore, and we’re excited to see how they start leveraging them.” 

With high dynamic range (HDR) workflows continuing to gain in popularity across broadcast, production, and proAV, AJA Dante AV 4K v1.1 delivers support for HDR, ensuring HDR signals pass through the devices seamlessly and that users can easily change the HDR metadata on outputs received, the company reported. 

The release also introduces AJA Dante AV 4K-R support for Ref In, so that a device like the AJA GEN 10 HD/SD sync generator may be used to lock the output of the 4K-R when the signal must be combined with other baseband device outputs and sources. Furthermore, AJA Dante AV 4K v1.1 activates a second locking ethernet port (Eth2) on the device, allowing users to connect a second device to their Dante AV switch, without a second ethernet cable needing to be connected directly to the switch.

New cropping and scale resizing capabilities for 4K-R, available via the update, let users easily scale 4K to UHD and downscale UHD to HD, with the ability to select between Auto, Native, and Crop 4K to UHD/Scale UHD to HD. AJA Dante AV 4K v1.1 also validates select 4K and 8K 4x4 workflows where AJA 4K-T signals can be sent to four 4K-Rs and all four outputs are confirmed to be in time and in sync, which is essential in live production settings where all four outputs must be perfectly timed. 3G Level B 4:2:2 10-bit high frame rate is now supported as well. Added compatibility with Audinate’s Dante Domain Manager, which is available for purchase from valued resellers worldwide, ensures AJA 4K-R and 4K-T users can take advantage of the solution’s API to control Dante from touch panels, monitor status, and automate workflows, the company explained. 

Commenting on the update, Audinate senior product manager Wim Roose shared, “AJA has proven to be a great addition to the Dante AV family, and we’ve been thrilled to watch customers worldwide embrace AJA Dante AV 4K-T and 4K-R to capitalize on the benefits of Dante audio with synchronized, high-quality, ultra low latency networked video. It’s exciting to see AJA deliver a new update less than a year since launching their products and we’re looking forward to continuing our partnership with them, which will help advance IP workflows across pro AV and media and entertainment.” 

AJA Dante AV 4K v1.1 is available today from AJA’s support page as a free download. AJA Dante AV 4K-T and 4K-R can be purchased through AJA’s worldwide network of resellers for $2495 US MSRP each. For rack-mounting up to two units, the 1RU AJA ​​IOX-RM rack mount shelf accessory is available for $120 US MSRP. For more information, visit www.aja.com/dante-av-ultra.

SHENZHEN, China—DJI has unveiled the Ronin 4D-8K, a new iteration of the company's Ronin 4D professional cinema camera platform. 

The all-in-one 8K cinema camera integrates DJI’s 4-axis stabilization and other technologies into a comprehensive cinematography solution. The Ronin 4D cinema camera offers flexibility to solo cinematographers and a wide range of possibilities for coordinated shooting, the company said. 

"Empowering creators with cutting-edge technology has always been at the heart of DJI's mission,” said Paul Pan, DJI senior product line manager. “The Ronin 4D-8K stands as a testament to our dedication to delivering unparalleled imaging solutions and providing creators with the tools they need to bring their visions to life with exceptional clarity and brilliance.”

The DJI Ronin 4D-8K offers a suite of features that cater to the diverse needs of cinematographers. With full-frame 8K/60fps and 4K/120fps capabilities, the camera ensures exceptional image quality, providing filmmakers with versatility in capturing the demands of the scene. The 800/4000 Dual-Native ISO enhances performance across various lighting conditions, complemented by a maximum of 14.7 stops of dynamic range, offering cinematic depth and rich color grades in any scenario, the company said.

The Ronin 4D-8K offers built-in 9-stop physical ND filters for precise exposure control, DL/E/L/PL/M interchangeable lens mounts for creative freedom, autofocus on manual lenses and Automated Manual Focus (AMF) for quick and accurate focusing with a LiDAR focusing system. Its seamless transition to Flex Form without tools allows for on-the-go adjustments, highlighting the camera's versatility, it said. 

The Ronin 4D-8K leverages the company’s DJI Cinema Color Science (DCCS), which delivers accurate, aesthetically pleasing skin tones, even in complex lighting conditions. The DCCS color engine relies on a new algorithm that enables smooth yet detailed images, high bit-width internal color and tone processing for natural transitions. It also leverages multiple high-precision LUT processing modules for precise color adjustments in diverse lighting conditions, it said.

Complementing DCCS is the CineCore image processing platform, developed by DJI to deliver high-quality digital intermediates for post-production, DJI said.

The new camera platform joins DJI’s Inspire 3 and Zenmuse X7 as being officially Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) certified, it said.

The Ronin 4D-8K combo includes the Ronin 4D Main Body, a Zenmuse X9-8K Gimbal Camera, a DJI DL PZ 17-28mm T3.0 ASPH lens, a PROSSD 1TB, a PROSSD Mount, hand grips, a top handle, a high-bright main monitor, a TB50 intelligent battery, a LiDAR range finder and a DJI Ronin 4D RAW license key for $12,838.

The Zenmuse X9-8K gimbal camera is also available for purchase and retails for $3,599. It includes a Zenmuse X9-8K gimbal camera protector case, an X9 gimbal base cap and a DL mount body cap.

More information is available on the company’s website.

MAHWAH, N.J.—Ikegami has announced the new UHK-X600 multi-format camera that offers the ability to be upgraded from HD to 2160p UHD via a license-key when required.

The camera, the latest in the company’s extension to its Unicam XE product portfolio, can also be upgraded to support 2x, 3x and 4x high-frame-rate capture in HD as well as 3840x2160/50p 4K delivering 2000 TVK resolution with other license keys, it said.

Offering plug-in hardware-based options, such as SMPTE ST 2100-compatible media-over-IP interface board and 12G outputs, the UHK-X600 gives users a way to protect their camera investment against premature obsolescence, the company said.

“Customers at every level from freelance producers up to large scale media networks are demanding safeguards against what looks like a relentless transition to ever higher mastering and delivery standards,” said Alan Keil, vice president and director of engineering at Ikegami Electronics in the United States.

“The license-key option provides the freedom to invest in solutions that most exactly match your current business model without risk of losing a production contract because your equipment is not future proof. 4K-UHD is the logical format for high-budget mastering especially in the USA where ATSC 3.0 offers a potential route for terrestrial and satellite-based 2160p direct-to-home transmission.”

The camera offers a variety of benefits for production of sports and wildlife documentaries, said Gisbert Hochguertel, Ikegami Europe product specialist.

“HDR is meanwhile becoming increasingly popular among video streaming services, such as Apple TV Plus, Netflix and Prime Video. Given that almost every TV set sold today is UHD-HDR compatible, a growing number of terrestrial and satellite broadcasters now offer HDR content via their online channels,” said Hochguertel. “The UHK-X600 comes with Hybrid Log Gamma as standard, including the ability to select between BT.2020 and BT.709 color spaces. Global shutter imagers minimize artifacts when televising LED screen walls or flash/strobe illuminated stage environments.”

The UHK-X600 is designed for studio and OB applications. It also can be used for battery-powered, over-the-shoulder location production. With three 2/3-inch CMOS global shutter imagers, it delivers 1000 TVL resolution, minimal aliasing and sensitivity of F11 @ 2000 lux (in 50p mode).

Measuring 13.4 x 9.6 x 6 inches (34 x 24.5 x 15.5 cm ) and weighing just over 11 pounds (5 kg), the UHK-X600 accepts all B4 ENG/EFP-lenses and supports chromatic aberration correction, vignetting correction, ramping compensation and remote control of back focus when the latter is also supported by the lens. When combined with Ikegami BSX-100 or CCU-X100 control units, the camera optionally supports simultaneous output in UHD and HD video formats, the company said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

MAHWAH, NJ—Ikegami will promote the latest additions to its product range at NAB Show New York in the Javits Center, Oct. 25-26. 

Exhibit highlights will include the UHK-X600, a broadcast-quality Full-HD studio/EFP camera built to withstand the rigors of OB and EFP as well as studio operation. It can be pedestal or tripod mounted or operated over the shoulder. At the front end are three 2/3-inch oversampling UHD CMOS sensors providing 1000 TVL resolution, minimal aliasing, plus 2000 lux sensitivity at f10 (60p). Standard features include full support for Hybrid Log Gamma HDR with the ability to select between BT.2020 and BT.709 chroma spaces. Global shutter imagers minimize artifacts when televising LED screen walls or flash/strobe-illuminated stage environments.

Also at its booth is the Ikegami UHL-43 4K-upgradeable 3-CMOS Full-HD compact multipurpose HDR WCG camera, a compact box-style camera designed for applications such as robotic studios, live-event broadcasting, parliamentary television and point-of-view image capture. The camera head can be used on practically any support device such as a remote pan & tilt, long-reach arm or overhead mount.

The UHL-43 employs three 2/3-inch UHD CMOS sensors in the same workflow and remote control structure as Ikegami’s Unicam XE series UHK-X600, UHK-X700 and UHK-750 cameras. Unlike cameras using a single chip or pixel-offset technology, the integration of three UHD resolution CMOS sensors and prism optics provides true 2000 TVL capture resolution, high quality color reproduction and complete freedom from color aliasing.

Available as a Full-HD model, the UHL-43 can be upgraded to deliver 4K-UHD. HLG HDR is supported as standard in HD and UHD. 

Ikegami will also showcase the HQLM-3120W, a 31-inch 4K/Full-HD HDR WCG master reference monitor, designed for use as a full 4K master reference monitor in television production studios, postproduction suites, master control rooms and playout centers. It employs an LED-illuminated 31.1 inch pixel LCD panel with full 4096 x 2160 resolution. This has a wide viewing angle allowing critical content evaluation within up to 178 degrees horizontal and vertical. Other performance parameters include high contrast ratio (1500:1 typical) and a wide chroma gamut, meeting the ITU-R BT.2020 standard specified for broadcast quality program production and international distribution.

A 4K signal source can be connected to the HQLM-3120W via four 3G-SDI inputs (square division or two-sample interleave). Also provided are 12G-SDI 4K inputs plus a 3G/HD-SDI input and an HDMI input. In addition to its picture monitoring capabilities, the HQLM-3120W is equipped to operate as a waveform monitor and vectorscope. It can also display vertical-interval timecode, eight channel SDI-embedded audio level and closed-caption subtitles. Audio output is available through the monitor’s internal stereo speakers, stereo headphone jack and stereo line out.

Ikegami will be in Booth 623. Click here to register for the show. 

The move to high definition didn’t make viewers work hard to notice the improvement. It was easy to promote, in TV showrooms or at broadcast equipment conventions. 

The shift from HD to UHD is almost as big a jump in linear pixel count, and while the same level of immediate uptake probably wasn’t expected on the consumer side, broadcast clients have begun demanding it almost as a matter of course.

It’s no surprise to see an outside broadcast truck covering an event in 2023 with “UHD” as a proud part of its livery. Sometimes that’s done for future-proofing, and sometimes to satisfy early adopters at home. Whatever the motivation, UHD creates technological and operational challenges, especially as ever bigger events demand drive for ever higher levels of gloss. That increasingly means high dynamic range and UHD, always with the pressure to somehow do it all with the same resources as conventional HD. 

Future-Proofing
There are now a number of ways to do that, and many of them diverge from the sort of technology that broadcast has long been used to. Arri’s Multicam system marries its Amira camera—itself not quite a UHD device, but usually near enough—with a fiber adapter and compatibility with the sort of control panels and other truck tech that put engineering people in a place of comfort. 

Similar things are possible even on lower budgets with equipment from Blackmagic Design, which not only has cameras with studio accessories and lots of spare resolution, but also switchers, recorders, and the Resolve application.

Sony has also put its high-end cinema cameras into the parts of broadcast which seek to bring a little Hollywood sparkle to live TV, although by sheer hours broadcast, the company’s more conventional studio cameras are still doing the lion’s share of the work. 

Peter Sykes, strategic technology development manager at Sony in the U.K., confirms that the motivations for UHD are “a combination. The future-proofing part is very, very important, because prestige content will be archived. Especially for sports events, archive is a consideration once you get to the top tier events… if you want to put something in the archive, do it at the highest quality.”

In the immediate term, though, the pressure to please subscribers remains key. “The image quality is something people will look at when they’re trying to differentiate themselves from their competitors,” Sykes confirms. “You can get the consumer TVs, and the bitrates are available as they weren’t in the very early days—but if you have a premier league football game, the rights for that game are very, very expensive and you need a good look. They’re always trying to get the best rights, and that’s a way to differentiate.”

It’s been over a decade since Sony launched its first 4K broadcast camera, though Sykes points out that HDR had to wait on standards activity. 

“Live broadcast producers were operating in an HD SDR environment, mainly, and our first developments looked at increasing the resolution,” Sykes said. “As a follow-on stage about a year later, in the mid-2010s, HDR in live production really started to capture everyone’s imagination. It was the ITU which developed the specifications for TV production. When those arrived the pathway was opened up to start producing live content, and that’s where HDR really did capture everyone’s imagination.”

It’s Not Just the Technology
Equipment is one thing; technique is another. “There is a technology aspect to all this,” Sykes confirms, “but there’s also an operational aspect to it as well. It wasn’t just the technology that needed to be addressed, but fitting the technology into existing workflows was a challenge. Imagine you have outside broadcast companies with operators in the trucks, camera shaders, vision supervisors, all having lots of experience in HD SDR, to then come along and say we can’t have two trucks, we have to have a simultaneous workflow so we have some new practices, but we don’t want to have to completely retrain.”

Automatic downconversion is one option—once a picture has been engineered for HDR, there’s enough consistency for a machine to create the accompanying SDR output. 

“If you look at some of the work the BBC has been doing, they’ve developed their own LUTs, and we’ve also issued some LUTs of our own, which are freely downloadable from our website to do conversions from HDR to SDR.”

Sykes concludes, though, with the observation that while truck technique is key, dealing with large sensors and high resolutions demands the best of camera operators, too. “If you’re going to shoot the halftime show at a major event, you’re going to put your exceptionally good talent on that.”

Ready For Anything 
Blackmagic Design’s approach to high-resolution broadcast came from slightly different beginnings. Darren Gosney, technical sales manager for the company, begins on a technical note: 

“We were one of the key manufacturers driving for 6- and 12-gigabit SDI technology across a lot of live products,” Gosney said. “We wanted to move away from dual and quad link for high bandwidth content. One of the things we’ve really pushed for is UHD for HD prices—all the way back to when we launched the first ATEM switcher with 6G SDI capabilities, 10 years ago.”

“What that’s let us do is to allow not only high-end broadcaster to work in UHD, but also other people to experiment,” he added. “What we’ve noticed over the past 10 years is where that’s bled into other areas, the AV and live events workspace. If you’re hosting live music events or high-end concerts, you’ll have huge LED walls at the side of stages and in those instances high resolution is beneficial. If you’re pumping through low-res content it’s hard to distinguish what’s going on.”

High Frame Rates
On smaller screens, some of the most tech-savvy consumers exist in the world of computer gaming. High-bandwidth workflows were adopted early to satisfy viewers who demanded high frame rate, if not high resolution.

 ome of the earliest applications for images beyond traditional 25- or 30-frame broadcast standards were targeted at applications other than broadcast. Esports needs high frame rate for much the same reason that conventional field sports need high frame rate. It’s the same reason 720-line 50- and 60-frame formats existed, and it’s why 1080p60 pictures have since become an everyday occurrence. 

Even before 60p became common for live sports broadcasting, gaming tournaments often meant putting together 3Gbps infrastructure to handle live cameras and feeds from both the player monitors and in-game virtual cameras. Still, pushing resolution beyond HD meant four physically separate links until 6- and 12-gigabit SDI, or more recently various IP options, found ways to fit UHD pictures down a single cable.

“Esports is a huge emerging market,” Gosney says, “and has been for the last few years. The technology there sometimes exceeds what you’d see in broadcast. We’ve done extensive work with the likes of ESL, a big esports conglomerate across Europe. They use capture cards to get content in and out of workstations.”

The company’s Ursa Mini cameras, with their Super-35mm sensors, are examples of a multipurpose approach that’s only recently become commonplace; big sensors with lots of resolution which can be cropped to suit the job at hand.

“We’ve used the really powerful sensor we had in our other 6K camera so that you have the dual-ISO capability, which is really good in low light if you’re in a conference center, or for darker concerts,” Gosney says. “Because it has the resolution, you can also put a B4 broadcast lens on there and go shoot an interview, then shoot the VTs which are interspersed with the live production… that is one of the huge benefits of that camera.”

Much as the Ursa series is perfectly capable of shooting HDR images, Blackmagic’s implementation through its switchers is a work in progress. It’s a reminder that HDR is a system, not a product, although the company is well-placed to build that system. 

“Other manufacturers do cameras, or switching, or routing, but we have every part of the puzzle,” Gosney says. “We can connect end to end and it gives customers confidence that things will work cohesively. Things like the ATEM ISO lets you run a fleet of 4K cameras through our HD television studio switcher, and it’ll record an iso feed in low bandwidth H.264. Then, you’ve got the option to drop that into post, cut, then relink to the camera originals working in 4K or 6K or even higher.”

With that sort of capability available even from the company which positions itself as the affordable option, the offset between what producers want and can have, and what the audience is actually watching, seems set to persist or even widen. With the technology democratising, though, the best conclusion might be that it may not matter that much, because if we want UHD and HDR at 60 frames, we can increasingly have it, from high school sports to the Super Bowl. 

HACKENSACK, N.J.—LiveU is launching a new single 4K/Quad HD video receiver for ST 2110 broadcast facilities. 

The company said that the latest addition to the LiveU IP-video EcoSystem is designed to provide an efficient and adaptable way to receive high-quality LRT (LiveU Reliable Transport) live content feeds from any LiveU EcoSystem device and then seamlessly output them as 2110-compliant streams. 

The LiveU's LU4000 ST 2110 operates as an all-in-one receiver in the video chain, reducing IT costs, time and overhead while keeping everything in sync.

"IP-video is increasingly flowing through our customers’ entire workflow, so it’s no surprise that nearly all our customers building or upgrading a broadcast facility are thinking ‘IP first’,” explained Yulia Rozmarin, director of product management. “While the benefits of a full ST 2110 live IP-video production facility are clear, our customers have also reported that complexity needs careful management. For this reason, we're delighted to be able to reduce this complexity, removing the need to manage and maintain separate receivers and transcoders and simplifying the flow between LRT and ST 2110. Now our customers can connect the powerful creative possibilities opened up by the LRT powered LiveU EcoSystem directly with their SMPTE ST 2110 facilities in a much simpler and more robust manner."

Building on LiveU's LRT protocol, the receiver enables a resilient, low latency IP-to-IP workflow for receiving a single 4K video feed or up to four full HD live feeds, adding to the operational scalability of ST 2110. The LU4000 ST 2110 can be swiftly deployed regardless of network configuration. Tasks have been automated to shorten the workflow, including the routing, switching and processing of separate bonded video, audio and data streams, LiveU reported. 

The LU4000 ST 2110 is fully NMOS-compliant, making device discovery and control easy. The product architecture future-proofs it to allow further workflow simplification developments, providing customers with complete peace of mind and effortless upgrading.

For provide redundancy, LiveU said that the LU4000 ST 2110 adheres to the highest 2022-7 SMPTE-defined path redundancy standard. Customers benefit from stable stream transmission along with the consistency afforded by hardware-based Precision Time Protocol (PTP) feed synchronization, again providing complete peace of mind via rock-solid operation.

LiveU will be at IBC2023 in Hall 7, Stand B.19. To schedule a meeting or guided tour, visit get.liveu.tv/ibc2023/. 

BETHLEHEM, Pa.—The Service Electric Network (SEN) is the television production arm of Service Electric Cable TV and Communications, a third-generation family-owned company. The company was founded in 1948 by John Walson with the goal of bringing TV service to the Lehigh Valley through what was then described as a “community antenna television system”—and today called “cable television.”

The company has since expanded into telephone and broadband internet service and operates a live production arm with three mobile units for regional news, sports and event coverage, including local concerts.

Triple A Production
Situated about one hour north of Philadelphia, the Lehigh Valley is home to several minor league sports teams associated with professional Philadelphia teams. Service Electric Network broadcasts all home games for the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, the Triple A baseball affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the Philadelphia Flyers’ AHL team. Our three mobile units are deployed to the local venues, where we use Hitachi Kokusai cameras for our live production workflow.

Our friends at Hitachi Kokusai would agree that SEN is an anomaly in today’s media environment because we remain a regional entity that continues to grow and prosper despite not being part of a large media conglomerate. 

And because of that independence, we also have the freedom to consider the best technology for our organization when it comes to price and performance. Eight Hitachi SK-UHD7000 4K/HD cameras were among our more recent purchases, which we have since added to our mobile units to replace long-serving Hitachi Kokusai SK-HD1200 cameras.

The SK-HD1200 is an outstanding camera with excellent HD performance and image quality, and we continue to use three of these cameras for studio productions. As sports production tends to be on the leading edge for broadcast quality and resolution, upgrading to the SK-UHD7000 made perfect sense. 

Hitachi Kokusai has engineered a dual-4K/HD system that somehow provides even greater image quality and lifelike visuals with exceptional color reproduction, thanks in part to its greater atmospheric sensitivity. 

On the technical side, the cameras incorporate three 2/3 CMOS image sensors with global shutter technology, which minimizes unwanted artifacts such as flickering in banding, which occurs from asynchronous lighting sources inside event venues. 

The SK-UHD7000 cameras also improve production quality for our high school sports programming, important to local high school sports fans.

Path to 4K 
The futureproof design of the camera is perhaps of most value. While we achieve outstanding HD quality productions today, the SK-UHD7000 offers a dual 4K/HD workflow, along with separate controls for HDR and SDR, making us well-prepared for a 4K/HDR future as we gradually upgrade our broadcast and production infrastructure and workflow.

I have worked at SEN since 2001 and we have used Hitachi Kokusai cameras throughout my tenure. As general manager since 2019, I stick with the brand not only because of the quality it brings to our productions and viewers, but also because of the very fair price point and exceptional customer service. 

Product reliability is strong, and we rarely require technical support—though they are responsive when needed. The quality of our programming is what keeps people subscribing to SEN, which is of utmost importance as an independent media entity. Hitachi Kokusai cameras help us translate our level of commitment and broadcast quality to our subscribers. l 

To learn more about Hitachi Kokusai, contact Ken Cyr at kenneth.cyr@hitachikokusai.us or visit www.hitachikokusai.com.

WEITERSTADT, Germany—LYNX Technik, provider of modular signal processing interfaces, has announced the addition of a new HDMI to SDI converter (model: CHD 1402) to its popular yellobrik line.

The CHD 1402 is designed for any AV, broadcast, production, or post application that requires signal conversion from up to 4K HDMI to up to 12G SDI. It is the successor of the popular CHD 1802, which supports up to 3G SDI, the company said. 

A typical use case would be when a facility needs to convert an HDMI output from an external source, such as a video camera, into an SDI format. All audio present in the HDMI stream is passed transparently. With the SDI fiber output and SFP transmitter options, the SDI signal can then be transmitted over fiber to a remote location. In addition, a complementary yellobrik, the CDH 1411 SDI to HDMI converter could be used to provide the SDI output and an HDMI monitoring output in the remote location, including displaying audio, metadata, and timecode overlays, the company explained. 

As with all yellobriks, the new CHD 1402 is compatible with the yelloGUI and LynxCentraal central software applications. When connected to the software, additional internal settings and functions can be accessed and controlled. The CDH 1402 is rack-mountable, it can be used as a standalone module, or in larger yellobrik system applications.

This new yellobrik converter is now available.

More information is available at www.lynx-technik.com,

HBO Max’s rebrand to simply “Max” takes effect today and the service is marking the launch by expanding its 4K content eight-fold. 

At launch, Max will introduce a new Ultimate Ad-Free tier that will offer four concurrent streams, up to 100 offline downloads and nearly 8x more films and episodes of 4K UHD content (some in 60fps format) than HBO Max, including popular programming such as Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Dark Knight trilogy, The Matrix films and more, all for $20/month or $120/year. Existing HBO Max subscribers will still have access to their current plan features for a minimum of six months following launch. 

Dolby Atmos and Vision will be available for select content and devices. 

“We understand the value of offering our users a cinematic playback experience and to that end, we’ve implemented more advanced technology workflows that allow us to release more 4K content in a faster, more efficient way,” said Sudheer Sirivara, Global Technology Platform, Warner Bros. Discovery. “Max will offer more than 1,000 films and episodes in 4K at launch, and we’ll be adding more every month as we move forward.” 

Additionally, all Warner Bros. movies released this year and going forward will be available in 4K UHD when they arrive on Max following their theatrical windows.

On May 23, a large portion of HBO Max subscribers will have their apps automatically updated, while others will be prompted to download the updated Max app. HBO Max subscribers will have their previous plan, profiles, avatars, settings, “Continue Watching” and “My List” items waiting for them to stream on Max. Ahead of launch, customers can also pre-register for Max on the Google Play Store or pre-order on the Apple App Store now. Additional information can be found here.

PARAMUS, N.J.—Sony Electronics is adding a new model to its Spatial Reality Display portfolio with the addition of the ELF-SR2, a larger 27-inch, 4K option that provides highly realistic, three-dimensional content without the use of special glasses or VR headsets. 

Highlights of the new offering include an upgraded high-speed vision sensor, image quality enhancing technologies and installation flexibility. Additionally, the ELF-SR2 enables more robust functionality through its support of applications and development. It is optimized for industrial design, surgical planning, architecture, engineering, construction, signage, retail, software/application development, game developers and entertainment applications, Sony reported. 

“Our original Spatial Reality Display continues to captivate customers by bringing 3D content to life with an astonishing authenticity and sophistication that demands to be experienced hands-on,” said Rich Ventura, vice president of professional display solutions, Sony Electronics. “While our users love the technology, we keep hearing the same question from professionals; ‘does this display come in a larger size?’ As we expand into more B2B verticals and environments, I’m happy to say that in addition to a bigger screen, we’ve added some powerful and commonly requested features to enhance content production. These include a wider color gamut, a newly developed engine, more advanced high-speed sensors and rich support for applications and their development – all for an extremely competitive price.”

The display’s visual fidelity is amplified by its immersive depth of field and detailed resolution, in addition to its larger size. A new generation of high-speed vision sensors enable high-speed processing, as well as low latency for reduced motion blur and crosstalk. 10-bit processing supports a wide color gamut that covers Adobe RGB at approximately 100% for accurate color reproduction. The super resolution engine provides upscaling from 2K to 4K. Additionally, the new model offers color moire correction to better address fine details, patterns and lines, Sony said. 

The ELF-SR2's enhanced facial tracking and recognition senses a viewer’s eyes to provide a natural and comfortable visual experience, while the wide viewing angle enables consistency and accuracy from numerous vantage points.

The ELF-SR2 is also designed to promote application compatibility, as well as efficient and streamlined development through software development kits (SDKs). With support for leading SDKs including Unity and Unreal Engine, it also allows for development with Open GL, DirectX11/12 and Open XR (coming later this year). In addition, the Spatial Reality Display enables simplified VR and AR digital content creation, the company said. 

A new Spatial Reality Display App Select website will also be available, where users can easily find applications compatible with the display, as well as relevant case studies and information. In addition, Sony will offer an intuitive Spatial Reality Display Player app, which supports various 3D file formats to easily show 3D projects on the display, the company explained. 

The Spatial Reality Display also allows for the use of specialized, industry-specific applications highlighted in these partnerships:

• 3DICOM MD, Singular Health's FDA-approved 3D software has been designed to work with Spatial Reality Display and enables highly accurate, detailed, glasses-free 3D medical visualization for diagnostic applications.
• Digital Nation Entertainment (DNE) provides end-to-end production and creative services for mixed reality and live experiences. DNE uses Spatial Reality Display to pre-visualize content from their volumetric capture studio.
• Developed by Arcturus, HoloSuite powers digital humans by editing, compressing and streaming volumetric video for virtual production and the metaverse, as well as AR/VR viewing on the Spatial Reality Display.
• KiksAR's platform brings real life shopping experiences to the digital world. Ultra realistic 3D configurators and personalized digital try-on experiences for jewelry and watch stores can be achieved in 3D using the Spatial Reality Display.
• Magnopus forges design, art, and technology to create new experiences across augmented reality, virtual reality and traditional reality. They’re designing 3D entertainment content specifically for Spatial Reality Display and use it in their Virtual Production pipeline.
• Pixomondo (PXO) delivers Virtual Production and Visual Effects expertise and solutions for Film and Episodic content. PXO is using Spatial Reality Display to pre-visualize 3D assets built in Unreal Engine before final presentation on an LED volume, replacing a head-mounted display, for creators’ comfort and convenience.
• SHoP Architects uses Spatial Reality Display for client presentations and has developed a mobile app to wirelessly control and navigate 3D models on it.
• Sketchfab is the leading platform for 3D and AR on the web. Using the Sketchfab API, Spatial Reality Display users will be able to download and view 3D models.
• WhiteMoon dreams, a leading independent game studio, uses Spatial Reality Display to evaluate 3D characters, creatures, textures, lighting, colors, and effects, instead of printing the 3D characters. This provides a faster and more sustainable real-time 3D evaluation.

In addition, the easy-to-use ELF-SR2 Spatial Reality Display’s updated sensors and high-speed hardware processing provide accommodation for a wider variety of PCs to support different use cases and needs. With a detachable stand, the portable display can be installed in multiple different environments and configurations. It also accommodates the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) mounting standard for further flexibility and compatibility.

The ELF-SR2 is planned to be available in May 2023 in the United States and Canada through Sony’s professional channels. It is expected to have a MSRP of $5,000 USD and feature a 3-year limited product warranty. The 27 inch model will be on display at NAB Show April 16-19 in Las Vegas in Sony’s booth (C8101) and can also be seen at Augmented World Expo (AWE), May 31-June 2 in Santa Clara, CA and at InfoComm, June 14-16 in Orlando.

More information on Spatial Reality Display can be found at https://pro.sony/ue_US/products/spatial-reality-displays. 

More information on new AV products and solutions from Sony Electronics is available at https://pro.sony/prodisplaysolutions.

YouTube TV has sent emails to subscribers telling them to expect a $8 price hike in the monthly subscription fees they pay for YouTube TV's Base Plan.  

“After nearly 3 years, we’re adjusting our monthly price from $64.99/month to $72.99/month,” the company said. “As content costs have risen and we continue to invest in the quality of our service, we are updating our price to keep bringing you the best possible service.”

The YouTube TV Base Plan membership price will change in the first billing cycle on or after April 18, 2023, the company explained. 

If the subscriber is on a “Base Plan promotional price or a trial, that promotion is still honored and unchanged,” the company said. 

Although YouTube TV recently forked over $2 billion a year for rights to Sunday Ticket, it isn’t clear what, if any impact that had on the price increase given the fact that the Sunday Ticket package will be sold separately to consumers for an additional subscription fee. 

YouTube has a history of making big price hikes when it does increase prices. Its last increase in 2020 was from $50 to $64.99. 

Other prices for the service are however falling. “We will also be lowering the price of our 4K Plus add-on from $19.99/month to $9.99/month,” the company said. “Users new to 4K Plus are eligible for a $4.99/month for 12 months promotional offer. For existing users, if you are on a promotional price below $10/month, you’ll enjoy that price until the promotional period is over, at which point you’ll automatically receive the new price of $9.99/month. If you’re currently paying above $9.99/month, your new price will be $9.99/month.”

FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design announced today that Aomori Cable Television built its new 4K production and retransmission workflow using a number of Blackmagic Design products, including ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K live production switchers, ATEM 2 M/E Advanced Panels and Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pros.

Located in Aomori City, Japan, Aomori Cable Television primarily retransmits programs from key TV stations and FM radio stations, as well as Internet and mobile communication businesses. The station also produces and broadcasts live programs for the city of Aomori as a third sector company of Aomori City.

“The switcher we had installed about 10 years ago began to malfunction and it was time to update. We were ready to move to 4K and decided to install the ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio and the ATEM 2 M/E Advanced Panel," said Nao Miura of Aomori Cable Television.

“Two sets of the ATEM switcher fit within the budget of one set of our previous switcher system. And since we were planning on adding another studio, we decided to install the ATEM switchers expecting to use them simultaneously,” he explained. 

The company’s first 4K studio expansion took place in 2021, which was done to accommodate the live broadcast of Aomori City's PR program that started the same year. To accommodate the growing need for content, Aomori Cable Television installed four Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pros along with an ATEM Camera Control Panel and three HyperDeck Studio HD Pro broadcast decks.

“We considered a second switcher as more like a backup, but now, we have both switchers running at full capacity,” Miura said. “While one switcher is used, the other switcher is used for live broadcast programs or emergency press conferences.”

All outputs from the cameras and video playouts are sent to a Smart Videohub 12G 40x40 router, and program outputs from the switchers are recorded on HyperDeck Studio HD Pros. In addition to the ATEM switchers, the team also uses MultiView 16, MultiView 4 HD, nine SmartView 4K monitors, a SmartView Duo monitor, six units of the Blackmagic Audio Monitor 12G for audio monitoring and a number of Mini Converters and Micro Converters for signal conversion, the companies explained. 

"The studio and sub control room are located on different floors. Each Studio Camera 4K Pro is connected with a single 10G Ethernet cable, so we were able to set up the studio quickly. With four Studio Camera 4K Pros fed into the ATEM switcher via 6A LAN cables, we were able to connect everything such as power supply and tally. The compactness of the Studio Camera 4K Pros allows us to use it in a very small studio with a low ceiling,” said Miura.

Since Miura’s team, which is in charge of broadcasting and program production, is very small, he appreciates that the ATEM Camera Control Panel allows them to adjust camera settings from the sub control room while technical staff are not in the studio.

“I used to talk to my colleague via intercom to precisely adjust focus, and sometimes I had to run to the studio and make adjustments if no staff was present,” he said. “The ATEM Camera Control Panel allows me to control the settings with knobs, so I can make adjustments more quickly than sending some instructions over the intercom. It worked just as I had expected.”

“Similarly, the HyperDeck Studio recorders are connected to the ATEM switcher via LAN cable so they can be remotely controlled, allowing me to trigger recording command from the switcher,” Miura continued. “The editing system is also on the same network, so we can send footage on SSD to the editing system via a transfer software, allowing editing without moving physical media."

“The affordability of Blackmagic Design's products allows us to purchase more equipment as we go along to get the studio just the way we want it. We were also able to build the studio flexibly because we could set up and wire the equipment ourselves, using tutorial videos as reference,” Miura concluded.

LAS VEGAS—Marshall Electronics, a leading manufacturer of broadcast and proAV cameras and equipment, has announced that it will showcase its CV730-BHN with Full-NDI and CV730-ND3 with NDI|HX3 technology at the 2023 NAB Show in the Central Hall on Booth C5520. 

These new cameras are designed to accommodate broadcast production facilities looking to produce high-impact content with less staff on-site and sometimes limited IP bandwidth, the company reported. 

The CV730-BHN Full-NDI PTZ camera incorporates the premium Full NDI FPGA while also offering the benefits of NDI|HX3 and standard IP (HEVC/SRT) streams. The CV730-ND3 PTZ camera utilizes the new NDI|HX3 platform and standard IP (HEVC/SRT). 

The CV730-BHN features a premium Sony 4K sensor with 9.2 million pixels and back-lit square pixel technology designed behind a long 30x optical zoom range (6.5~ 202mm). It also has support of BT.2020 color gamut for wide and precise color reproduction suitable for high-end productions. 

The CV730-BHN has streaming options of Full-NDI, NDI|HX3 and standard IP (HEVC/SRT), while also offering two simultaneous SDI (BNC) outputs 12GSDI + 3GSDI with genlock sync, as well as HDMI and USB3.0 options when the application demands it. High Bandwidth NDI requires higher network bandwidth but in return delivers lowest latency video possible nearing the quickness of traditional SDI, while maintaining premium quality and lossless video performance, the company said. 

The CV730-ND3 features a similar Sony 4K sensor with 9.2 million pixels and back-lit square pixel technology designed behind same 30x optical zoom range (6.5~ 202mm). The CV730-ND3 features the new NDI|HX3 premium video codec, and standard IP (HEVC) encoding with SRT, while also offering 12GSDI, HDMI and USB3.0 outputs. The new NDI|HX3 format requires slightly higher bandwidth than previous NDI|HX but much less than is required for Full-NDI. NDI|HX3 delivers similar low latency as Full-NDI at less than 100ms end-to-end and has video quality performance closer to premium Full-NDI quality. NDI|HX3 is a big step forward for NDI|HX while reducing the bandwidth requirements of Full-NDI and delivering similar speeds and video quality, Marshall reported. 

“Low latency and lossless video compression are big talking points for broadcasters over the past several years, and we are happy to bring these two new PTZ cameras to market,” says Tod Musgrave, director of cameras for Marshall Electronics. “As one of the first adopters of NDI|HX back in 2018, we’re very excited to refresh all of the NDI|HX models to the new HX3 codecs and launch our first Full-NDI model.”

All CV730’s now support a Smart Auto-Focus feature utilizing AI chipsets to target facial features and optimize focus on facial details which improves over time. Marshall PTZ cameras boast a flexible and smooth 340° horizontal pan range with 120° vertical tilt with speed adjustments from slow to fast depending on speed to setup the next shot. This provides a wide range of movement options to content creators when capturing high-quality UHD or HD video. Both cameras are feature rich and fit into a wide range of broadcast and proAV applications requiring low latency streaming with various bandwidth networks. Also included is a PoE++ option for one-cable to camera from PoE switch setup for video, audio, control, power and tally. Customers can choose a Netgear AV over IP switch for easy configuration of Marshall cameras from drop down menus and support for NDI5.5 and beyond.

Both models are available in white and black, with the CV730-BHN shipping by NAB and the CV730-ND3 shipping now.

Last year was a transformative year for content delivery, with new innovations, technological breakthroughs and exciting digital experiences emerging by the day. But don't unbuckle your seatbelt yet, because 2023 is poised to be even more fast-paced and disruptive across the entire digital ecosystem.

Not only will we see major advancements in performance, but the year will also bring new and immersive experiences, major improvements in sustainability, an increased race to monetize the edge and more.

These developments will be pivotal for CSPs and other organizations who face evolving demands and must get the most out of their existing infrastructure. Especially in today’s world, where data-rich content is placing greater pressure than ever on critical systems and the industry is quickly adapting to needs for greater bandwidth and performance.

Service Differentiation Will Come From Edge
Edge computing is growing at a CAGR of 17.8%. This growth and advancement is creating a blue ocean for innovation in latency-sensitive applications, and will play a critical role in unlocking a plethora of new use cases for greater product differentiation to attract customers’ eyeballs and serve the general public.

For instance, the ability to deliver digital experiences and instantaneous transactions is becoming a must in virtually every industry, from telemedicine to sports betting and other microtransactions.

One example can be found in sports, where many teams and leagues have already launched their own consumer apps that require instantaneous updates in real time, from rapidly updating player stats to curating highlights of a goal being scored. In healthcare, the edge could enable practitioners to better assess patients remotely, which can be especially beneficial in rural areas.

Throughput per Server Will More Than Double and Power Savings Will More Than Halve
Akin to Moore’s law, the standard for throughput per server and Gbps per Watt will increase more than twofold in 2023, accelerating new benchmarks for performance, power and savings while scaling content. This greater efficiency will pave the way for next-gen digital experiences and enable organizations to scale effortlessly around the world with a steep reduction in TCO.

Paving the way for this change will be more efficient methods and technologies for content delivery. For example, certain software stacks will help organizations optimize their caching and invalidation strategies, their load balancing and traffic routing, and more to ensure the best performance and I/O possible.

Other advancements to software optimization will factor in too. For instance, non-uniform memory access (NUMA) is gaining traction, as it allows multiple processors to use the same I/O resources and memory locally. This can provide many advantages: data can flow faster with less latency, the need for data replication can be reduced and the architecture is highly responsive and scalable.

Software Takes Center Stage for Content Delivery
Public cloud and legacy hardware that were once ‘cutting edge,’ have already become dated and a technical debt. In particular, many cloud solutions have become limiting and are no longer cost effective now that content delivery is more data intensive, and there is a greater need to get more with less infrastructure.

Rather than adding more hardware—and costs—to scale, organizations will turn to efficiently written software that is purpose-built to drive performance without new, costly infrastructure or storage space from a SaaS vendor.

As a result, efficient software will inevitably be the key enabler of scale. IT teams across the world are having to relearn how to write efficient code, and software designers are having to adopt efficiency as a core operating principle from the ground up, even before laying down a single line of code. 

2023 Will be The Year of 4K Streaming
There’s been a whole lot of talk about 4k streaming, but few have yet to actually walk the walk. In fact, in 2014, the HBO hit series “Silicon Valley” referenced using Varnish Configuration Language to scale the delivery of a viral 4k video—but little did they know this joke was years ahead of its time.

Organizations big and small have continued to struggle to deliver true 4k streams, but this is about to change. New advancements in content delivery are cutting the costs and technical complexity of delivering live 4k streams at global scale. It’s an opportunity that virtually every organization can now capitalize on, without breaking the bank. 

Consumers’ homes are already saturated with 4k TVs. With the 4k market growing at a CAGR of 21.7%, delivering flawless 4k content will be a must to stay relevant and is empowered by a reduction in TCO.

Sustainability (Not Audiences and Eyeballs) Will Fuel New Partnerships
4K programming requires 8 times more bandwidth than streaming HD. Ramp this up  to 8K programming, and it will require 100 Mbps, or 40 times more bandwidth. This can have a sizeable environmental impact, when you consider that delivering media relies on a large amount of energy and infrastructure, such as networks, data centers, end-user appliances and other technologies.

Last year, we saw countless partnerships all about gaining more users and subscribers with content (think T-Mobile and Netflix or Verizon and HBO Max). But in 2023, organizations across the streaming ecosystem will shift their attention as sustainability becomes a key focus.

This shift entails a move from the conventional idea of “price and performance” to a model of “price, performance and power consumption” as well as the resulting impact on our environment.

Organizations like the Greening of Streaming alliance have already begun this incredibly important work—helping to join global industry players in technology, media and government to address the impact of streaming on the environment and establish a common lexicon to discuss, measure and translate between streaming and climate science. 

Prepare Now to Adapt Quickly to Technology’s Changes
Optimized content delivery is becoming a competitive tool and differentiator that involves technical and business decisions alike. By understanding these trends—and capitalizing on emerging opportunities—companies can better prepare their infrastructure and set themselves apart from the competition.

These decisions will have major impacts across the digital ecosystem – whether it’s ensuring performance and speed, delivering more dynamic services, cutting costs or simply providing an unbeatable customer experience.

MAHWAH, N.J.—Ikegami has announced that CERTV, State Radio & Television Corporation of the Dominican Republic, has purchased Ikegami cameras for use at its headquarters in Santo Domingo. 

Four complete UHK-X700 camera systems were purchased for use in a variety of production roles on the corporation's Radio Televisión Dominicana channel, RTVD 4, with three being used as studio cameras and the four for studio or portable operations, the broadcaster reported. 

In addition to RTVD 4, CERTV comprises Quisqueya TV, channel 17, plus radio stations Dominicana FM, Quisqueya FM and Radio Santo Domingo AM.

"UHK-X700 cameras were chosen based on the reputation of Ikegami equipment for high signal quality, durability and excellent post sale support," commented Luis Aquino, CERTV's director of TV and Radio Technology. "This new investment forms part of RTVD 4's gradual transition to HD program production and digital transmission."

Radio Televisión Dominicana turned 70 on August 1st, 2022 and the state-owned channel has been working to develop new programming and modernize its technical infrastructure. 

Each UHK-X700 communicates from the main RTVD 4 studio floor to the production control gallery via an Ikegami BSX-100 UHD/HD multi-format base station and hybrid SMPTE fiber camera cable, the companies explained. 

Image manipulation and control are performed using a shared OCP-300 panel configured for multi-camera control. Three of the cameras are mounted on Miller tripods with pan/tilt heads. The shoulder camera rests on a portable pedestal with a Vinten Petrel pan head. Attached to each studio UHK-X700 is a VFL701D 7-inch Full-HD LCD viewfinder. A VFL201D 2-inch LCD viewfinder has been purchased for shoulder mount operation within the studio or on location. 

Designed for broadcast-quality video production and online streaming applications, Ikegami UHK-X700 cameras incorporate three latest-generation 2/3-inch CMOS UHD sensors with global shutter readout to eliminate rolling-shutter distortion and flash-banding artifacts, Ikegami said. 

Full support is provided for HDR imagery with HLG or SDR, as well as the ability to choose between BT.2020 and BT.709 chroma spaces independently. A software key is available to enable the UHK-X700 to output 2160p complete with full UHD processing. High frame-rate shooting at up to double real-time in 4K or up to eightfold real-time in HD is possible as an option, for applications such as capturing fast motion in sport or stage events.

The Ikegami BSX-100 is a multi-format fiber base station offering a coherent upgrade path for broadcasters and production companies as they progress from SDI to IP, from standard dynamic range to high dynamic range and from high definition to 4K, including dual-format workflow, Ikegami said. 

HDR video with very high quality reproduction from dark to bright areas is supported together with wide color gamut as standard. The base station includes HDR to SDR conversion and can be operated in any desired combination of HD or 4K resolution and SDR or HDR simultaneously. Housed in a 3U high half-rack-width low-mass unit, the BSX-100 is easily integrated into mobile production vehicles and other locations where space is limited.

Ikegami's OCP-300 control panel supports conventional one-by-one ICCP (RS-422) control, Arcnet based control and Ethernet based control. It includes a touchscreen LCD with rotary encoders plus an SD Memory Card slot for full camera setup and filing capability. The control depth feature allows the selection of basic, complete and customized operating access. Options include support for shared operation for up to 10 cameras, Ikegami explained. 

LAS VEGAS—This year’s edition of CES was vastly different from a quarter-century ago. Back then, televisions were just breaking free from low-resolution cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) as high-definition television was taking its baby steps. A 50-inch high-resolution display in 1998 contained just 1280 x 768 pixels (Wide XGA) and cost as much as a car. Rear-projection televisions were just switching to solid-state light modulators. And liquid-crystal display (LCD) televisions weren’t even available—the largest flat screen TVs all used expensive plasma display panels (PDPs).

Today, all of those technologies (and some of their manufacturers) are distant, fading memories. We’ve had 4K TVs for over a decade, while 8K sets appeared five years ago. LCD technology rules the roost nowadays, and the median TV screen size is about 55 diagonal inches and slowly increasing. Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays have supplanted plasma for image quality, but with much lower power consumption.

But there are other contenders: Mini and microLEDs, quantum dots and QD-OLEDs are finding their way into televisions and computer monitors. What are the differences between them? Will they replace or obsolete any currently available displays? Read on…

Liquid-Crystal Displays and Enhancements
It didn’t take long for large LCD panels to become the preferred solution for large televisions after their introduction 20 years ago. Those original models have evolved from heavy, bulky designs using fluorescent lamp backlights to modulate thousands of tiny light-shuttering pixels, to sleek housings stuffed with light-emitting diode (LED) backlights. Over time, pixel counts have continued to grow as retail prices drop with increased manufacturing efficiency. 

The debut of high-dynamic range (HDR) video forced more design changes. Given the gross inefficiency of LCD imaging panels (only 5% of the backlight illuminance actually makes it to the front of the screen), other solutions were needed to boost brightness levels. One approach was to add a thin layer of quantum dots, tiny metallic particles that absorb blue light from LEDs and re-emit it as higher-intensity red and green light (hence, the quantum energy conversion effect). 

Televisions with a “Q” in their model names (like Samsung’s QLED TVs) use quantum dots (QDs) to produce high dynamic range images. These displays are still hamstrung by the light transmission inefficiency of LCDs, but they are now able to pump out luminance levels in the range of 1200 to 1500 candelas per square meter (cd/m2). TCL also manufactures LCD TVs with quantum dot enhancement layers. LCD TVs equipped with quantum dots are priced at a premium over conventional LCD models. 

There’s another way to achieve HDR imaging by packing more “mini” LEDs into a smaller area and change their light levels in step with luminance levels in video content, a process known as local area dimming. Sony and Hisense (ULEDs) use this approach instead of QDs. The challenge is to minimize LED light from bleeding into adjacent pixels, creating what looks like a halo effect around bright text and objects. 

Fixing that problem requires some additional structural changes to each pixel as well as specialized light modulation techniques. But there’s another problem looming—TVs using large matrices of miniLEDs for local area dimming consume lots of power, and pending European Union regulations on energy conservation may keep these models from ever coming to market.

Organic Light-Emitting Diode Displays
OLEDs have been in development for decades, yet it seemed like they could never get over the finish line. Tricky to manufacture, they were susceptible to moisture and differential aging of colors. And you couldn’t drive them too hard, as they’d burn out quickly. 

OLEDs emit different colors of light when a low voltage is applied across a junction of organic compounds. Those colors are saturated and bright, and OLED displays exhibit high contrast, deep blacks, and wide viewing angles. Unlike LCD panels, OLEDs are very thin and can bend and warp. These latter properties have made it possible to offer foldable smartphones and tablets, not to mention digital signs that can be wrapped around poles, buildings, cars, and other objects.

There are two types of OLED displays in wide use today. For televisions, white OLED panels with color filters (WOLEDs) dominate the market. (The white color in RGBW displays is generated by a compound of blue and yellow organic chemicals.) LG Display is the source of all WOLED panels used in OLED TVs, no matter whose brand you see on the bezel. The underlying technology uses an RGBW pixel stripe to produce high levels of luminance (up to 1000 cd/m2 with a 10% full white window). WOLED televisions are available in sizes from 42 inches to 97 inches. 

The second type of OLED display, used in smaller products such as smartphones, has discrete red, green, and blue emitters (RGB stripe). Several companies manufacture RGB OLEDs, among them Japan OLED, Samsung Display, and Chinese manufacturers AUO and BOE. While RGB OLEDs can achieve similar peak luminance levels as WOLEDs, the largest RGB OLED display currently available is a 32-inch desktop monitor. 

The challenge for both RGBW and RGB OLEDs is the time to half-brightness of the blue organic materials. (A similar problem affected blue phosphors in color TV picture tubes and plasma displays.) Some clever solutions have been devised to overcome this problem, such as using multiple blue emitters with each running at reduced brightness. One way to get more luminance out of an OLED display is to employ microlens arrays on each pixel, collimating the light and directing more of it to the screen. This technique is currently implemented by LG on its latest series of Evo OLED televisions.

QD-OLED Hybrids
A new, clever hybrid display technology combines a stack of blue OLED emitters with red and green quantum dots. This QD-OLED hybrid was launched by Samsung Display last year at CES in 55-inch and 65-inch screen sizes and was joined by a 77-inch television at this year’s show (Samsung and Sony both sell QD-OLED models). QD-OLED TVs command higher prices than conventional LCD TVs and are priced on par with quantum dot-equipped sets and WOLED TVs. 

The big advantage of the QD-OLED is the simplicity of imaging layers—four in all—in the display panel. As an emissive display, it too exhibits excellent contrast performance, deep black levels, high color saturation, and a wide viewing angle. The blue OLED emitter is actually a stack of smaller blue OLEDs, each running at reduced power to extend their useful life. The rest of the horsepower comes from the quantum dots, with Samsung Display claiming a maximum luminance of 2,000 cd/m2 for 2023 models. Think of the QD-OLED as a turbocharged WOLED or RGB OLED!

MicroLED Displays
Display manufacturers are now prototyping televisions made up solely of tiny red, green, and blue LED emitters. These “micro” LED displays can also be used across a wide range of display products from smart watches and phones to tablets, computer monitors, and in transportation applications. To make this happen requires high manufacturing yields of microLED chips at a reasonable cost, which has so far proven to be a difficult task.

The advantages of microLED displays are in simplicity and image quality. Instead of the multiple light-absorbing layers of polarizers, backlights, and color filters in an LCD display, there’s just an array of LED emitters and transistors to switch them on and off. Since microLEDs are emissive displays, there are no issues with black levels and contrast flattening when viewed at wide angles. And they’re plenty bright at 1500 cd/m2, although they can easily hit peak levels exceeding 2000 cd/m2.

Although multiple companies are researching and developing microLED displays, only Samsung is currently offering models for consumers. At CES, they unveiled a 76-inch Ultra HD model to complement earlier 89-inch, 101-inch, and 110-inch offerings. The main selling point of the 76-inch Micro LED CX is that it can be installed by the end user. However, given the steep price point of the previously-introduced 89-inch model (about $80,000), it’s going to be a high-end, ultra-premium television for now.

Even so, many display analysts predict microLED displays will likely replace all other display technologies by the end of this decade—if manufacturing costs can be lowered and high yields achieved. And the odds are that it will happen. Recall that the first plasma televisions came with five-figure price tags, but by 2010 cost well under $1K. And the first 4K monitors (not TVs) sold in North America in 2012 were priced over $20,000! Today, you can buy a 65-inch “smart” Ultra HDTV for as little as $400 on sale.

Looking Ahead
Given the popularity of WOLED TVs, you’ll see more companies like Toshiba and Sharp offering them in 2023. LCD TVs will continue to be the cheapest TV offering, while QD-equipped models are slowly coming down in price to keep pace with OLEDs. 

As for microLED TVs—well, if you have eighty grand just lying around… 

CESSON-SEVIGNE, France—Broadpeak this week launched its new BkS450 high-performance video streaming software, bringing cost savings and energy efficiency to video streaming infrastructures.

Running on a new high-performance Intel Xeon scalable processor, the software enables video service provides to deliver low-latency 4K and 8K video streaming services, VR content and other bandwidth-intensive offerings for a lower cost while consuming less power than traditional video servers, the company said.

"Introducing the next-gen BkS450 software to our solutions family underscores our commitment to enabling greener video streaming while ensuring a superior quality of experience for consumers at a reasonable cost," said Nivedita Nouvel, vice president of product marketing at Broadpeak.

"Working with Intel, we have achieved a giant leap forward in video streaming performance and energy efficiency, helping our customers deliver advanced video streaming services with increased agility, a smaller hardware footprint and a reduced impact on the environment."

Offering performance and sustainability improvements, the new software leverages ultra-efficient use of hardware resources. It delivers video services at 725 Gbps in HTTP on servers consuming 900 Watts—a fourfold reduction compared to previous generations of video streaming solutions, it said. (The figure comes from a sophisticated benchmarking tool Broadpeak created with Intel.)

The two companies will continue to work together on improving performance-per-Watt to address sustainability, it said.

Available as a container running on off-the-shelf hardware, the BkS450 eliminates the need for operators to use proprietary components. The BkS450 video streamer is future-proof, natively supporting all of the latest HTTP protocols — as well as DASH and HLS low-latency streaming formats — to ensure flawless video streaming, it said.

The new caching software engine built into the BkS450 also extracts maximum performance from more modest and cost-effective hardware configurations, including existing CDN deployments. This innovation unlocks CDN capacity across the board and better uses resources, it said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

PHILADELPHIA—Comcast will give subscribers a personalized, interactive and bilingual viewing experience for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 via its Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex platforms, Xfinity Stream app and XClass TV, it said today.

For the first time it will enable eligible Xfinity X1 subscribers to watch the tournament in Dolby Vision high dynamic range (HDR) 4K, it said.

Its platforms will aggregate all available English and Spanish live coverage and on-demand replays into one comprehensive destination. New platform features are available to enhance their viewing experience, it said.

(Read also: Fox Sports Ready for 4K/HDR FIFA World Cup)

Fox Sports and Telemundo are the official FIFA World Cup English and Spanish language broadcast rights holders for the soccer tournament, Nov.  20-Dec. 18. 

“The FIFA World Cup is going to be one of the biggest sporting events in 2022, and with streaming coverage from Peacock and Tubi, there will be more ways to watch than ever,” said Comcast executive director of product management Vito Forlenza. “Our platforms will bring together all the various viewing options into one comprehensive destination, making it easy for our customers—whether a pay TV customer with X1 or a steamer with Flex or XClass TV—to enjoy all 64 matches, live or on demand, in the language of their choice.” 

X1 subscribers will be able to say the words “World Cup” or “Copa Mundial” into their Xfinity voice remote to access coverage. Besides voice access, features include:

• Dolby Vision: A first for the World Cup, live 4K Dolby Vision HDR coverage from Fox Sports will only be available in the U.S. on the platform.
• Personalized viewing that enables viewers to select their favorite teams to create a custom World Cup viewing experiences with access to live coverage and match highlights across devices from a central location. Coverage of teams selected as favorites will carry over to the Xfinity Stream app. Viewers also can opt in to receive notifications of games on their TVs and mobile devices.
• Interactive tournament bracket availability via X1 that allows fans to track the latest schedules, get scores and standings and prepare for upcoming matches by setting their recording function and by getting reminders.
• Machine-learning driven highlights of the high-impact plays, goals, penalty kicks and saves noted in their DVR recordings so they can quickly find the best moments. 

On Xfinity Flex and XClass TV, Comcast will offer streamers a destination with all tournament-related programming available to stream, including live matches and same-day replays of all 64 matches in Spanish from Peacock, same-day replays of all 64 matches in English available from Tubi and tournament highlights and analysis. A tournament bracket is also available, it said.

This year’s World Cup presentations are the first time the company will make available personalized sports viewing features on its Xfinity Flex. They include the ability to select favorite teams to personalize the experience and an option to receive notifications, it said. 

A quick, easy upgrade to Xfinity TV is available for Flex subscribers via the Stream app so they can access live coverage from Fox and Telemundo, the company said.

More information is available on the company’s website. 

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn.—Sanus, a leading provider of mounts and accessories for TVs and smart devices, has added 8K and 4K HDMI cables to its lineup. 

The Sanus 8K Ultra High Speed and 4K Premium High Speed HDMI cables, which are now shipping, provide a throughput for home theater audio and video in a single-cable solution. Offering an ideal way to connect devices such as streaming boxes, Blu-ray players, and gaming consoles to HDMI-enabled displays and projectors, the cable options include 8K, 4K, and in-wall-rated versions to fit any project, the company said. 

"The Sanus mission is to create premium products that allow customers to get the most out of their audio and video technology. This includes providing them with everything they need to complete their TV or projector install, whether that's a mount, stand, furniture, or cabling," said Garrett Humphrey, product marketing content specialist at Legrand | AV. "Our new 8K and 4K HDMI cables are superior, feature rich, rugged, and help complete the one-stop-shopping AV experience."

Sanus' new 2.1 8K Ultra High Speed HDMI cables support 8K at 60Hz and 4K at 120Hz, providing the fastest refresh rates and highest resolution, while the 2.0 4K Premium High Speed HDMI cables transmit 4K at 60Hz. 

Both the 8K and 4K HDMI cables feature low EMI cable design and shielding to prevent interference with other signals, Dolby Atmos to take surround sound to the next level by delivering a true 3D audio experience, gold-plated connectors for the highest level of signal conductivity resisting corrosion, sure-grip connectors, a cotton-braided jacket that protects the cable and maintains flexibility, and cable ties to secure the cable to a TV mount or other components. 

The 8K cables also boast an enhanced audio return channel (eARC) that supports high bitrate audio formats — including DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS:X, Dolby TrueHD, and Dolby Atmos — and variable refresh rate (VRR), delivering fast video frames and fluid video by preventing display lags, judder, and tearing, Sanus reported. 

The HDMI cables come in a variety of lengths. Both are available in 3.28 feet (1 meter), 6.56 feet (2 meter), 9.84 feet (3 meter), and in-wall-rated 13.12 feet (4 meter) lengths. Additionally, the 4K cables are available in in-wall-rated lengths of 16.40 feet (5 meters) and 22.96 feet (7 meters).

More information on Sanus' entire family of 8K and 4K HDMI cables is available at www.sanus.com/en_UM/products/accessories/#cables.

HACKENSACK, N.J.—LiveU today unveiled its next-generation Solo PRO portable bonding live encoder, which combines professional 4K and HEVC video quality and high reliability.

The Solo PRO combines up to six IP connections – four 4G/5G cellular modems, Wi-Fi and LAN – leveraging LiveU's patented LRT (LiveU Reliable Transport) technology. Enabling a streamlined cloud production with an easy setup, the LiveU Solo PRO can be used for any type of live event coverage, both indoors and outdoors, including corporate, entertainment, sports, government, religious and IRL (In Real Life) streaming. Solo PRO supports content creators distributing on all live platforms, including Twitch, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo and TikTok, LiveU said.

"Our goal was to deliver a cutting-edge product that will service all streaming needs for years to come, including 4K, HEVC and extreme reliability. I firmly believe that our users will find the Solo PRO is a future-proof investment for their workflow, providing peace of mind for their live streams using proven broadcast-quality technology," said LiveU Chief Technology Officer Dan Pisarski.

LiveU Solo PRO can be used as part of an end-to-end real-time workflow. Users can go live directly from their camera/switcher to popular online platforms and any web destination, the company said.

Weighing just over 2 lbs., the LiveU Solo PRO is a compact, portable unit that can be taken anywhere. Streaming up to 4Kp60 resolution in H.264 or HEVC, the Solo PRO’s HEVC capability offers the same quality in half the bandwidth of H.264, or twice the quality in the same bandwidth, it said.

Limitless coverage is ensured with extended internal battery time, easy-to-use USB-C external battery and flexible carrying options, it said.

LiveU also introduced Solo Stream Tools, an optional add-on package for faster go-to-live streaming productions. This cloud-based package includes support for multi-destination distribution, allowing producers to go live at the same time to multiple social platforms with the click of a button, stream fallback, allowing a switch to a predefined message, and the addition of a logo watermark for enhanced brand visibility, the company said.

"Solo Stream Tools can also be combined with Solo Connect, including modems, routers, data plans and the LRT cloud subscription, which means that you have everything you need to go live in one complete hassle-free package," said Pisarski.

Solo PRO is available in two configurations: HDMI 2.0 and HDMI 2.0 + SDI 12G. 

LiveU will host a special live program, “Solo PRO: The Sequel,” Thursday, Nov. 3 at 11 a.m. EDT. It will include a live Q&A with LiveU CTO Dan Pisarski. More information about the program is available online.

More information is available on the company’s website.

Samsung announced the addition of several local news channels to its smart TV streamer Samsung TV Plus. Other new channels added include MotorTrend, Estrella Games and Rovr Pets. And since winter is coming, the Fireplace 4K has returned for the holidays. 

They join Samsung’s lineup of nearly 230 premium channels spanning news, sports, entertainment, auto and more. These new channels will be available across the U.S. on millions of Samsung Smart TVs and galaxy devices. Samsung TV Plus is a free streaming service available in 24 countries and 465 million devices globally across TV and mobile.

New channels recently launched in the U.S. include:  

• MotorTrend: MotorTrend FAST TV—the brand’s first on FAST—will offer their most admired shows, giving viewers even greater access to a massive library of over 8,000 episodes of automotive content. Additionally, viewers can enjoy one-of-a-kind programming dedicated to ROADKILL, the #1 digital series featuring popular experts executing activities and spin off shows. (Available in the US and Canada)
• Fireplace 4K: Cozy up this holiday season with Fireplace 4K, exclusively from Samsung TV Plus. Enjoy a variety of crackling fireplaces all day long available live and on-demand. (Available in the US and Canada)
• Estrella Games: Estrella Games, one of Estrella Media’s four FAST channels, is the first 24/7 Spanish-language game show channel, including Cien Latinos Dijeron, ¿Te la Juegas?, ¡Ahora Caigo!, La Mascara del Amor, The Don Cheto Show and hundreds of hours of game shows, talent shows and physical competitions.
• Rovr Pets: Celebrating the power of pets with tales- and tails- that fascinate, inspire and warm every heart! Rovr Pets features hundreds of hours of award-winning pet-themed series including Dr. Chris Pet Vet, Best Friends FurEver, Ready Set Pet, Tails of Valor and Vets Saving Pets. (Owned by Hearst Media Production Group)

In addition to WBAY Action 2 News in Green Bay, Wis. Samsung TV has also expanded the availability of live hourly weather updates every hour along with the top news, regional forecasts, severe coverage, and local weather on the 7's:

• Very Orlando by WESH 2
• Very South Florida by WPBF (Youtube)
• Very Pittsburgh by WTAE (Youtube)
• WN (WeatherNation) Indianapolis
• WN Raleigh-Durham
• WN Baltimore
• WN Pittsburgh

The 4K revolution appears to have stalled out. 

According to high-profile streaming technology analyst Dan Rayburn, an executive at an ISP he spoke to said that less than 10% of digital bits transmitted over the company's network are related to 4K/Ultra High Definition video -- roughly flat with 2021. 

Meanwhile, an also-unnamed official for an OTT service provider said that less than 2% of the company's streaming time to customers was for 4K/UHD video. 

Certainly, 4K isn't cheap. A majority of smart TV displays in the U.S. market, for example, support the video resolution standard. But a Netflix customer will pay an additional $4.50 a month over the $15.49-a-month standard plan -- $19.99 -- in order to get the "Premium" tier that offers movies and series in 4K/UHD. 

Reporting on his Streaming Media Blog, Rayburn framed the discussion into the larger context of a sudden deceleration of digital traffic being experienced by both internet service providers and content delivery networks.

“Since the beginning of the year our combined peak ingress internet traffic (IP transit, public and private peering, CDN and caching) has been down more than has been in other years," the ISP source told Rayburn. "It is not unusual to be down or flat till this time of the year, but even with subscriber growth we are down this year. I am thinking our year end traffic growth will be lower this year as we are still negative for the year.”

For his part, Rayburn also attributes the phenomenon to more efficient video encoding on behalf of streaming video service providers. 

"Since the start of the year, many streaming services have focused on doing a better job of optimizing their bitrates and in some cases, reducing their bitrate ladders in an effort to save money," Rayburn wrote. 

It's a major factor, he noted, in why top CDN provider Akamai saw an 11% year-over-year slide in Q2 revenue. 

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand NextTV.

FRESNO, Calif.—KMCF-LD Channel 6 in Fresno, Calif., has launched NextGen TV on VHF Channel 6 and expects to offer a full-power FM service at 87.7 on the radio dial. Once approved by the FCC, the hybrid service from the Cocola Broadcasting-owned low-power TV station would be among the first in the nation to offer a so-called “Franken FM”—TV stations that offer audio services via the 87.7 MHz audio carrier— enabled by ATSC 3.0. 

Fresno-based Cocola said “an early start on securing the equipment and FCC permission” allowed the company to be one of the first in Fresno to launch ATSC 3.0 and added that, unlike its full-power counterparts currently offering ATSC 3.0, it will broadcast in 4K.

“Programming for KMCF will be 4K productions including super high-definition NASA programming,” the company said in a statement. “There is a limited supply of 4K programming available at this time but with the launch of ATSC 3.0 now, Cocola Broadcasting will be able to add new 4K programming as it becomes available.”

The “Franken FM” would broadcast the signal of Fresno’s KJOI—known as "Your All Time Favorites"—through Channel 6. The FM signal doesn’t require special equipment but to watch the video portion of ATSC 3.0 requires a TV, tuner box or DVR designed to broadcast the upgraded signal to take advantage of the audio and video improvements.

Cocola Broadcasting was founded in the early 1980s by broadcasting veteran Gary Cocola who operates 56 channels in Fresno and 18 in Bakersfield. The launch of ATSC 3.0 is the latest example of Cocola Broadcasting embracing the most up-to-date technology to ensure the best digital service for local viewers. When Cocola launched his initial television station in 1985—Channel 59—it was the first TV station in Fresno to broadcast in stereo.

“I have always tried to be on the cutting edge of new technology,” Cocola said.

LAS VEGAS—When it comes to helping a multicamera broadcast and live stream to millions of viewers, monitoring is key. At the “2022 Billboard Women in Music Awards,” Hollywood Motion Picture Experience (HMPE) was tapped by executive producers Tim Owens, owner of Liquid Arts Media, and Jenifer Hersch, vice president of productions at Redrock Entertainment, to provide a 4K and 12G workflow for the event.

HMPE’s production truck is built around Ultra HD and cinema glass, as well as a 12G workflow supported by Blackmagic Design gear. With the event broadcast in Ultra HD 59.94 full 12G, we knew our truck could support the unique requirements, which might have been one of the first of its kind for this type of event.

Truck Friendly
We supplied six URSA Broadcast G2 cameras and two URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 cameras, all with Blackmagic Camera Fiber Converters, to shoot the awards. Everything was sent via fiber back to our truck for camera switching and CCU control supported by an ATEM Constellation 8K switcher, ATEM Camera Control Panels and more. We even had a DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel for color grading.

To monitor those camera feeds, the truck houses numerous SmartScope Duo 4K monitors. The compact and rackmountable design is essential for the truck where space is at a premium, and the two 8-inch LCD screens also provide independent waveform monitoring, so we can choose between waveform, vectorscope, RGB parade, YUV parade, histogram and audio phase level displays. 

Being able to toggle between two independent camera feeds, two independent scopes, or a mix of both gives us the best of both worlds. Obviously for broadcast, scopes are essential for monitoring the quality of the camera feeds, and the added flexibility to switch between scopes and camera feeds supports our workflow that much more.

Multiple Equipment, One Control
In addition to the rear engineering area, we use a SmartScope Duo 4K throughout the truck. When we have a smaller crew, we can move engineering up front—this is a simple process given the connectivity via a single Cat 6 cable from our network. All the Blackmagic Design equipment, from the ATEM switcher to the HyperDeck recorders to the SmartScope Duo 4K monitors, are networked together and can be controlled via one dedicated Mac Mini or with a laptop.

The truck also features two SmartView 4K monitors, which we used to monitor the switcher’s multivew, again essential to any multicamera broadcast workflow. Its 4K and 12G-SDI capabilities fit right in with the required workflow.

We shoot a variety of applications, including cinema, remote truck and studio, and no matter what is thrown our way, we know we can handle it as we’ve purposefully invested in flexible and future-proof tools. 

VIENNA, Austria, SHENZHEN, China and STUTTGART, Germany—3 Screen Solutions (3SS) and Skyworth Digital have announced that Austria’s national broadcast network operator ORS has launched next-generation digital satellite and terrestrial STBs for simpliTV services.

“In launching our simpliONE STBs, we’re providing our audience with additional flexibility and choice, and it’s a significant milestone in our journey to bring next-generation super-aggregated TV services to the widest possible audience,” says Thomas Langsenlehner, CEO of simpliTV.

“Thanks to our collaborative partnerships with Skyworth and 3SS, new powerful STBs are delivering an advanced custom UX which makes finding content easy. With simpliTV we’re providing a truly world-class entertainment platform that meets the expectations of both avid streamers and more traditional viewers,” Langsenlehner added.

Two new 4K Hybrid STBs from Skyworth are now live, named simpliONE Box, and feature an advanced customized UX (user experience) created and delivered by 3SS for the service. 

The Skyworth 4K Hybrid Android TV Satellite STB became available to simpliTV customers, as of April 2022, complementing the Skyworth 4K Hybrid Terrestrial STB which went live in January 2022.

Both products offer simpliTV subscribers the latest features in 4K DVB and OTT viewing, with UHD picture clarity, Dolby surround sound and a variety of additional features.

Hybrid simpliTV service delivers over 100 channels as part of an advanced UX based on the award winning 3Ready Product Framework from 3SS.

The debut of simpliTV’s satellite and terrestrial services is an expansion of the simpliTV portfolio, the latest phase in a staged multiplatform rollout. In May 2021, simpliTV launched custom apps for Samsung connected TVs - for which simpliTV comes pre-loaded in Austria as preferred app - as well as LG webOS and Android smart TVs. The new satellite and terrestrial services deliver a superior, consistent 3SS-enabled UX for viewers watching on connected TV and STBs.

All these apps feature a highly functional UI/UI enabled by 3SS based on 3Ready. 3Ready, with current worldwide reach of over 35 million homes, provides operators with an intuitive and adaptive UI. 

“We’re very excited that ORS selected Skyworth to help deliver its next generation 4K hybrid services,“ commented Srithar Bala, head of video solutions & services at Skyworth Digital. “We congratulate ORS on the launch of these products for simpliTV,“ Srithar added.

“ORS continues to demonstrate its unwavering commitment to delighting viewers of all kinds, delivering options to suit viewers’ choices of both technology and preferred content,” said Kai-Christian Borchers, 3SS managing director. “Great teamwork brought simpliTV to life and we’re very excited that subscribers are now enjoying its benefits,” he added.

RALEIGH, N.C.—SmallHD has introduced the Cine 18 4K High-Bright Monitor, a light, rugged, daylight-viewable production monitor.

The Cine 18 fills the size gap between the Cine 13 and Cine 24 in SmallHD’s 4K monitor line. It offers a portable 4K monitoring solution in an adaptable form factor. With a light aluminum unibody chassis housing and 18-inch edge-lit LCD screen with 4K resolution (3840 x 2160), the monitor offers 10-bit (8+2 FRC) color depth, 100% Rec. 709 coverage, 1100-nits brightness, 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 240 PPI and a 178-degree viewing angle, the company said. 

“It’s a next-level replacement for SmallHD's popular 1703 P3X HD Monitor but with significant upgrades in sharpness, resolution and form-factor,” said Dave Bredbury, product manager.

The Cine 18 measures 18.4 inches (W) by 12.7 inches (H) by 2.5 inches (D), weighs 12 pounds and offers 12G/6G/3G/HD-SDI inputs and outputs. The monitor provides hot-swappable power inputs, multiple accessory power points, 4x removable cheese mounting sticks and a removable bottom cheese mounting rail for added versatility, the company said.

The included PageOS software toolset offers 4K HDR waveform and scopes, Color Pipe HDR color rendering and the Monitor Calibration Wizard, it said.

The SmallHD Cine 18 has a list price of $5,999.

More information is on the company’s website.

I was asked recently why HDTV content (1080i, 720p) looks so good on 4KTV’s.  Shouldn’t HDTV appear as soft on 4KTV’s as SDTV looks soft on HDTV’s?  That is a good question and to start we have to go back in history (not too far) to begin to unravel this conundrum.

In the Beginning...
In the 1990’s HDTV was being birthed in labs around the globe.  In 1993, the ATSC in the U.S. standardized a new digital terrestrial broadcast system that could deliver an HDTV program via a 6MHz RF channel.

One aspect of this new system (now referred to as ATSC 1.0) is the infamous table of 18 different video formats—"infamous" in that it caused as much of a stir as the fact that ATSC abandoned analog for TV transmissions. What were the broadcasters and manufacturers going to do?  Were broadcasters going to produce content that was optimized for each format or were they going to agree to a common HD format?  Would the new HDTV sets be able to accept any and all of the video formats or just a select few? 

By the late 90’s the landscape looked like this:

Broadcasters:

• 1080i60 (CBS/NBC)
• 720p60 (ABC)
• 480p (Fox) (Fox switched to 720p in 2004).

Set manufacturers:

• Display 1080i60
• 480p60 or 480i60, which allowed for a common horizontal scanning frequency (note that there were some native 720p displays available)

With 720p content, the TV set had to convert the 1280x720p60 signal into either 1080i60 or 480p60. Both approaches required either upconversion or downconversion. 

But the tougher challenge that these sets faced was the conversion of analog NTSC (484i60) transmissions during the transition period from analog OTA TV to digital OTA TV. NTSC proved to be a challenge to convert to an HDTV display as it requires good demultiplexing from composite to component color, noise reduction, color space conversion (NTSC to ITU Rec 709) as well as re-scaling as the NTSC images are formatted in a 4:3 aspect ratio, not the 16:9 aspect ratio of HDTV.

One of the first manufacturers, Panasonic, recognized the need for an image processing chip that could do all the required image operations:  scale, upconvert, downconvert, de-interlace and noise reduce.  Known as the UFC1000 chip, it was used in some HDTV sets to enable the formatting of any of the 18 different formats in ATSC 1.0 to a common display set of parameters. This chip was also incorporated into a professional product known as the UFC1800 (for the 18 different formats!). Other manufacturers followed suit and added this type of image processing to their TV chip sets.

The Limits of CRT
While the HDTV sets of this era did a good job converting all the possible formats, the final display quality was limited by the abilities of the CRT (flat panels had yet to become a mainstream consumer product).  This helped in some ways as the CRT spatial response is gaussian and has a smooth roll-off response curve, thus hiding some artifacts and noise.  

On the other hand, it limited the maximum spatial frequency response, especially at peak brightness, to 500-600 lines. Also, ATSC 1.0 specified the use of MPEG-2 compression, which is limited to 8 bits for video and while MPEG-2 could reasonably transmit 1080i in approximately 18 Mbps, its compression efficiency is another limiting factor to delivering full HD resolution to the TV (in fact most 1080i compression at that time used a subset of 1080, 1440x1080 to save bandwidth).

With all the above issues, SDTV (aka NTSC) when presented on an HDTV set, was a significantly lower quality experience—better than VHS, but not as good as DVD. Viewers could readily discern the difference between standard definition on an HDTV display.

Flat Panels Arrive
During 2000-2005 the first generation of flat panel technologies became available in the TV market—initially LCD type flat panels followed by plasma types (PDP). These panels were larger and brighter than most CRT TV’s but were limited to 720x480p60. 

After a few years, the flat panels standardized on 1920x1080p60 as their HDTV format. The embedded image processing became more sophisticated and thus the internal format conversions, including de-interlacing, improved. While it could not make NTSC look as good as HDTV, it did make 480i60 digital imagery competitive with HDTV.  

Some of the technologies that were adapted for upconversion included:  Motion Compensated upconversion, Edge Detection and Smoothing and later Adaptive Resolution. By 2010, flat panels were taking the place of CRTs, NTSC was going away and the pictures, both HDTV and SDTV never looked better.

2008 was the dawn of UHDTV. Initially display manufacturers spoke of "QuadHD" panels, meaning that the panels had native pixels arrays of 3840x2160. When these panels become affordable enough to put into consumer products, they were branded "Ultra HD" (or UHD).

As these UHDTV’s became available, there was a call to produce content in this new format. The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) standardized UHD for Blue-ray discs in 2015. In 2016 Hollywood studios began to release movies in this format, which was very similar to the 4K spec for Digital Cinema (DCI). Broadcasting standards were limited to HDTV, although cable and satellite TV could deliver enough bandwidth for specialty channels or one-off broadcasts (such as the Super Bowl, Olympics or the World Cup).

For the most part, these new UHDTV displays upconvert the available HDTV programming into this new higher resolution format. In addition to the tools already available for upconversion, improvements to the image processing tool box include: HDR processing (Dolby Vision, HDR10+), Spatial Domain processing, neural network (aka AI machine learning), as well as advanced image compression that supports 10bit video (HEVC).  

Viewing Distance
Now that we’ve finished our history lesson, let’s return to the question, "Why does HDTV look so good on 4K displays?" First thing to note is that oversampling, either in the camera or display, provides improved resolution in any down or upsampled image. How do we determine the resolution of a program that provides "sufficient quality" for good viewing on a UHD display?

HDTV was designed for a ‘3x picture height’ viewing distance (aka the "Lechner Distance"). 

At this distance, the field of view (FOV) is about 32 degrees.  This provides, at HDTV resolutions (1920x1080), approx. 120 cycles/degree of spatial resolution to the eye. 

As a reminder, normal vision, as measured by a Snellen Chart (the E chart) at 20/20, is 30 cycles/degree. Our eyes are able to resolve, in the Central Island of the Fovea up to 60 cycles per degree.  Psychovisual researchers have found that we have something they call "hyperacuity" which accounts for our eye-brain processing to see details beyond the physical limits of the retina. Depending on the context of the image, hyperacuity can be from 120 to 360 cycles/degree. For our purposes, lets say 120 cycle/degree is sufficient resolution for a display to re-produce the image’s spatial details.

UHDTV, having 4x the pixels, is designed for viewing at 1.5x picture height distance, or about a 62 degree FOV. This requires a full 3840x2160 image for the hyperacuity criteria of 120cycles/degree at the 1.5PH distance ("half a Lechner"). 

Two points to consider here: Are we watching at 1.5 picture heights?  For a 65” diagonal display, this is about 4 feet—not the typical living room viewing scenario of couch to wall of 8-9 feet. Also given that the Fovea region of the eye (the area of the retina with the highest spatial frequency response) represents a 6 degree FOV, sitting at 4 feet requires more head movements by the viewer to be able to track moving objects on screen than if viewed from 3 PH. This may not only be uncomfortable, but as well turning one’s head introduces motion blur with reduced resolution in the eye.  

The second point is if the screen is doubled in height so the viewing distance doubles to 8 feet (one "Lechner"), is this a reasonable assumption? Well, a double-height from 65” diagonal screen measures 130” (10.8 feet) diagonally, certainly not feasible for a typical house nor household budget!

Most of us view our TV’s at around 8 feet. A program in HD resolution provides "sufficient spatial quality" for our enjoyment of the program on a UHDTV. Does this mean that there is no benefit to watching in UHD?  There is of course, especially if you have larger displays and are viewing at a closer distance—but the differences are subtle. Also, UHD programs can come with improvements such as HDR (High Dynamic Range) and wider color (Rec 2020).

Compression and Production Standards
Are there other factors affecting the received resolution? Yes, video compression. While the compression efficiency of HEVC makes UHD possible to be delivered over ATSC 3.0 (the new digital terrestrial standard) as well as via the internet (OTT), satellite and cable, there are tradeoffs between the available bit rate, video complexity and resolution.  

Modern video compression algorithms use adaptive compression techniques that reduce spatial resolution to avoid annoying compression artifacts. When the available bandwidth over the internet drops, OTT distribution servers switch to lower bandwidth renditions that may have less than full UHD resolution.

What about program production? Movies are produced in 4K so UHD can be produced from the cinema master. Live production (mostly sports) has moved up to 1080p60, from which HDTV (either 1080i or 720p) can be extracted as well as upconverted to UHD for distribution.  

Some of these live events are also produced using HDR and wide color (the UltraHD Forum Guidelines define UHD as including 1080p60 with HDR and wide color.  Big event productions (recently the Olympics from Japan and China) were produced in UHD (either 4K or 8K) along with HDR and wide color, delivered in UHD over cable, satellite, and the internet as well as in HDTV.

In summary, there have been steady improvements in the image processing embedded in TV sets that convert all forms of video formats to be displayed on an UHD TV with sufficient spatial quality.  Viewing at home with a modern flat panel UHD TV, both native UHD as well as HDTV programs can be satisfying experiences.

FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design has announced that the 2022 Billboard Women in Music Awards was captured with Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2 cameras. 

California and Nevada based production company Hollywood Motion Picture Experience (HMPE) supplied a 4K and 12G workflow for the live broadcast which was supported by the cameras and additional Blackmagic Design gear. 

For the 2022 event, executive producers Tim Owens, owner of Liquid Arts Media, and Jenifer Hersch, vice president productions at Redrock Entertainment, brought HMPE onboard for its expertise in delivering the 4K and 12G workflow.

“The unique thing about our production truck is that it’s built around Ultra HD and cinema glass, as well as a Blackmagic Design 12G workflow,” said HMPE CEO Todd Fisher. “The event was quite a production because it was broadcast in Ultra HD 59.94 full 12G, which might have been the first of its kind for a live award show.”

Supplying six URSA Broadcast G2s along with two Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 digital film cameras, HMPE outfitted the cameras inside the theater with Blackmagic Camera Fiber Converters. 

The feeds were sent back via fiber to the truck, which also housed Blackmagic Studio Fiber Converters, an ATEM Constellation 8K live production switcher, ATEM 4 M/E Advanced Panel, ATEM Camera Control Panels and Smart Videohub 12G 40x40 router for camera switching and CCU control. All camera feeds were ISO recorded via several HyperDeck Studio 4K Pro broadcast decks.

“Our truck became the camera truck with the fiber workflow and CCU capability. We even had a DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel next to the CCUs, so we were color grading as well,” noted Fisher. “The look the cameras provided and the glass used were very important to Tim, and we were able to deliver on both fronts thanks to the Blackmagic Design cameras.”

“As a former filmmaker, I know image is critical,” he added. “A lot of cameras have good sensors, but the real question is, ‘What does the end product look like and how much control do I have over it?’ In that regard, the cameras’ integrated DaVinci Resolve technology is a huge selling point. Being able to build LUTs, set them in camera and finesse color grading from there is a huge tool for us.”

Fisher also cited the URSA Broadcast G2’s interchangeable lens mount as essential to the workflow. “We were using high end, PL-mounted cinema lenses with some of the cameras. Since we were in a remote truck, Redrock Micro devised a motor, controller and cable solution which allowed for iris control of the lenses for all the locked off cameras using the PL glass,” he explained. “It’s a great solution that gives new life to the sought after non motorized lenses out there.”

“We also have a lot of high end HD and Ultra HD B4 lenses, but many cameras will automatically center crop the image or there will be vignetting with the HD lenses,” Fisher continued. “But that’s not a factor anymore with the URSA Broadcast G2 and its 4K B4 mount. Instead of worrying if the lens will hold up and if I have to crop to make it look good, the URSA Broadcast G2 and the lenses work great with no detectable loss.”

“It’s a seamless way to utilize any high end B4 lens, and there is amazing value there in my opinion as an end user of these lenses,” concluded Fisher. “We shoot cinema, remote truck and studio applications, and in all of these environments, the Blackmagic Design cameras have proven themselves time and time again.”

FUJIFILM has launched the Fujinon UA107x8.4BESM-T45 (UA107x8.4), a 4K broadcast zoom lens with a new image-stabilization mechanism and customization capabilities, as well as the Fujinon ERD-50A-D01 (ERD-50A ) zoom rate demand unit, which features a large LCD panel.

The UA107x8.4 is a 107x zoom with a redesigned image stabilization mechanism, making it easier to shoot 4K video when combined with the ERD-50A, the company said.

The lens is a 4K-compatible broadcast lens offering an ultra-high 107x magnification zoom, covering the focal length range from 8.4 to 900 mm. Equipped with newly redesigned image stabilization mechanism, the lens can accurately correct image blurs caused by wind or shaking without any time lag. The built-in LCD panel allows users to adjust shooting settings in detail, it said.

Key UA107x8.4BESM-T45 features include:

• Newly designed image stabilization.
• 107x magnification covering focal lengths from 8.4mm to 900mm.
• Built-in LCD panel to allow detailed adjustment to shooting settings.
• Advanced resolving power, rich tonality.
• Aspherical element and fluorite elements to control various types of aberration.
• Can be combined with ERD-50A zoom rate demand unit and EPD-51A focus positon demand unit.

The ERD-50A zoom rate demand unit features an LCD panel and a four-way operation button for intuitive and uncomplicated operation. Used with the UA107x8.4, it enables choice of the optimum zoom curve to match a particular scene from 200 options, the company said.

The unit’s Aux button includes a display for checking shooting settings, including functions assigned to the Aux button and the on/off status of image stabilization while shooting video, it said.

Key ERD-50A-D01 features include:

• LCD panel and a four-way button that can accommodate lever operations.
• Assignment of favorite functions to the AUX button.
• Choice of zoom curves/zoom patterns optimized for shooting scenes.
• 200 zoom curves and three zoom patterns available.
• Optimized layout of switches.
• Up to nine sets of personal settings.

More information is available on the FUJIFILM website. 

WAYNE, NJ,—JVC Professional Video has announced that its new 4K KY-PZ400NW/NB PTZ cameras, the newest addition to its Connected Cam line of cameras, are now available. 

The HD versions of the PTZs, the KY-PZ200NW/NB and the more economical HD KY-PZ200W/B, will begin shipping in November, the company said. 

The cameras are designed to be particularly suitable for sports, concerts and other live event broadcasts or productions and provide new creative streaming possibilities for an ever-evolving remote media landscape, JVC said. 

With integrated NDI|HX technology from the Vizrt Group, the KY-PZ400NW/NB and KY-PZ200NW/NB cameras offer a high-quality, low-latency IP video transmission standard that is ideal for streaming.

All three camera options provide optimal image quality and performance for remote production over the internet, and are equipped with SRT technology, H.265/H.264/MJPEG encoding and VITC (Vertical Interval Timecode) multi-camera synchronization. Each model is also available in black or white to best match the ambience of the venue/project.

JVC said that NDI-enabled devices like JVC’s new PTZ NDI camera exponentially increase the video sources available for storytellers, creating efficiencies and opportunities that did not previously exist.

“We are excited to provide this functionality in our new 4K and HD PTZ production cameras and look forward to shipping these new cameras to our customers,” said Joe D’Amico, vice president, JVC Professional Video. “With the 4K model shipping now and the HD-versions shipping later this year, current and prospective JVC customers can enjoy the benefits and freedom that NDI technology brings to their streaming productions.”

All three cameras also include SRT, HTTP, RTSP, RTMP/RTMPS and standard protocols. With SRT open-source technology now becoming synonymous to JVC cameras, PTZ users are afforded a truly future-proofed solution with continual firmware updates, JVC said. 

The advanced streaming capabilities of the incorporated SRT technology adds automatic repeat request (ARQ) and forward error correction (FEC) to prevent packet loss typically found on internet connections. It also offers stream encryption for content protection. 

When paired with the JVC BR-DE900 ProHD Decoder, the PTZ camera/decoder solution delivers optimal quality of service over any network for an unparalleled viewing experience, JVC said. 

A professional-grade, high-performance IP streaming system component, the BR-DE900 decoder supports the latest bandwidth efficient HEVC/H.265 and H.264/AVC compression standards. It also features a robust, portable enclosure that’s perfectly suited for field use, and provides best-in-class video quality and industry-standard audio/video connectivity.

The incorporated Vertical Interval Time Code (VITC) with Network Time Protocol (NTP) provides the new JVC PTZ cameras with multi-camera synchronization for live event production. This feature is ideal for mixing and streaming concerts, shows, sports and other live productions where image synchronization is crucial. Remote control capabilities are made possible through the JVC RM-LP100 Remote Camera Controller, JVC KM-IP6000/4000 Live IP Production Suites or a variety of other options from vMix, OBS Studio and NewTek, JVC explained. 

For remote conferences and lectures, the KY-PZ200N and KY-PZ200 support UVC (USB Video Class), which enables the cameras to be used as webcams. Both models can be directly connected to a PC using a USB cable (sold separately), making them ideal for a range of educational and other digital applications.

Equipped with a 4K 1/2.5-inch progressive scanning CMOS image sensor, the KY-PZ400N has a wide angle of view (approx. 26.4mm @35mm equivalence), 0.5 Lux of minimum illumination and 16x digital zoom. The KY-PZ200N and KY-PZ200 include an HD 1/2.8-inch progressive CMOS image sensor, as well as 20x optical zoom reaching out to 606.9mm @35mm equivalence. All three cameras have HDMI and 3G-SDI, RJ45 with PoE, RS232 and RS485 interfaces standard.

The new KY-PZ400N camera (MSRP: $2,599) is now shipping; while the new KY-PZ200N (MSRP: $2,099) and KY-PZ200 (MSRP: $1,899) are scheduled for availability this November.

For more information, visit JVC’s website at http://pro.jvc.com or call (800) 582 5825.

STAMFORD, Conn. & TOKYO—As NBCUniversal broadcasts and streams more than 7,000 hours of coverage at this year’s Games in July and August, it will be relying on a small army of technologists, both inside NBCU and at companies that will be providing a host of new technologies.  

Their behind-the-scenes work will be providing the first 4K HDR images, as well as rapid editing and replay systems that will bring the drama of the games to life and ad systems that will help NBCU monetize the massive investments it’s made in the games. 

Here is our guide to many of the companies, from Amagi to Xytec, that will be providing technologies and services to NBC Olympics during the Tokyo Games as well as a few vendors that are working with other organizations. 

Amagi

NBC Olympics will be using Amagi to provide UHD playout with cloud automation. The company will deploy Amagi CLOUDPORT, and the live sports/news automation solution, Amagi LIVE, to create Olympic Channel’s live coverage in UHD. With HEVC playout and mezzanine quality UHD encoding, Amagi CLOUDPORT architecture creates a new benchmark for video transmission over IP, especially for a global and premium live sporting event such as the Olympic Games. Amagi is also providing deep integration with NBCUniversal’s existing workflows to ensure seamless operational capability to the network’s various teams.

Avid

Avid’s production tools will be used to generate a record amount of content for broadcast, OTT and social media and will play a key role in the remote production workflows that NBC will be using during the games. To support expanded Olympic production from NBC Sports’ facility in Stamford, NBC Olympics will deploy Avid’s MediaCentral solutions to drive Tokyo-based remote and on-site productions and workflows for both linear broadcast and streaming coverage. NBC Olympics is also using Avid NEXIS shared storage, Media Composer Ultimate and the Media Composer Cloud VM option in multiple international locations to connect and collaborate in real-time for content production and delivery.

Calrec

Calrec has been selected as the audio console provider and will equip NBC Olympics with a mix of Artemis and Brio consoles as well as six RP1 remote broadcast mixing systems to expand NBC Olympics coverage over a wider number of events. In total, there will be six Calrec Artemis consoles in NBC Sports’ International Broadcast Center in Stamford, Conn., with a 64 fader Artemis and a Brio console in the Main Control Room in Tokyo. Also in Tokyo, Calrec is supplying 32 fader Artemis to handle audio in the 4K control room and two 40 fader Artemis consoles for NBC Olympics’ fly packs. 

Canon

NBC Olympics has selected Canon U.S.A. to provide a wide variety of 4K UHD and HD field, portable and studio lenses for its production of the games. The broad array of Canon broadcast lenses being used include the UHD-DIGISUPER 90 long-zoom field lens, which provides outstanding 4K UHD imagery. Canon’s 4K and HD lenses will be at every venue and studio in Tokyo, allowing viewers to see NBC Olympics’ presentation of all the action. In addition, Canon service technicians will be on-site in Tokyo to ensure that every piece of equipment is in peak operating condition at all times.

Chyron

NBC Olympics will be using real-time graphics authoring and playout solutions from Chyron, including the Chyron Lyric X, a 4K-ready solution for graphics creation and playout. The systems will be used at NBC Sports’ International Broadcast Center in Stamford, Conn., to enable an agile graphics workflow that will make it possible for the broadcaster to take graphics quickly to air. Other Lyric systems will be deployed in the broadcaster’s control room in Tokyo to support graphics creation and playout for a select group of events. In addition, the broadcaster will rely on Chyron’s PRIME Video Walls solution for its presentations.

Comcast Technology Solutions

NBC Olympics and Peacock are relying on CTS to provide multiscreen video management and delivery of its production and CTS is helping power digital video experiences across several platforms, including NBC Sports, NBCOlympics.com, Peacock and NBC affiliates, as well as across websites, apps and set-top box VOD services. As part of that, NBC has deployed a suite of CTSuite services to provide centralized ingest of video assets, workflow management, video processing, linear and VOD metadata management, availability windows, content protection and ad policies. It also is delivering content delivery services, video player technology with closed captioning and accessibility enhancements and publishing across devices, sites and apps.

Dell Technologies

NBC Olympics will be using Dell Technologies to provide high performance storage systems for its production of the Tokyo games. It has deployed the Dell EMC PowerScale family of storage systems to digitally store video content captured at the Tokyo Olympics for sharing with viewers in the United States. PowerScale, powered by Dell EMC OneFS software to unify storage clusters on a single intelligent file system, will store and manage petabytes of data—the equivalent of millions of gigabytes—across two NBC Olympics production locations in Japan and one remotely at its headquarters in the United States.

Dolby

Comcast, the parent company of NBCU, will deliver feeds of the 2020 Summer Olympics from Tokyo in Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos immersive audio to its Xfinity subscribers. Both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos will be used to present the opening and closing ceremonies as well as popular sports, such as gymnastics, track and field, swimming, diving, beach volleyball, golf and tennis, at each night’s primetime show. NBC Olympics’ primetime coverage in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos will be available in most markets, and all X1 customers with eligible devices will be able to view re-airing of the shows the next day.

EVS

NBC Olympics has selected EVS to provide XT-VIA production servers for its coverage of the games. The EVS’ XT-VIA servers are being used for their 1080p – UHD HDR production on-site in their Tokyo and Stamford broadcast centers and other venues for the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer. With over three times the internal bandwidth of the flagship XT3 server, the XT-VIA provides 12-plus channels of 1080p and six or more channels of UHD-4K in both SDR and HDR, with a performance level that answers the high demands of NBC Olympics’ production.

Grass Valley

Grass Valley technologies, which has played a key role in the transition to IP at the NBC Sports facility in Stamford, Conn., will provide technologies and support for IP processing, control and monitoring of feeds during the Olympics. Grass Valley’s IP Media infrastructure has been deployed at the IBC, leveraging control of a Cisco Spine and Leaf switching topology through the GV Orbit NMOS compliant router control and configuration system. System management is enabled via the GV Orbit dynamic orchestration system. As part of the wider IP infrastructure, Grass Valley has also provided MADI audio gateway products, and the Audio Live multi-stream audio processing solution. 

Innovid

NBC Olympics has selected Innovid to provide ad management solutions for its presentation of the Tokyo Olympics. Innovid will manage third-party ads across NBC Olympics’ leading CTV apps, including NBC Sports and Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA, using the Innovid-powered Olympics Ad Manager. The service will be part of a new Olympics advertising suite, including NBCUniversal’s previously announced Olympics Ad Engine, which applies human curation, machine learning and computer vision to historical Olympic Games ad performance and data, and applies these learnings to new scripts, storyboards, or rough cuts of ads to make suggestions on how these ads can be modified for greater impact.

Mediakind

MediaKind will provide video contribution and distribution solutions for the production of the Tokyo Olympics, including a range of video processing and advanced modular receiver technologies. MediaKind’s specialist engineers will also provide assistance through the installation of equipment and system set-up. The engineers will be present on-site 24/7 to offer multi-site support throughout the event. MediaKind’s encoding solutions were used by NBC Olympics for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games and prior to that, MediaKind supported NBC Olympics’ production of Turin 2006, Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010, London 2012, Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016.

Ross Video 

NBC Olympics will be using Ross Video for augmented reality productions during the Tokyo Games, with Ross will be providing both a graphics rendering solution and a production crew. Ross Video’s in-house creative and professional services division, Rocket Surgery will be deploying Voyager, the graphics rendering solution (based on the Unreal 4 engine from Epic Games) along with production crew to integrate the graphic elements designed by the NBC Olympics graphics team and operate the technology on the air.

RTS

RTS will supply broadcast intercom systems and support for the Olympics production as well as providing support for NBC Olympics’ transition to IP. RTS’s trunking solutions will allow all of NBC’s local and global locations to work together in a single virtual location. The installation for NBC Olympics’ coverage of the Tokyo Olympics will be full IP, comprising over 600 ports and leveraging two RTS technologies: Omneo high-quality audio for local communication and RVON for international comms. 

Signiant

NBC Olympics is deploying Signiant intelligent file transfer software. The software will move petabytes of footage from Tokyo back to Stamford, Conn. immediately after it is captured, allowing NBC to leverage their talent and equipment in Stamford. Signiant’s network optimization technology also allows for seamless transfer of the footage over standard IP networks, eliminating latency and packet loss, so that editors in Stamford can very quickly begin creating highlights. In addition, the software will be used to transfer content, including advanced graphics work and pre-recorded footage, quickly and securely back to the broadcast center in Tokyo.

Sony 

NBC will use nearly 100 Sony cameras as well as several Sony production switchers and 4K monitors to capture high resolution imagery. The technology will help NBC use newer, more flexible IP infrastructures and capture high resolution imagery with workflows for 1080p, 4K and HDR. A number of Sony cameras, including the HDC-3500, will be used for IP-enabled transmission, while the rest will operate in SDI. NBC Olympics will also use several of Sony’s production switcher models – including the flagship XVS-9000 4K/3G/HD IP-ready switcher and the XVS-8000 and XVS-6000 4K/3G/HD video switchers designed for IP- and SDI-based production. Hundreds of Sony’s professional monitors, including 4K Master Monitors, will also be deployed. 

TAG Video System

TAG Video Systems is the OTT monitoring provider for the production. TAG Video Systems will provide NBC Olympics with an integrated software-based IP probing, monitoring and multiviewer solution to monitor MPEG Transport Streams originating in Tokyo, which are then logged, categorized and archived in NBC Sports’ International Broadcast Center in Stamford, Conn. The system will run on true COTS off-the-shelf servers and give NBC Olympics the ability to view metrics and evaluate the health of the signals every step of the way. It will also allow NBC Olympics the flexibility to custom configure the broadcasts on its multiviewers to fit any desired scenario. 

Telestream

Telestream’s products will be used for media capture and automated processing workflows during the Tokyo Olympics in ways that will allow the broadcaster to simultaneously produce both high-dynamic range (HDR) and standard dynamic range (SDR) content. NBC Olympics will utilize Telestream’s Lightspeed Live Capture and Vantage media processing platform to perform the unique, mixed HDR/SDR workflow. The Lightspeed Live Capture systems will receive 1080p59.94 HDR signals from the events and create media simultaneously to two different formats. In addition, NBC Olympics will leverage the complete suite of UHD/4K Waveform Monitors from Telestream’s Tektronix Video product family supporting UHD/HDR formats and ITU-R BT.2020 wide color gamut (WCG), Master Sync and Master Clock Reference Generators to support its coverage.

Xytech

Tokyo will mark the ninth consecutive Olympic Games where NBC Olympics will be using Xytech’s ScheduALL to manage the complex production of Olympics. The deployment will allow NBC Olympics to leverage Xytech’s software and services to orchestrate the logistics of people, equipment, locations and transmission feeds.

Other vendors who have announced what they will be doing at the Olympics include: 

LiveU

NBC Sports is using LiveU exclusively and rented 15 LU600s and 2 LU800 PROs.  NBC Sports will be leveraging LU800 to shoot in HDR and will use LiveU units to mix in their own camera angles, in additional to the OBS cameras, for 25 sports. They are also leveraging LiveU’s next-gen IP video management and distribution platform, LiveU Matrix to share content across other NBC stations including the NBC Sports Regional Sports Networks.

NBC Station Group rented 12 units and LiveU set up 12 Matrix channels to stream directly to. The NBC & Telemundo stations are taking whatever of the 12 shots they want directly from Matrix in real-time. They are also sharing the feeds with NBC Network, NBC News CH, NBC Sports & CNBC.

Telemetrics

The Associated Press is relying on a unique, remotely controlled robotic camera system designed and built by Telemetrics to capture images of the Opening Ceremony and to capture still images of swimmers and divers as they hit the water and swim up from the depths of the pool for diving and swimming events, including synchronized swimming. In all, AP will use six of the robotic camera control systems. Some will be equipped with a Sony Alpha 9 II mirrorless camera; others with the Sony Alpha 1. A Telemetrics PT-CP-S5 remote-control pan/tilt head inside a Telemetrics PT-WP-S5 weatherproof camera housing, which is placed inside a waterproof housing, called the PL-HOUL-S5 pool housing, will keep the system dry and give AP full control over the cameras.

TVU Networks

TVU has announced that it is providing extensive support for new and existing customers at the Summer Games with a variety of services and products. TVU’s help at the game includes tech support, live pool feeds, rights cleared access to live video feeds, free use of TVU Anywhere full HD live transmission of video for athlete interviews and stories, and on-site studio and camera crew services. TVU also has an extensive inventory of TVU One mobile transmitters for rent in Tokyo, as well as the TVU Remote Production System (RPS) for multi-camera REMI production and professional ENG camera crews to cover the event.

latakoo

Austin based latakoo provided file transfer and media workflow technologies that were used by major such broadcasters Nexstar Nexstar Media Group. latakoo’s Flight app allowed journalists to securely drag, drop and upload video from their computer or phone, allowing stations to access the content and push it out quickly to viewers on-air and online.

latakoo also gave athletes and their families access to the Flight mobile app so they could easily send candid behind-the-scenes videos and photos from their phones directly to media organizations. With extensive pandemic precautions in force in Tokyo, latakoo simplified the transfer of video among athletes, content producers and broadcasters.

SAN BRUNO, Calif.—YouTube TV has announced a number of significant improvements to its service, including the launch of a $20 a month 4K Plus tier, the imminent rollout of 5.1 surround sound and some new features for watching live sports. 

“4K Plus will bring some of the most highly requested features to YouTube TV, including the ability to watch 4K content on YouTube TV for the first time,” noted Kathryn Smith product manager, YouTube TV in a blog post announcing the new services and features. “With a compatible 4K enabled TV and/or streaming device, you can enjoy watching content in one of the best, most crisp resolutions.”

The new 4K Plus service also allows subscribers to download shows to watch offline and gives subscribers unlimited streams, up from three on the current base package. 

Smith also noted that 5.1 Dolby audio capabilities, which have “been one of [the] biggest requests” from users, will start rolling out “to select devices over the coming weeks, so you can soon watch movies as if you were in the theater, and enhance your watch experience even more with surround-sound audio.”

Improving the experience of watching live sports has also been a major focus at the service, Smith said. 

She noted that “last year, we introduced a new feature that allows you to jump to various segments within news programs on YouTube TV, and are excited to bring this to sports this year. Similar to our key plays view, for some events you’ll be able to jump to specific moments while you catch up live or when watching a DVR recording. That means if you’re looking to catch up on the tennis women’s singles event, you can get right into the action.”

In addition, YouTube TV has added a feature that lets users search for any sport to add to your DVR and it recently added the key plays feature directly to search on mobile. “If you want to find all the 3-pointers in your library, you can find them with one click,” she said. 

Finally, it has added a medal count view for Olympics coverage. 

IRVINE, Calif.—Teradek has introduced the Bolt 4K LT Max, a 4K HDR wireless video transmitter-receiver solution offering more than 5,000 feet of line-of-sight range in a compact, rugged form factor.

Bolt 4K LT Max is powered by the third-generation Amimon 4K chipset and is interoperable with the entire lineup of Bolt 4K, Bolt 4K LT and Bolt 4K Monitor modules.

“The Bolt 4K LT line is the onramp to 4K and HDR on-set monitoring, but it has been missing an ultra-long-range powerhouse,” said Greg Smokler, GM of Cine Production at Creative Solutions. “We’ve taken the pocket-sized envelope of the 4K LT and packed in the incredible long-range performance of the full Bolt 4K Max, resulting in the perfect balance of size and performance.”

With a redesigned wireless chipset and RF hardware sending 10-bit 4:2:2 video at up to 4Kp30 via HDMI and 1080p60 via SDI, Bolt 4K LT Max provides sharper images and richer color detail. Bolt 4K LT Max offers built-in connectivity to Android and iOS devices. The Bolt Manager app allows for quick pairing and configuration as well as enhanced encryption, the company said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

SEATTLE—AWS announced the general availability of AWS Elemental Link UHD, a High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) encoding device that makes it simple and cost efficient to connect a live ultra-high definition (UHD) video source, like a camera or other video production equipment, to AWS Elemental MediaLive for video processing in the AWS Cloud, the company reported. 

With Link UHD, users can seamlessly create high dynamic range (HDR) outputs, including HDR 10 and HLG, in MediaLive channels to ensure a high-quality picture for a range of streaming applications, including enterprise events, live sports and music.

AWS Elemental Link UHD offers high performance HEVC encoding for UHD (up to 2160p at 60 fps with 10 bit color depth) video feeds, in addition to the features included in the AWS Elemental Link HD encoder. 

The Link UHD and Link HD devices ship fully configured to the user’s AWS account, simplifying the setup process.  

They can be controlled and monitored remotely using the MediaLive console. Users simply connect the device to a power source, an IP network, and an SDI or HDMI video source, and the video is automatically accessible in the MediaLive console in less than a minute.

All AWS Elemental Link devices work with AWS Elemental MediaLive, part of AWS Media Services, a suite of cloud-based services that streamline video creation, transport, packaging, storage, monetization and delivery.   

For more information on Link UHD, visit the AWS Elemental Link product page.