WASHINGTON—NASA's on-demand streaming service, NASA+, has launched a FAST (Free Ad-Supported Television) channel on Prime Video.

The May 6 launch gives viewers another way to watch the agency's aeronautics, human spaceflight, science, and technology missions unfold on screen, NASA said.

"Streaming NASA+ on multiple platforms allows the agency to more efficiently share its missions, from launching astronauts to the International Space Station, to going behind the scenes with the team that defends Earth against asteroids, to showcasing new, high-definition images of the cosmos," said Wes Brown, acting associate administrator for the Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "NASA provides an up-close look at how the agency explores the secrets of the universe for the benefit of all by ensuring content is easily accessible and widely available to the public."

In addition to the FAST channel, NASA+ is available to download without a subscription on most major platforms via the NASA App on iOS and Android mobile and tablet devices, as well as streaming media players like Roku, Apple TV, and Fire TV. Users also may stream online at https://plus.nasa.gov.

Producers of “When We Were Shuttle” shot the PBS documentary on a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K digital film camera and color graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, grading, visual effects VFX and audio post production software, the company said this week.

“When We Were Shuttle,” which premiered on PBS in November 2022, is a documentary commissioned by Miami PBS member station WLRN, exploring the Space Shuttle Program through six exceptional men and women who worked behind the scenes to make it fly. Through their recollections and personal archives, the film dives into the core of the humanity behind the Program, with a unique, grassroots look at the way Shuttle affected life until the program’s end in 2011. Directed by Zachary Weil and photographed by Kyle McConaghy, the film premiered at the Kennedy Space Center's IMAX theater in October 2022.

In 2019, Weil produced a documentary called “When We Were Apollo” for WLRN. The film was well received and the station asked about future projects. “The space shuttle seemed like a very natural segue from this first effort,” he said.

McConaghy chose Blackmagic Design’s Pocket Cinema Camera 6K for its form factor.  “From a handling standpoint, the Pocket 6K is so well designed,” he said. “We were following our subjects around just holding the camera, and looking at the footage, you would think at the very least we had an easy rig or even some more significant stabilization. But the size and weight are pretty ideal for handheld work.”

Though the production was often a “run and gun” style, Weil and McConaghy still wanted as high a cinematic quality as possible, while being sensitive to storage needs. “Aside from the beautiful image and form factor, shooting long interviews with Blackmagic RAW is such a game changer,” continued McConaghy. “We shot at full 6K (6144 x 3456) using constant quality settings Q3 or Q5 and I couldn’t believe how many hours of footage we were able to shoot with just one or two CFAST cards.”

McConaghy color graded the project himself in DaVinci Resolve Studio. “Zack and I drew a lot of our look inspiration from the archival material that we collected,” said McConaghy. “A lot of it was captured in either 16 mm film stock, or Kodachrome if it was still photography. So we talked a lot about trying to create and foster a look that was the total opposite of the subject matter that we were dealing with, that being space. Space is a very sterile and cold environment. Our solution was to really go in the opposite direction: shoot and grade our subjects to feel warmer and more familiar.”

McConaghy also appreciated the abilities Blackmagic RAW gives in the grading process. “Post was a dream with the camera,” said McConaghy. “Blackmagic RAW’s highlight retention was great, which helped us dial in a slightly retro look to match the archival material.”

“When We Were Shuttle” is available at https://video.pbsnc.org/video/when-we-were-shuttle-zdzfps/

The camera used to capture the first image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has been built and developed by Lockheed Martin.

The image is a composite made from images at different wavelengths, totaling 12.5 hours, said NASA.

Lockheed Martin describes the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) as one of the most sensitive infrared cameras ever built.

It was created as Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Palo Alto, California, for the University of Arizona.

“NIRCam is a first-of-its-kind camera, and we are proud to have built this primary imager on the Webb telescope,” said Alison Nordt, space science and instrumentation director for Lockheed Martin.

“It also played a crucial role aligning Webb’s optics, as it informed what adjustments needed to be made.”

As part of those adjustments, the camera had to sense incoming infrared light and take images that helped the telescope’s systems properly align its 18 primary mirror segments.

The telescope will use NIRCam to take images throughout its entire mission, which the company said means it will have to function with utmost precision and stability in temperatures as cold as -400 degrees Fahrenheit.

To enable operations in deep space, Lockheed Martin has developed a new technique for bonding NIRCam’s optics mounts together, which it says guarantees neither cold nor slight vibrations will cause shifts in the microscopically precise alignment of NIRCam’s lenses.

For more coverage on the latest images released by NASA visit our sister brand space.com.

This article originally appeared on TVBEurope.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—SMPTE, along with Baylor University and NASA, is set to explore what colors lie beyond RGB as part of its new SMPTE + series, “Expanding the Color Universe: The Next Frontier in Imaging.” Offering a mix of interactive events and on-demand content, “Expanding the Color Universe” is set to take place on June 3.

The first of four SMPTE + series events scheduled for 2021, “Expanding the Color Universe” is inspired by astronauts and how the color they experience in space often does not translate back on Earth. The event will offer information on the “colors between the colors” that lie beyond RGB and toward the outer limit of what the eye can see, according to SMPTE. The half-day event will feature live presentations, chats, demos and panel discussions featuring technologists, creatives and NASA experts, as well as a complementary content library.

Dylan Mathis, communication manager for NASA’s International Space Station program, and Baylor University researcher Corey Carbonara, along with other experts, will be on hand for the event to discuss topics like 6P Color innovations and the expanded color gamut.

Baylor and 6P Color Inc. are collaborating to capture, process and display better color images using novel multiprimary technologies that will be explained during the event. Carbonara describes multiprimaries as a box of crayons with thousands of colors to create an image.

SMPTE + subscribers will gain access to a curated content library prior to the event.

“Expanding the Color Universe: The Next Frontier in Imaging” will take place on June 3 at 10 a.m. ET. For more information, or to register for the event, visit plus.smpte.org/2021plus.  

PARIS—Vitec is getting involved in space, as the company announced that it has collaborated with NASA to provide IPTV technology to monitor and maintain equipment on the Orion spacecraft that will be used for human missions to the moon and Mars.

IPTV technology brings enhanced capabilities that allow for video technology to be “the eyes” for NASA as to any potential problems, Vitec says.

“NASA needed a decoder that could be compatible with video feeds coming from sophisticated—but proprietary—on-board IP cameras developed by NASA and its contractors to capture video in space,” said Richard Bernard, senior product manager, Vitec.

Vitec worked with NASA to develop video decoders that are compatible with proprietary and open standards workflows. A result of this work was Vitec being able to adjust stream capture module capabilities to manage a range of feeds used for the Orion missions under different conditions and circumstances.

Vitec also claims that its hardware decoding platform ensures that video frames can be decoded and rendered on industry video standard outputs, such as HDMI or SDI, at any frame rate, frame resolution or bitrate for distribution with those working on the Orion mission at the space center.

For more information, visit www.vitec.com.  

WASHINGTON—NASA has issued a call for proposals for potential partners that will help visually share the upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon, with the hope of engaging, exciting and inspiring a worldwide audience, the agency said.

“We’re looking for partners to use advanced technologies, imagery applications and approaches that will go beyond our standard coverage on NASA TV,” said Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator. “We want to capture the awe of Apollo for a new generation—the Artemis Generation. Just as people were glued to the TV 50 years ago as astronauts took the first steps on the Moon, we want to bring people along in this new era of exploration.”

The Artemis program has the goal of exploring more of the lunar surface and establishing a sustainable human presence in preparation for future human missions to Mars. NASA hopes to be able to share parts of the mission through this new partnership as soon as Artemis II, which is targeted for 2023.

While NASA already has cameras and other technical equipment on its spacecrafts, the agency says it is looking for a partner that would help include innovative technologies or hardware, such as cameras or other equipment, to augment existing NASA imagery. NASA cites 360-degree field-of-view cameras, virtual reality, advanced imagery compression, unique distribution methods, 4K/UHD cameras, robotic third-person views, crew handheld camera systems, image stabilization, small portable cameras or anything that could deliver a custom viewer experience.

Any proposal should outline the proposed public engagement project, potential to enhance public understanding of the Artemis program, distribution mechanisms, requested support from NASA and a description of the unique technology a partner might seek to place on or in NASA’s Orion spacecraft or other NASA equipment/facilities.

There is also an opportunity to submit a proposal that improves the storytelling experience but that does not require partner-provided equipment through NASA’s standard film and TV collaboration process.

All proposals are due by Dec. 11 at 11:59 p.m. ET. More information is available on NASA’s website. 

HACKENSACK, N.J. & WATERLOO, Ontario—LiveU and Dejero have announced their participation in the NASA TV broadcast of the historic NASA Commercial Crew Program launch with SpaceX that is scheduled to take place on May 27.

A consortium of companies, including TVU Networks, are aiding the broadcast of the launch—the first of American astronauts to take off from American soil since 2011—so video can be transmitted to broadcasters from all over, especially as the coronavirus pandemic has limited on-site production capabilities.

LiveU will be providing its LU600 4K HEVC field unit to the NASA TV crew to document the astronaut’s trip from the holding area to the rocket ship launch pad and the subsequent launch. LiveU Matrix, meanwhile, will assist with the worldwide distribution of multiple positioned pool cameras—provided by the Central Florida Media Committee—to cover the launch.

For Dejero, its PathWay encoders/transmitters has been inserted into a portable broadcast kit to provide low-latency video, and the MultiPoint IP video distribution network will handle the multiple feeds from the pool cameras that can be simultaneously shared with Dejero customers. Local Florida station WJXT is also using two Dejero WayPoint receivers to reconstruct, decode and output feeds from PathWay transmitters.

Dejero customers can access the pool feeds from www.dejero.com/spacexlaunch. 

The NASA/SpaceX launch will take place on May 27 at 4:32 p.m. from Kennedy Space Center.

Full coverage will be available via NASA Live. 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—TVU Networks has announced that it will be part of a consortium of technology partners bringing live video of the historic NASA and SpaceX launch to global broadcasters on May 27.

The launch is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and will see a SpaceX rocket carry NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to the International Space Station. This is the first time that NASA has launched astronauts from American soil since 2011.

As part of the broadcast team, which also includes LiveU and Dejero, TVU will provide technical support and its IP-based TVU Grid platform to assist with the distribution of multiple live video pool feeds covering the launch.

Because of the current coronavirus pandemic and the need to practice social distancing, broadcasters around the world will be able to supplement their use of NASA Television’s feed with the additional isolated live video camera feeds provided by TVU and others without the need for on-site personnel.

“We’re thrilled to partner with NASA and local Florida broadcasters in bringing this significant undertaking to the world,” said Paul Shen, CEO of TVU Networks. “During this unprecedented time in the world, we are pleased to help with providing the technology needed to safely and effectively cover groundbreaking events such as the first ever commercial manned space launch.”

TVU Grid customers will be able to access the NASA feeds by logging into the TVU Command Center, choosing TVU Grid tab and selecting either of the NASA_Pool sources.

For more information, visit www.tvunetworks.com.  

WASHINGTON—More than 50 years after viewers were glued to their TV sets for the Apollo 11 Moon landing, NASA will once again broadcast a historical mission with coverage of the SpaceX Demo-2 test flight.

Part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, the SpaceX Demo-2 test flight will have NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley travel to the International Space Station, the first time that a commercially built and operated American rocket will carry humans to the space station. The event also marks the first time astronauts have launched into space on American rockets and from American soil since 2011.

NASA will broadcast prelaunch and launch activities live on NASA Television and the agency’s website. The launch date is currently scheduled for May 27 at 4:32 p.m ET from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The docking to the ISS will be shown live at 11:29 a.m. ET on May 28.

This is intended to be the final test flight of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which has a goal of establishing “safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station,” NASA said.

Media coverage of the prelaunch events will be conducted remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic, while there will be a limited number of press at Kennedy Space Center to cover the launch.

For more information and a schedule of coverage, visit www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew.  

LAS VEGAS—NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has been confirmed as a featured speaker at the 2020 NAB Show to talk about the media technology that will be used to document the Artemis program, which is planning for a return to the Moon by 2024 and human exploration of Mars by the 2030s.

Part of Artemis’ mission will be to document the human expeditions of the program, including the first woman and next man on the Moon.  

“When we return to the Moon, the camera is the mission,” said Bridenstine. “Through advances in media technology, we look forward to sharing this incredible endeavor with the world using modern audio and video capabilities and distributing the content across an array of platforms.”

Bridenstine is NASA’s 13th administrator, serving as NASA’s CEO. He previously was a member of the U.S. Congress, representing Oklahoma, and served on the Armed Services Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee. He is also a veteran of the U.S. Navy.

Bridenstine will speak on the NAB Show Main Stage on Monday, April 20.

The 2020 NAB Show will take place from April 18-22 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. For more information, visit www.nabshow.com.

LOS ANGELES—The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), working with Amazon Web Services (AWS Elemental), tested a cloud-based streaming alternative to long-haul satellite distribution of video originating on the International Space Station at the 2019 Annual SMPTE Technical Conference and Exhibition.

Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir aboard the space station were interviewed via the link for attendees of the SMPTE conference, which is dedicating Thursday to space and imaging to mark the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landing on the moon.

The test aims to prove the viability of one day replacing the long-haul satellite link NASA uses to transport coverage from the Johnson Space Center in Houston of crew interviews, press conferences, launches and other events to the media, as well as to feed 24/7 365-coverage to NASA Television, says Rodney Grubbs, Imagery Experts program manager at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

NASA is considering replacing its round-the-clock coverage on NASA Television with a model that’s akin to the Olympics or ESPN coverage that presents live content when an event is actually happening via over-the-top distribution and web or phone apps, he says.

“Until very recently, it was very difficult to replace satellite for interactive content,” says Grubbs. “If we were relying strictly on the wild internet, the latency was just too great to make that viable,” he says.

Reliability is also an important concern, particularly since the space agency wants to make sure media outlets receive its feeds for their coverage of space developments, adds Grubbs.

For the SMPTE test, AWS Elemental Media Services is being used to transport content, produce it for the live event and ultimately deliver it through its cloud services, says Josh Winstead, technical marketing engineer at AWS Elemental.

“With the workflow we’ve put in place, MediaConnect [AWS Elemental’s live video transport service] allows us to replace what satellite transmission is usually used for,” says Winstead.

That workflow involves taking the content from the ISS that is downloaded at the Johnson Space Center, encoding it with an AWS Elemental live encoder and transporting it to MediaConnect, which is being used as the long-haul alternative to transport the content to SMPTE in Los Angeles, he says.

A backup path using the same steps is also being sent through NASA vendor Encompass, adds Winstead.

In Los Angeles, the signal is decoded and input into AWS Elemental production services for video switching, audio mixing and all of the other production tasks that are necessary. That content is then being output and re-encoded, sent to AWS Elemental’s MediaLive video processing service where an adaptive bit rate (ABR) stack is being created, sent to the AWS Elemental MediaPackage origin server and sent out to the CloudFront CDN for viewers of the livestream, says Winstead.

NASA is looking for ways to cut costs and complexity as it readies its Artemis project to return to the moon in 2024. Shifting most of its traditional video workflow and transport to the cloud could save expense, says Grubbs.

A few years earlier, Grubbs first saw the potential of transitioning away from long-haul satellite distribution to the cloud model at an AWS event. “What caught my attention with this was the demonstration that AWS showed me at AWS re:Invent in 2017, where they had the NFL side-by-side with digital satellite and an earlier version of this technology. I couldn’t tell a difference in the quality and AWS was ahead [of the satellite source],” says Grubbs.

At the SMPTE Conference, Grubbs and co-presenter Dylan Mathis, communications lead with the ISS at Johnson Space Center in Houston, are also discussing the challenges of sharing imagery from space and the need for solutions to help protect sensors and other electronic components from damaging radiation during space flight.

The interview from the ISS is being produced in 720p HD. In 2017, AWS Elemental worked with NASA on the first Ultra-HD video coverage from space.

The event is being broadcast on NASA TV and streamed live online. 

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.—Millions of people watched the grainy black and white footage of Neil Armstrong taking his first steps on the Moon in 1969; in a special commemorative livestream produced by NASA, millions more people celebrated the Moon landing’s 50th anniversary on July 20 with a helping hand from Teradek and its Cube encoders.

The live, multi-site two-hour TV special from NASA TV and The Science Channel featured Teradek’s Cube encoders as part of a mix of transmission technologies to help send high-quality video over IP from different regions in the country to the broadcast facility in at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In addition, the Teradek Core management platform was put in use to remotely route and configure encoders in the cloud.

Program feeds were delivered from Seattle, Houston, Huntsville, Ala., Washington, D.C., and Neil Armstrong’s birthplace, Wapakoneta, Ohio. All the feeds were managed, produced and distributed from the Kennedy Space Center to TV networks.

NASA had previously used Teradek technology for its 2017 live coverage of the Great American Eclipse across Facebook, YouTube, Twitch and NASA.gov.

LiveU and NASA TV have joined forces for a live special broadcast on Friday 19th July celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing.

NASA’s Giant Leaps: Past and Future – Celebrating Apollo 50th as we Go Forward to the Moonwill see NASA TV broadcast live from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the restored Apollo mission control room at Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

The live special will feature Apollo astronauts, scientists and engineers sharing personal reflections about journeying to the lunar surface.

The LiveU Matrix content management and distribution service will give broadcasters the ability to pick up the official NASA live feed over IP for free.

“We’re honored to help promote NASA’s amazing Apollo 11 Anniversary event,” said Mike Savello, LiveU VP of sales, Americas. “With LiveU Matrix, broadcasters can access high-quality live video and immediately distribute the content without sending a crew to cover the event. Instead, they can receive the official NASA feed and integrate components into their live newscast.”

The live show will take place on 19th July at 1 pm ET. Audiences can watch via the NASA Live website.

Even as NASA’s InSight Lander is hard at work 33.9 million miles way on Mars, members of its imaging and educational team will be working just as hard a bit closer to home.

A group of NASA engineers, imaging specialists and distance learning leaders will descend on the Government Video Expo this year to talk about the kind of work the space and aeronautical agency is doing when it comes to advances and experiments in imaging.

Sessions and keynote addresses delivered by experts from NASA are sprinkled across the agenda at this week’s show, including an insider’s look at the agency’s most recent high-definition challenge: recording and broadcasting video in 8K from the International Space Station.

[Read: Space Station Goes 8K]

At the Wednesday morning session titled “NASA’s Imaging Experiments and Advances,” NASA Imagery Experts Program Manager Rodney Grubbs will discuss how astronauts from NASA and the European Space Agency are recording in 8K their efforts to advance DNA sequencing, study space-grown vs Earth-grown plants, and shoot off indoor water jets. Video is being shot via a Helium 8K camera by digital camera company Red. Viewers are taken on a guided tour of the space station — as it orbits the planet at 17,000 mph — and get a glimpse of the station’s subzero space freezer and giant robotic outdoor arm.

“This new footage showcases the story of human spaceflight in more vivid detail than ever before,” said Dylan Mathis, communications manager for the International Space Station Program when the first 8K video was released in November. “The world of camera technology continues to progress, and seeing our planet in high fidelity is always welcome.”

NASA continues the conversation when the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Office of Education shares insider knowledge on how the agency uses instructional design models and different distance-learning technologies to facilitate virtual learning.

In the Wednesday session “NASA Goddard Distance Learning Models,” leaders of the agency’s distance learning and educational arm will give a preview of ADDIE, a framework for instructional design that NASA uses. Members of the Goddard team will talk about how ADDIE is implemented at NASA and how it is being paired with other learning models — such as webinar platforms, learning management system and videoconferencing — and how this helps the agency facilitate meaningful learning.

On Thursday, NASA will offer attendees a closer look at how it connects with its viewership in the session “Digital Engagement: How NASA Does Video.” The agency has 21 million followers on its digital platforms and retains their interest with a constantly updated series of videos, images, profiles and interviews.

Take the recent Mars landing, for example, where the world watched along with NASA engineers as they endured the so-called seven minutes of terror — the seven minutes that would determine whether the InSight Mars lander would land successfully on the Red Planet and send back images to Earth. After a journey of more than six months, the NASA InSight lander returned its first image from the surface of Mars. NASA gave viewers a 360-degree minute-by-minute view of the Mission Control Center as NASA engineers watched for word and showed viewers the first images via an instrument context camera mounted on the lander.

At this Thursday afternoon session at the GV Expo, NASA representatives will look at how the agency engages its digital audience into science and engineering topics — including live video, replays, 360-degree views, high-res illustrations, and recorded video and audio from the International Space Station.

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LOS ANGELES—“As above, so below” may be an apt theme for two presentations this morning on the first day of SMPTE 2017 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition in Hollywood, Calif.

One dealt with the steps NASA engineers working with digital cinema camera vendor RED and AWS Elemental took to deliver a live 4K UHD transmission from the International Space Station 250 miles above earth. The other offered a proposal for a new TV panel calibration method that takes into account the dynamic nature of HDR to provide a predictable panel state without limiting innovation on the part of vendors. While in quite different orbits, both shared the mission of finding a way to deliver the highest possible viewer experience.

CAN YOU SEE ME NOW?

Rodney Grubbs

First up was NASA program manager Rodney Grubbs who described the engineering involved in delivering live 4K UHD video via a RED Epic Dragon camera from the space station to an audience attending the 2017 NAB Show in Las Vegas. The days of NASA building its own custom solutions for imaging from space have passed, and the space agency now relies on commercially available products, which it might modify to meet its unique needs, said Grubbs.

Grubbs co-authored the “Engineering a Live UHD Program From the International Space Station” paper for SMPTE along with Sandy George, an engineer at SAIC, which contracts with NASA.NASA met with RED at the 2016 NAB Show and together they decided to use a RED camera as the source for a live UHD downlink from space, he said. However, the RED Epic Dragon is not a broadcast camera, so it lacked embedded audio, Grubbs explained. 

To overcome that hurdle, NASA decided to use audio from its existing HD camera onboard the space station and marry its sound output to the 4K video on the ground. But first, NASA had to settle upon the full tech package that would be delivered to the space station in December 2016 on Japan’s Logistics Carrier for the UHD live transmission in spring 2017. It included the RED Epic Dragon, Redcast, a module for the camera that provides four 1080p HD-SDI outputs and a one-off 4K UHD H.265 encoder, which AWS Elemental working with RED built specifically for the space agency, he said. The 18 Mbps UDP stream out of the encoder would then be sent to earth from the ISS, which is fully internet-compatible and is “an IP node” in space, he said. 

Testing revealed an offset of about four seconds between the 4K UHD video and the HD-camera-originated audio, Grubbs said. On the ground in NASA’s audio control room, both the 4K video and audio from the HD camera where taken back to baseband, synced and re-embedded as HD-SDI to create another UHD stream via another custom AWS Elemental encoder.

To get the live stream to Las Vegas, NASA would route the UDP 4K H.265 stream out of the encoder to the NASA TV hub at Encompass in Atlanta. From there, the stream would be decoded in Atlanta and uplinked to Las Vegas for the live 4K UHD stream at the 2017 NAB Show. As a backup, AWS Elemental put in a terrestrial link from Atlanta through Dallas to Las Vegas, he said. The end-to-end latency between the space station and Las Vegas was 10 seconds, which required a lot of planning, but proved to be manageable with practice, said Grubbs.

DETERMINING NATIVE GAMMA CURVE

The second morning presentation “Proposed Measured Display Characterization File for HDR Consumer Displays,” by Tyler Pruitt of SpectralCal in Seattle, Wash., examined a method that bypasses high dynamic range during calibration to determine the native gamma curve of a consumer display.

HDR masters in almost all cases have a higher performance than consumer TVs, said Pruitt. At the same time, there is a major display performance delta between the highest-quality HDR consumer TV and the lowest. This requires color mapping in many cases to preserve the creative intent of the content producer. Some of the approaches include static metadata that accompanies content, dynamic metadata and in higher-end displays GPUs and CPUs that analyze frames in real time.

However, most content is viewed on lower-end, less costly sets that do not include these processors, he said. So, the challenge is finding out how to make those sets more accurate. At the same time, any calibration method should not interfere with the algorithms TV manufacturers use to optimize the performance of their panels, said Pruitt.

“If we start adjusting stuff after [the TV manufacturer’s color mapping] happens we are essentially deviating from what the picture-quality engineers at the TV manufacturers have decided is the correct tone map,” he explained. What Pruitt proposed is disabling all HDR mapping and conversion to gamma during calibration. That way, the panel would be measured in its HDR mode with its native gamma response, he said. 

In response to a question following his presentation, Pruitt said: “Most of these color management [modes in the set] are done with a 3x3 matrix, and they just put it to unity and give you the panel native vivid mode,” said Pruitt. “Put your 3x3 matrix that controls the color gamut into unity, and let’s measure what the actual primaries are,” Pruitt said. Then a consumer set can feed that data back to itself and calculate a new 3x3 matrixes from the actual measured data rather than an average of all panels, he said. 

Describing this method as “radical process” for calibrating HDR, Pruitt said this technique would be appropriate for home theater displays, televisions and theater projectors. He urged SMPTE to take up the proposal for standardization.

WASHINGTON—The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced today it will produce the first-ever live 4K video stream from space during a Super Session at the 2017 NAB Show. “Reaching for the Stars: Connecting to the Future with NASA and Hollywood,” will take place at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 26 in room N249 of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The panel is co-produced by NAB Show, NASA, and Amazon Web Services, and will explore how advanced imaging and cloud technologies are taking scientific research and filmmaking to the next level. The live feed from 250 miles above Earth will be encoded AWS Elemental encoding software on board the International Space Station and on the ground at Johnson Space Center.

The U.S. space agency is a pioneer in the application of advanced media—including 4K. By streaming real-time video that captures images four times the resolution of current HD technology, NASA is enhancing its ability to observe, uncover and adapt new knowledge of orbital and deep space.

During the NAB Show Super Session, a live 4K stream will enable NASA astronaut Dr. Peggy Whitson on the ISS to converse with AWS Elemental CEO and Co-founder Sam Blackman, who will be at the LVCC. In conjunction with the live 4K streaming event, NASA astronaut Dr. Tracy Caldwell Dyson and NASA Imagery Experts Program Manager Rodney Grubbs will take part in an LVCC-based panel discussion featuring Hollywood and technology leaders including Bernadette McDaid, head of development, VR & AR, Bau Entertainment; Khawaja Shams, vice president of Engineering for AWS Elemental; and Dr. Dave McQueeney, senior principal investigator, IBM Watson Group. The panel will be moderated by Carolyn Giardina, Technology Editor for The Hollywood Reporter.

The entire event will be available to the public for multiscreen viewing in live 4K and downconvertedHD at the AWS Live website, where video-on-demand also will be available after the event in lower resolutions. 4K-capable devices are required to view 4K content. AWS Elemental will deliver the live stream of the event via an AWS workflow that includes AWS CloudWatch, Amazon Route 53, and the Amazon CloudFront Content Delivery Network for public access in both 4K and HD. Roberts Communications Network LLC of Las Vegas, NV is providing the satellite downlink truck for the transmission from Johnson Space Center to the LVCC. Christie is providing full-resolution 4K projectors for in-room display during the Super Session.
Attendees will learn how:

• 4K and Ultra HD give NASA scientists a clearer, crisper view of their experiments, Earth, and the solar system;
• Live 4K video will help take research to the next level and allow NASA scientists to share discoveries as they are happening instead of after the fact;
• The powerful, first-ever live 4K streaming, cloud-enabled workflow from space works and how it can help commercial space endeavors and content creation;
• Hollywood and NASA inspire one another and the fascinating, surprising outcomes of this decades-long collaboration.

WASHINGTON—By 2030, NASA wants films like “The Martian” to not be science fiction, but science fact (though probably without leaving Matt Damon stranded). In the build up to landing on the Red Planet, the public agency is continuing to test imagery equipment so that it can effectively record data and share it with the public, as mandated through its charter.

Rodney Grubbs

On day two of the 2016 Government Video Expo and National Drone Show, Rodney Grubbs, program manager of NASA’s Imagery Experts Program at the Marshall Space Flight Center, didn’t have to look too far to find some stuff that could be useful for NASA when he gave his presentation, “More and Better Pixels: How NASA Plans to Use HDR, 4K, VR and Other Technologies to Take Everyone Along for the Ride to Mars.”

“There are technologies that are on the floor here that solve problems for us,” Grubbs said. “And with a few tweaks we can make them useful for us to go on the ride to deep space and take all the rest of us who don’t get to fly along for the ride.”

So much of the technology that is at the forefront of the industry right now—VR, HDR, UHD, HEVC—has potential applications for current and future NASA missions. HTC headsets are being used to train astronauts for situations on the International Space Station. 360-degree cameras are replacing older, more expensive pan-tilt systems. HDR is replacing film for getting as much detail as possible in videos from things like rocket plumes. HEVC helps send higher resolution videos and images in smaller bit-rates.

Grubbs even shared during his presentation news that Japan was going to launch a cargo vehicle from the U.S. to the space station carrying a new RED camera with a REDCAST device delivering live 4K video, as well as an HEVC encoder to speed up the process. “It will allow us, hopefully if everything comes together and works right, to do the first live UHD downlink from a spacecraft,” said Grubbs.

Back in the 60s and 70s, developing this type of technology fell almost entirely on the shoulders of NASA. But as the commercial industry has grown NASA is doing a lot more collaboration outside of its own walls. “We’re not creating from scratch a lot of imaging and visual technologies so much any more,” explained Grubbs. “It’s mostly taking commercial products and figuring out other ways to use it or tweak it.”

Getting to Mars is going to be a massive effort, and as Grubbs knowingly admits, there is no such thing as a perfect system. So NASA is open and willing to work with anyone that can help with creating the ideal imagery equipment to bring the journey to Mars to the world.

WASHINGTON—Rodney Grubbs, NASA Imagery Experts Program Manager, will present “More and Better Pixels, How NASA Plans to use HDR, 4K, VR and Other Technologies to Take Everyone Along for the Ride to Mars” at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 8, at the Government Video Expo at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Grubbs will discuss how NASA is currently developing plans for human exploration of Mars by the 2030’s.

Government Video recently spoke with Grubbs about his upcoming presentation at GV Expo and NASA’s future plans for virtual reality and other advance imaging technologies.

Government Video: Can you give us some background on what you will be presenting at GV Expo?

Rodney Grubbs: I will share some links to some interesting VR, UHD and Mars content. I will discuss how VR/360, HDR, and UHD technology actually solves technical challenges for acquiring imagery in space.

GV: How is NASA currently using 4K and HDR technology?

RG: A lot of historically significant events are captured in 4K or higher to provide a relevant archive for the future. 4K and higher resolution is also used in situations where the imagery provides analysis of systems, such as rocket engine tests (as a replacement for film). HDR similarly provides a replacement for film. Rocket launches are notoriously hard to capture because the engine plume is so much brighter than the rocket above it.

GV: How did you obtain/develop VR footage from Mars?

RG: Mars VRs are actually stitches of hundreds or sometimes even thousands of individual digital photos. We can’t get “video” from Mars, so this is the next best way to evaluate the rover’s surroundings.

GV: How will motion imaging complement human exploration of space? And will it be a substitute for certain missions?

RG: Motion imaging provides situational awareness for ground controllers, letting them monitor spacecraft operations, determine extent of damage if there is a collision, confirmation of other sensors during rendezvous and docking with other spacecraft, and monitoring conditions when humans are not on board. Motion imaging can also document “near misses”, where other sensors were not tripped but something came close to causing a problem, such as debris strikes. Since a Mars mission will require crew to be away from the Earth and their families for possible two or more years, motion imaging is a way for them to stay connected to life on Earth and their families. We are testing motion imaging as a substitute for crew with robots on board the ISS, so a crew member or ground controller can “see” what the robot sees as it makes its way on the outside of a spacecraft.

GV: What are NASA’s plans to use motion imaging technology to explore the moon and asteroids? Is there a timeline for this?

RG: NASA and its international partners have been working on a plan to use the area around the moon, referred to as “Cislunar space,” as a place to conduct Mars precursor missions, that include rendezvous with near-Earth asteroids and sorties to the Moon. These plans are preliminary and depend on the various space agencies and their governments providing the resources. If approved, these activities would start in the early 2020’s leading to a Mars mission in the middle of the 2030’s. 

GV: Are there earthbound applications that can benefit from NASA’s motion imaging technology development?

RG: For the most part we are now in an era where NASA doesn’t create imaging technology from scratch. We use commercial products and modify them for space flight. There are some areas where communications or artificial intelligence capabilities NASA is creating, which happen to add to our imaging technologies, could benefit Earth-bound applications. For example, NASA is helping to create something called “Delay Tolerant Networking,” which is critical for enabling the "Solar System Internet." Because of the distances involved, regular two-way internet protocols are impractical. New protocols that allow links with high latency or breaks in links without disrupting the data flow are maturing and could be practical here on Earth as well. NASA is also testing optical communications links to increase the amount of data (including high resolution imaging) that can be sent from remote spacecraft. Finally, cameras with a 360 degree field-of-view combined with self-aware tracking software could enhance the ability of security systems here on Earth.

GV: How important is virtual reality in space exploration/astronaut training?

RG: I’ve experienced walking in the International Space Station via VR at NASA’s “holodeck” at Johnson Space Center. When combined with some physical characteristics it provides a very realistic experience that augments training with full-scale mock-ups. We are just at the beginning of use of this VR technology for training. I suspect we will see a shift from full-scale mock-ups to VR over the next decade.

GV: Where do you expect we will be a decade from now in terms of imaging technology advances?

RG: I think the use of cameras as sensors, combined with artificial intelligence, tracking, and object recognition, will continue to expand. We’re already seeing it in cars and drones, next will be vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers, bicycles, and so on. So many devices will use cameras with embedded intelligence and software to automate much of our lives.

GV: In addition toimages.nasa.govand the NASA UHD channel, what are some of the other ways NASA is promoting/distributing its high res images/video footage to the general public?

RG: We will continue to expand our ability to make content available to the public via as many platforms as possible. We are hoping to integrate these capabilities into services that can be used with smart TV’s and IPTV boxes like Amazon’s Fire, Roku, and Apple TV. As bandwidth to people’s homes and mobile devices expands we can make raw or less compressed content available to viewers.

To register for Government Video Expo, Dec. 6-8, visitwww.gvexpo.com.

HOUSTON—NASA tested a pair of new technologies recently: the Orbital ATK’s QM-2 solid rocket booster and NASA’s HDR Stereo X camera (HiDyRS-X). This camera records multiple slow motion video exposures at once and combines them into an HDR video for ideal exposure of the extremely bright rocket motor plumes. See the camera in action below.

INDIAN WELLS, CALIF.—NASA is now making preliminary plans for deep space human exploration, likely starting with development of a presence at a Lagrange point—a sort of parking place in space—and then, after sorties to the Moon or asteroids, embarking on a crewed mission to Mars or one its moons, said Rodney Grubbs of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Grubbs was on hand at the HPA Technology Retreat to reach out to the imaging community, making space geeks swoon in the process.

“NASA and its international partners would of course want to virtually take everyone on Earth along for the ride,” he said. “But the space environment presents many challenges for the use of commercial motion-image technologies.”

Radiation, operation in a vacuum, and extreme temperatures being just the obvious ones. And then there’s getting the imagery from Mars to the public.

With regard to radiation, Grubbs said hi-res cameras sensors on the ISS have been highly susceptible to ionizing radiation damage. Some cameras can have seven to 10 pixels damaged a day. NASA replaces them about once a year.

“JPL spends a lot of money on cameras,” he said.

There have been efforts to create radiation-hardened cameras.
NASA used a Panasonic 3DA1 on the last ISS flight. It had fewer dead pixels.

“We have absolutely no idea why that camera behaved particularly better than other cameras,” he said.

VR/360 cameras offer the advantage of no moving parts. A Red camera was taken to the ISS. NASA hadn’t really played with Bayer-patterned professional cameras before, Grubbs said.

They’ve found that CMOS is less susceptible than CCD. The Japanese Space Agency had an HD camera on a moon probe, Selene. The camera didn’t suffer as much as was expected. It may have involved proximity to the fuel tanks.

The camera glass can also begin to fade or turn yellow.
Also, the cameras have to work in a vacuum if they’re going to be outside, in which case, heat dissipation is a problem since fans are not practical.

And talk about fickle temperatures—in orbit, in daylight, everything is exposed to 260-degrees plus Fahrenheit, and falls to more than minus 260 degrees in darkness.

Also, there are bandwidth constraints, and video requires orders of magnitude more bandwidth than all other communications. Conventional radio frequency transmission takes power and large antennas. Optical offers more bandwidth in bursts, but has problems with availability and aiming of antennas.

With regard to link integrity, conventional two-way IP connections are not practical due to breaks in links and latency between nodes, Grubbs said.

“If you’re in space, you can have all sorts of disruptions. Solar flares, moons… other planets… all sorts of things,” he said.

On the command and control front, ground command of remote cameras, encoders and related systems typically require two-way communications. Think latency between here and Mars.

“This mission will include relay satellites that pass the data and buffer it. It’s designed with long space links in mind. It’s billed as the Internet for the solar system,” Grubbs said.

SAN JOSE, CALIF.—Viewers can now get a UHD view of space with the launch of NASA TV UHD consumer channel. Using an end-to-end delivery system from Harmonic, NASA TV provides 2160p60 video content of NASA’s space program. NASA TV UHD is remotely produced by Harmonic and jointly operated with NASA.

NASA TV UHD's eight original series

Transmitted through the SES AMC-18C satellite, NASA TV features eight series designed to explore NASA’s space program. Among the new series are ‘ISS Life,’ which gives a first person perspective of life on the International Space Station; ‘Earth View,’ the astronauts’ perception of our planet; ‘Deep Space,’ featuring animated UHD still imagery captured from the Hubble telescope and other telescope platforms; ‘Mars’ and more.

Harmonic is currentlyin discussions with pay-TV operators to carry the channel on their DTH sattellite, cable and optical networks. Tests are underway to enable consumption on a range of TV and IP-connected devices. Harmonic also plans to make the channel available for OTT streaming at a later date.

NASA TV utilizes Harmonic’s Ellipse 3000 contribution encoder, ProView 7100 integrated receiver-decoder, MediaGrid shared storage system, Polaris playout management suite, Spectrum X advanced media server system, Electra X2 and X3 media processors, ProMedia Origin packager and streaming video server, and NSG Exo distributed CAAP system.

For more information, visit info.harmonicinc.com/nasa-uhd.

Astronauts stand in front of a 4K display as they discuss NASA’s new UHD channel and content. From left to right are astronauts Cady Coleman, Samantha Cristoforetti, Terry Virts and Mark Kelly. Far right is Rodney Grubbs, a NASA imaging specialist.

WASHINGTON—One of the ongoing considerations regarding the sales growth of Ultra High Definition (also known as 4K) televisions has been the dearth of 4K programming. A recent announcement by NASA and its partner Harmonic will bring free 4K content down to earth, where it will be offered at no charge to cable systems and other programming providers.

Using satellite distribution provided by SES, the new 4K service will begin public service on Nov. 1. The video for the new service is being sourced from high-resolution images and video generated on the International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope and other current NASA missions. Astronauts aboard the ISS have had 4K cameras for some time, and have acquired shots of both onboard experiments and the Earth.

Not only will much of the content be literally out of this world, it’s the goal of all parties to make it as affordable as possible—even free to viewers.

“No one is in this for a hard commercial benefit,” said Harmonic senior vice president Peter Alexander. “We think it will be great in terms of NASA, great in terms of the medium, and it just made sense to us.”

Peter Alexander, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Harmonic, explains how the company’s encoders will be used on the new UHD service.

Making it work meant building new systems, and shifting assets on the ground and in space.

“NASA’s got a finite amount of transponder space to carry all of NASA TV,” Alexander said. “Until this project, it was all consumed with their HD and SD channels. We needed to re-compress what they were already doing to make room for the UHD channel.”

Existing content was re-encoded with a Harmonic Electra X3 processor using AVC compression, making room for UHD content that was compressed using HEVC encoding.

“We freed up enough for about 13 to 15 Mbps,” Alexander said. “It looks great. A lot of NASA’s imagery is fairly low motion, [which works well at this bit rate].”

HDR VIDEO

NASA and Harmonic will conduct experiments with high dynamic range video, to better understand the encoding necessary to carry HDR 4K images. In particular, Alexander said that they plan to use Hybrid Log Gamma processing for HDR content, which he said was compatible with both standard and HDR displays.

Harmonic gets raw 4K video from NASA, including shots taken aboard the ISS. The company’s goal is to process the video with Hybrid Log Gamma, and release that as the 4K feed. That way, viewers with non-HDR sets will receive viewable 4K, while viewers with HDR capability will see the greater dynamic range. All this will fit in the 13-15 Mbps available transponder slot.

NASA’s 4K channel will be available to retailers to show off their 4K displays. It will also be available to viewers who use providers such as Comcast, Cox, Time-Warner, Verizon and others. Alexander said that Armstrong is one cable TV operator that currently plans to carry NASA’s 4K channel. The costs to the cable operator will be an IRD on the receiving end and to find space in its channel lineup for the channel. Of course, viewers will need set-top boxes capable of decoding the HEVC-encoded data stream.

Much of the 4K content now available to NASA is shot by NASA itself, including the astronauts on the ISS. Available to them on the ISS are a couple of Red cinematography cameras, and they get used often.

TELL THE STORY

Astronauts use a Red Epic Dragon camera aboard the ISS.

At a recent NASA press event in Washington, astronauts said that one of their roles is to “tell the story” of what they do in space, to make their work more accessible to those of us on the ground.

“It’s really important,” said NASA astronaut Terry Virts. “Without this, only five or six people would enjoy [the perspective from space].”

Virts shot video on the ISS with a Red Epic Dragon 6K camera, which was then used by NASA to show what life was like in space, as well as get gorgeous views of the Earth below. Virts, a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, studied aeronautical science in school but quickly warmed up to shooting with the Dragon camera.

“I love it—it’s a great camera,” Virts said at the NASA press event. “The Red Dragon has a touch-screen monitor that’s really nice.”

Although not a videographer, Virts and his fellow astronauts received video training on the ground so that they better understand how to get great shots in space.

“We had classes and learned about lighting and sound,” he said. “Sound is something we overlooked a lot.”

As for what makes a good video clip from space, Virts said that it is often the most simple and mundane things, but they can look dramatically different on the ISS than they do on the ground.

“One of my favorite shots I took in space was sleeping,” he said. “I got a picture of Samantha [Christoforetti, an astronaut from the European Space Agency] sleeping. It was kind of staged and we had it planned, but just to see a person sleeping in space and totally serendipitously an object would float by right as I was filming, and it makes you feel like ‘Wow, that’s what it’s like to sleep in space.’”

Virts mentioned an experiment that Cristoforetti started, where objects (in this case, M&Ms) were placed in a clear plastic ball. After a short time, the candies all settled to one side of the ball instead of floating as expected. Virts repeated the experiment on camera in other modules on the ISS, discovering that the M&Ms would settle in different directions in different modules, due to what is now believed to be a “gravity gradient.”

“Hopefully physics teachers can use the video as an example to explain this gravity gradient,” Virts said.

Other NASA content for the new 4K service will include documentaries, launch videos (often with shots taken from unusual angles) and the range of programming now available on the agency’s cable channel. Long-recorded footage can’t miraculously be converted to 4K, of course, but ongoing projects will increasingly be available in in UHD resolution.

SAN JOSE, CALIF—Harmonic has announced that it is partnering with NASA to launch NASA TV UHD, the first consumer UHD channel in North America. Utilizing an end-to-end UHD video delivery system from Harmonic, NASA will deliver live and linear 2160p60 video content, which can be viewed on a wide range of television and IP-connected devices. A test signal of NASA TV UHD is currently available on the AMC 18C satellite, with an expected launch date of Nov. 1, 2015.

NASA TV UHD video is being sourced from high-resolution images and video generated on the International Space Station (ISS), Hubble Space Telescope, and other current NASA missions. Programming will also include remastered footage from historical missions, shots from NASA's development and training processes, and ultimately live launches. Leveraging the 8M pixel resolution of the UHD format, the channel will create the closest possible experience to looking out of the viewing Cupola of the ISS, for example.

Like the current NASA TV channels and on the same transponder, NASA TV UHD will be transmitted via the AMC-18C satellite, in the clear, with a North American footprint. Harmonic is currently in discussions with pay-TV operators to carry the channel on their satellite DTH, cable and optical networks, for consumer access. The channel will also be streamed on the Internet, which will require at least 13 Mbps access connectivity to receive the signal and achieve the UHD experience.

Transmitted from NASA's Atlanta uplink facility, remotely produced by Harmonic and jointly operated, the complete infrastructure includes examples of Harmonic's Ellipse 3000 contribution encoder, ProView 7100 integrated receiver-decoder (IRD), MediaGrid shared storage system, Polaris playout management suite, Spectrum X advanced media server system, Electra X3 advanced media processor, ProMedia Origin packager and streaming video server and NSG Exo distributed CCAP system.

A key element in the UHD workflow is Harmonic's Electra X3 advanced media processor, the industry's first converged media processor for UHD content with live, full-frame, full-GOP UHD encoding. Powered by the Harmonic PURE Compression Engine, an advanced encoding technology that supports resolutions up to 2160p60 (HEVC Main 10) for broadcast and OTT multiscreen delivery, the Electra X3 will allow NASA to deliver superior video quality at minimum bandwidth.

"As NASA reaches new heights and reveals the unknown, the NASA TV UHD channel can bring that journey to life in every home. And as organizations at the forefront of innovation, together we are leading the adoption of this exciting technology," said Peter Alexander, CMO, Harmonic. "As the leader in UHD development, Harmonic provides a complete solution for Ultra HD video production and delivery, enabling content and service providers to offer better video quality at a low total cost of ownership."

NASA and Harmonic have also begun discussions about adding high dynamic range (HDR) and expanded color-space technologies to the channel as standards emerge. Some testing is expected before the end of the year.