RENNES, France—BBright and GlobalM have conducted a technical trial validating Ultra HD interoperability across the entire contribution chain in the cloud, achieving transmission bit rates above 100 Megabits per second—a rate that’s higher than typical satellite contribution paths.

In the joint trial, BBright’s Ultra HD ST 2110 encoder converted an uncompressed IP input into HEVC 4:2:2 10-bit with the highest quality profile. The stream was transmitted using the Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) protocol to the AWS cloud. There, GlobalM’s cloud transport platform provided secure routing, contribution monitoring and signal integrity across the end-to-end workflow, BBright said.

At the output, GlobalM restreamed the Ultra HD signal using SRT to a BBright decoder, which reconstructed the feed as an ST 2110 output. The result confirms the ability of both systems to operate seamlessly in an IP-native, cloud-based Ultra HD environment, the companies said.

“This end-to-end interoperability with GlobalM demonstrates the strength of ST 2110 and HEVC 4:2:2 workflows for high-bitrate Ultra HD contribution,” Guillaume Arthuis, managing director of BBright, said. “It shows that IP-based encoding and cloud transport can now match, and even exceed, traditional satellite links in terms of visual quality, latency and flexibility.”

This interoperability is opening new opportunities for customers seeking to deliver premium Ultra HD live sports coverage over IP and cloud networks. The combined solution enables rights holders and service providers to scale contribution workflows flexibly, ensuring broadcast-grade performance while reducing operational complexity and costs compared to traditional satellite or dedicated fiber infrastructures, the companies said.

“Partnering with BBright illustrates how broadcast-quality encoding and professional cloud contribution can converge,” GlobalM Global Sales Manager George Bery said. “This collaboration validates a new generation of interoperable, IP-based workflows capable of transporting Ultra HD content securely and efficiently in the cloud.”

More information is available on the BBright and GlobalM websites.

Fremont, CA - November 13, 2018 - Blackmagic Design today announced that South Africa based Homebrew Films has completed an Ultra HD 4K facilities upgrade that relies on broadcast infrastructure products from Blackmagic Design, including the URSA Broadcast and ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K.

Based at Atlantic Studios in Cape Town, Homebrew Films delivers a huge variety of programming, from wildlife documentaries to soap operas and lifestyle magazine shows, including ‘Tussen Ons’, an Afrikaans version of ‘The View’ talk show, and local current affairs show ‘Kwela’.

Homebrew’s technical studio director, Chris Gardner, needed a studio system that could be assembled and configured quickly, and provide Homebrew a technical advantage over the market.

“Although South African broadcasters are not yet accepting Ultra HD, it made sense to get ahead of the curve, so that we can meet their content needs now and in the future,” Chris says. “And the beauty of embracing 4K now meant that we could facilitate high quality live streaming and event video, allowing us to diversify our production portfolio.”

For live studio acquisition, Homebrew has implemented six URSA Broadcast equipped with Blackmagic Studio Viewfinders and Canon KJ20 x 8.2 BIRSE HD b4 optics. Two ATEM Camera Control Panels complete the chain and are used alongside the SmartView 4K and SmartScope Duo to rack and match the incoming feeds.

For talkback and tally, the workflow relies on the ATEM Talkback Converter 4K, which provides program return, comms and control back to all of the camera positions via 3G SDI.

“The balance of flexibility and great image quality from the URSA Broadcast chains works perfectly for the varied portfolio of work we undertake,” explains Chris. “Working as extensively as we do with light, bright color palettes, both skin tone reproduction, and color accuracy was essential, especially during a live broadcast.”

12G-SDI cable runs carry video with embedded audio from the studio floor to a Smart Videohub 40x40 in the broadcast gallery where each ISO camera feed is recorded to SSD using dedicated HyperDeck Studio 12G. The broadcast decks are also used for VT playback.

All of this is fees into the central production desk where an ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K with ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel is used to produce the live program mix.

Transitioning between traditional broadcast and live streaming workflows couldn’t be simpler thanks to Blackmagic Design. “Simply take a program feed from the ATEM via an AUX out through the Blackmagic Web Presenter in a computer and then stream using OBS.”

“We’ve been incredibly impressed, not only by this flexibility but also the ease of design and installation,” concludes Chris. “To put it in perspective, it took two of us just four weeks to design, wire, install and deploy the system, and that includes building custom elements and racks.”

Press Photography

Product photos of URSA Broadcast, ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K, ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel, Smart Videohub 12G 40x40, HyperDeck Studio 12G, Blackmagic Web Presenter and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Cypress, CA, October 19, 2018 – As a demonstration of the company’s continued commitment to the Latin American region, FOR-A® will highlight three of its most popular products – the HVS-490 and HVS-100 switchers and FA-9600 signal processor - as part of its participation at CAPER 2018, occurring from October 24-26th at the Costa Salguero Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

FOR-A will exhibit within the CAPER stand of partner SVC (Sistemas de Video Comunicación) in Booth D-10. The theme of this year’s booth is “No Boundaries.”  

“CAPER has traditionally been an extremely important part of our marketing strategy,” said Mario Rodriguez, FOR-A Latin America Sales Manager. “It allows us to connect with key customers from nearby South American countries, such as Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Ecuador. There are many who may not be able to get to Las Vegas for NAB or Amsterdam for the IBC, and CAPER is an ideal location and time for us to meet up and show them all the new technology we have that will benefit them now and in the future.” 

The HVS-490 live HD/4K-UHD, multi-effects production switcher is designed for use in any live environment, including mobile shoots, events, and in-house corporate productions. Event memory and macro functions make it easy to set up quickly for live performances. And FOR-A’s MELite™ technology eliminates the need for multiple switchers in a multi-monitor staging scenario.  

With integrated frame synchronizers and multi viewers, the HVS-490 reduces the amount of equipment required. Using multiple control panels, the system enables several operators to work on separate tasks. Using optional input and output expansion cards, the HVS-490 supports 40 inputs/18 outputs, 36 inputs/20 outputs or 32 inputs/22 outputs, including two-channel HDMI outputs. In 4K, it allows 10 inputs/six outputs, nine inputs/six outputs or eight inputs/seven outputs. It also has 16 channels of 2.5D DVE as standard and can be optionally expanded to a maximum of 32 channels.  

The FA-9600 multi purpose signal processor supports 4K, 12G-SDI, HDR and Wide Color Gamut. The unit features dual channel frame synchronization, extensive professional video format support, color correction, up/down/cross conversion, and offers 12G-SDI and HDMI terminals - opening the door to 4K production. The FA-9600 is ideal for use in mixed HDR/SDR environments, including production studios, live staging productions and mobile OB and up-link production trucks. The energy-efficient unit is a convenient 1U size, and the signal processor’s newly developed color processing circuit provides strong support in HD/4K production.  

The HVS-100 video switcher with Thunderbolt™ 2 I/O expansion cards will also be on display at CAPER. The HVS-100 is controlled via any tablet, handheld or laptop type device with a web browser as opposed to a ‘hard’ control panel. With its Thunderbolt 2 I/O expansion cards, users can transfer video content with a single cable through computers and interface with other devices, such as character generators, virtual studios and/or file-based/IP products. One cable allows transmission of 4 HD signal lines.   

In addition to the HVS-490, FA-9600, and HVS-100 w/HVS-100TB2 Card, a range of new FOR-A equipment will also be on display: the Insight Multi-Channel Video Server, ClassX content creation and graphics playout solution, MCC-4K motion-compensated universal standards converter, and Fujitsu IP-HE950 real-time video transmission gear.  

  2018 marks the 20th year FOR-A has participated at CAPER. FOR-A enjoys long-term relationships with several prominent Latin American broadcasters, including: Artear, Canal 7, Telefe, TyC Sports, Canal 9, ESPN, DirecTV, and FoxSports. 

* Thunderbolt is a trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and/or other countries.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — SES — a global provider of satellite communications services to broadcasters, cable/PPV, IPTV and other content providers — has partnered with pay-per-view service provider iNDEMAND to deliver the “Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship,” live and in 4K/Ultra High Definition (4K UHD), to cable/pay TV providers nationwide.

This iNDEMAND special event will be carried live, in native 4K/UHD, from the Cheyenne Ice and Events Center, in Cheyenne, Wyo., on June 2 at 9 p.m. ET, via the SES Events Channel. Produced by Multivision Media, the 4K fight will be available to Pay TV and IPTV providers that have signed on to carry the SES Events channel.

[Read: SES’ UHD Trials Now at 30 Pay-TV Providers]

With a reach of over 40 million subscribers via close to 40 pay TV systems, the SES platform offers many 4K/UHD channels, including: the SES Event Channel, Fashion One 4K, NASA TV UHD, 4K UNIVERSE, INSIGHT TV, C4K360, Funbox UHD, Travelxp 4K, Nature Relaxation 4K, The Country Network, and UHD1. SES claims that its platform is the largest source of 4K linear content in the world.

“Live sports are accelerating demand for Ultra HD content like never before, as millions of consumers want to see 4K sports action on their new Ultra HD TV screens,” said Steve Corda, vice president of Media Platforms, for the SES Video North America business unit. “Now, together with iNDEMAND, SES is delivering yet another immersive event, in the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, which is bound to drive demand for 4K TV and the SES Ultra HD platform.”

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LONDON — The BBC has announced that it will cover the 2018 World Cup in Ultra HD and virtual reality as BCC Sports puts the new technology to the test.

All 33 matches covered by BBC will be available at no charge to viewers on the BBC Sport VR 2018 World Cup app. Those with VR headsets can immerse themselves into a stadium experience in which they feel as if they are seated in a hospitality box, BBC said.

[Read: FIFA to Provide Teams With In-Match Video During World Cup]

BBC also plans to present 29 matches on BBC One in Ultra HD to those with a high-speed internet connection. The UHD coverage will be made available on a first-come, first-served basis, it said. Tens of thousands of fans also will be able to access an HD stream via the BBC iPlayer home screen as soon as coverage begins.

Matthew Postgate, BBC chief technology and product officer, said the UHD and VR trials will give viewers a taste of what is to come in television.

More information is available on the BBC website.

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INDIAN WELLS, CALIF.—Did you hear the one about a bunch of broadcasters walking into a golf resort full of Hollywood production types?

“If you bring it,” they said, referring to content, “We will come. With ATSC 3.0.”

The preceding anecdote was based on the true story of this week’s ATSC seminar at the Hollywood Post Alliance Retreat, held annually in Coachella Valley. ATSC 3.0, colloquially known as the “next-generation” broadcast transmission standard, is rounding the final corner of development and could be completed as soon as the second quarter of this year, according to Madeleine Noland of LG. Noland, whose work on 3.0 earned her the Bernard J. Lechner Award, highest accolade of the Advanced Television Systems Committee, said the standard is 80 to 85 percent complete. The seminar came just four days before the Federal Communications Commission is set to vote on voluntary deployment of the standard at the Feb. 23 open meeting. (See the component standards comprising ATSC 3.0 in the pop-out sidebar below.)

OTA+OTT
Noland opened the Monday afternoon seminar with a litany of characteristics—Ultra HD support, name your frame rate up to 120 fps, high dynamic range, wide color gamut, object audio, personalization and scalabilitya la one person gets 24 Mbps or a million. It makes no difference. ATSC 3.0, she and several panelists emphasized, redefines broadcasting the way jet propulsion redefined travel.

“Today’s system is designed with certain planning factors,” said Winston Caldwell, vice president of spectrum engineering in the Fox Networks Advanced Engineering Group. “The expectation was that people put Yagis on their rooftops, and the network’s designed to hit that antenna. Now, it doesn’t have to be like that. You can simply configure the system to deploy that network and give people an experience unlike they’ve had before with broadcast television. Think about the reliability of the cellular network. I tend to get frustrated with that. This is megawatts of power. The network can be configured to give you something no one has given you before.”

3.0’s capabilities leapfrog previous methodologies in that it supports interactivity versus push transmission only, but perhaps more radically, ATSC 3.0 combines broadcasting and broadband. Among other implications, that means channel surfers can move between over-the-air and over-the-top platforms like Netflix without jumping through a bunch of interface hoops.

RECEIVERS
That type of functionality—as well as ATSC 3.0 itself—requires a new generation of receivers, since the standard is not backward compatible with the one currently feeding TVs and cable headends across the country. This presents the old chicken-and-egg dilemma that HDTV had to get over, which is; what comes first, the content or the receivers? After HDTV finally drove a massive wave of new TV sales, a similar expectation for 3DTV hit the ground like a bag of wet cement.

TV manufacturers are taking a different approach with 3.0, which also supports mobile reception. LG, for example, introduced a gateway device at last year’s NAB Show that decodes ATSC 3.0 signals and redistributes them via Wi-Fi through an app. LG also introduced its first ATSC 3.0 4KTV at CES earlier this year in preparation for the deployment of 3.0 in South Korea this year. (South Korea officially adopted ATSC 3.0 last July, according to the Yonhap News agency.)

Noland and Caldwell were joined by Dave Siegler of Cox Media Group, Nandhu Nandhakumar of LG and Steve Koenig of the Consumer Technology Association for the first panel of the day on ATSC 3.0 distribution and display.

Siegler said Cox is “really interested in better pictures, immersive audio, dynamic ad insertion and advanced emergency alerting.”

Nandhakumar said LG is focused on “important consumer-facing features,” such as 3.0’s ability to reach further into buildings and support mobile reception. With regard to creating consumer awareness, his response was simple: side-by-side demos with 1.0 transmissions.

Koenig noted that “TV is something very different today… [it ’s] diffusion of content engagement across screens.” TV viewing on what old-timers call “TV” is decreasing, he said, from 61 percent in 2011 to 51 percent today.

SINGLE FREQUENCY NETWORKS
Caldwell took an audience question on single frequency networks and whether or not broadcasters would be willing to invest in multiple towers the way cellular service providers have. Single frequency networks, or “SFNs,” comprise multiple transmitter sites simultaneously slinging a signal over a single frequency. SFNs allow for greater signal saturation in a coverage area.

“When you put in another tower site, you expand the [bit] pipe,” Caldwell said. “It’s a real key to the efficiency of the system.”

“With regard to cost, we see the key to that just cooperation, as we move into the future, hopefully the broadcast industry can cooperate more. A single tower can host several broadcasters at once a key way to offset costs... with regard to SFNs, we’re talking about four towers, maybe 10, not hundreds of towers,” he said.

INTERACTIVY
Mark Corl of Triveni Digital led a second panel on interactivity featuring Guy Hadland of UniSoft Corp. Joe Winograd of Verance Azita Manson of OpenZnet and Pete Van Peenen of Pearl TV.

Hadland described how Unisoft provided data delivery and interactive applications for the OCAP cable standard, which is still in use in 14 million Charter homes. He said Unisoft now has a working data delivery system for ATSC 3.0.

Manson, whose company led an ATSC 3.0 app authoring project for the National Association of Broadcasters, said some new apps will appear at the upcoming 2017 NAB Show, including one for interactive advertising opt-in.

Hadland noted that, “Comcast Spotlight has been selling enhanced interactive ads for about three years. It’s one of the first things broadcasters can do.”

Van Peenen noted that the opt-in structure isn’t part of the 3.0 standard, “but from Pearl’s perspective, it would be opt-in,” to keep from peeving viewers, “but we don’t want people to have to opt in every time they change the channel.”

LIKE HbbTV
Winograd talked about HbbTV as an object lesson. HbbTV is a hybrid broadcast-broadband service in Europe. He said by “layering on top of OTA services an entry point into OTT, the broadcaster doesn’t lose a viewer when they change channels.”

He gave some examples of widely deployed HbbTV features, including real-time, customized content such as live, in-play soccer league stats, or viewer participation events. An addressable advertising feature “has gained a lot of traction in Germany,” he said, where 320 million “switch-in” ads per month are to delivered 26 million viewers over 10 million sets. These are overlays that occur during the program segment just when a viewer tunes into that program, hence, “switch-in.”

CONTENT PRODUCTION
A third and final panel featuring NAB’s Skip Pizzi; Steve Bartkowicz of NBCU, Thad Beier of Dolby Labs, Howard Lukk of SMPTE, and David McElhatten of Fox Networks Group, addressed ATSC 3.0 content production, for which Siegler earlier urged producers in the audience to have “an open mind.”

Pizzi addressed some key differences in producing audio for ATSC 3.0, which supports the type of technology that make it sound like raindrops are falling all around a listener. This object, or immersive audio technology, can place discrete sounds throughout a defined three-dimensional space. Immersive audio involves 12-plus channels, or “N”objects,” he said. Among other things, Pizzi recommended producing in immersive and downmixing to 5.1 or stereo.

Lukk talked about the advanced video features enabled by ATSC 3.0—multiple frame rates, aspect rations, resolutions, 10-bit color for high dynamic range, and how some of these lend themselves more readily to episodic TV versus live broadcasting. High frame rate, he noted, tanked in traditional cinematic story-telling, and might be more effective as a plot device much the way black-and-white and color were used in “The Wizard of Oz.”

Beier addressed high dynamic range, and said the first order of doing it is to “shoot well, first of all.” He noted HDR is not just for brightness, but for blacks as well.

“We think doing HDR first makes the best product. Mapping from HDR to SDR is better than an SDR version done by hand,” he said.

Finally, McElhatten said the killer 3.0 app is personalization, particularly for sports.

“At Fox, we do more than 11,000 sporting events a year, more than 8,000, highly regional. I’ve tried to do enhancement on drama, but it’s very hard,” he said. McElhatten showed screengrabs of “live biometrics,” analytical data and other information on drive Dale Earnhardt in a NASCAR event.

He also showed an example of a live multiscreen portal using the multiple content channels NBC employed in the 2012 London Olympics.

“There were eight channels that NBC owned that were running Olympic content,” he said. The idea of the portal is that a broadcaster can show all of their channels in small windows on a single screen, so a viewer could pick and choose among ongoing live events.


Also see where ATSC 3.0 was last year during HPA…
Feb. 16, 2016
“HPA 2016: ATSC 3.0 Update”
Over-the-air TV is on its way to resembling a more robust version of the Internet with the realization of ATSC 3.0.

And then go ahead and check out our ATSC 3.0 silo for more TV Technology coverage, and please feel free to drop us a line with any questions you may have about the standard.

TORONTO—LG Electronics and Dolby Labs announced the LG UP970 Ultra HD Blu-ray player, LG’s first 4K Blu-ray player with Dolby Vision high-dynamic range imaging to be made available later this year through a software update. No prices were listed.

The UP970 also will offer support for the generic HDR format, HDR10; 10-bit color and Rec. ITU-R BT. 2020 color gamut, as well as playback of high-efficiency video coding, or HEVC. It’s also compatible with several audio formats, including Dolby True HD, Dolby Atmos and DTS-HD Master Audio.

The UP970 has two HDMI ports, an HDMI 2.0a port for Ultra HD video output and an HDMI 1.4 for audio output that can connect with hi-fi devices, such as AVRs and sound bars. With Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections, content can be streamed via Netflix and YouTube, while the USB port allows for playback of video and audio.

According to Dolby, there are more than 80 titles available through streaming services in Dolby Vision HDR.

WAYNE, N.J.— Denver-based firm Mobile TV Group has added two UA107x8.4 4K UHD lenses onto its 39 Flex 4K mobile unit, and 13 Fujinon HD lenses to its newest 40HDX HD production truck, set to launch late next month. This recent selection marks the first delivery in the U.S. of the UA107x lens, introduced this past April at the NAB show in Las Vegas, and follows a purchase of 12 Fujinon lenses in the spring.

The new 40HDX is outfitted with three XA99x8.4 BESM-T ultra-wide field production lenses, six XA77x9.5BESM telephoto field lenses, two ZA17x7.6BERD telephoto lenses with 2X extender, and two HA18x5.5BERD wide-angle zoom lenses with 2X extender. Lenses on 40HDX are matched with Grass Valley LDX cameras.

While 39 Flex was built for 4K production, 40HDX is an addition to MTVG’s more traditional HD fleet and is equipped with four Super Slo-mo cameras and replay, said Philip Garvin, general manager of MTVG and Colorado Studios: “Our clients expect us to provide new mobile units on a regular basis, allowing us to retire older trucks. The decision to add Fujinon lenses to 40HDX was based on our excellent experience with the Fujinon lenses on 39 Flex.”

40HDX’s primary assignment will be to serve Fox Sports Florida in its game-day coverage of the Tampa Bay Rays, Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Orlando Magic.

39 Flex has been on the road since its launch last March covering a wide variety of live events, including: several golf tournaments such as the Masters, the PGA Championships, major concerts, beach volleyball championships, and much more. The 39 Flex, with the UA107x lens, is covering the 2016 PGA Championship, starting July 28th at the Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, NJ.

LAS VEGAS—The video industry is moving into more—more resolutions, more color, more contrast, more frames. Ultra high-def 4KTVs are the new HD. More and more sets feature high dynamic range. Wide color gamut is on the way. The questions now revolve around the workflow—achieving these dynamics glass-to-glass—whether or not it’s worth it, and if so, what’s the best approach.

That’s what four top broadcast engineers take on during the NAB Show in a Tuesday, April 19 at 2:30 p.m. Super Session entitled, “4K, UHD, HDR and More—The Future of Video.” TV Technology’s Deborah D. McAdams will grill video expert Mark Schubin, SMPTE President and CBS Vice President of Engineering and Advanced Technology Robert Seidel, broadcast veteran Jim DeFilippis and Ericsson’s Senior Vice President of Technology for TV & Media Matthew Goldman with crowd-sourced questions from their peers.

Here, Jim DeFilippis takes a crack at the list.

CROWD MEMBER: What provides the best bang for the buck: 2160p resolution, high dynamic, wide color gamut, or high frame rate (120 fps)?
DeFILIPPIS: Good and interesting content! Ok, each provide a unique ability to capture and display content.

CM:The Canadians are now doing baseball, basketball and hockey in 4K, and distributing it via cable. What is holding up the U.S. broadcasters? What are their immediate challenges?
DeFILIPPIS: The difference is that this is one cable/broadcaster (Rogers Communications). DirecTV and Comcast have committed to delivering 4K (Masters Golf, Rio Olypmics). 

CM:What about standards? What’s needed?
DeFILIPPIS: We have many standards, but what we are missing is clarity of the problem they are supposed to solve.

CM: Beyond sports, what other genre will benefit and have a business ROI?
DeFILIPPIS:Cinema, perhaps documentaries.

CM:Will broadcasters be “forced” into 4K/UHDTV adoption similar to the evolution of HDTV? If so, by when?
DeFILIPPIS: Different situation today. Back then, with government and private cooperation, the spectrum sell-off traded the mandatory digital tuners. This time around, government is taking spectrum and providing a one-time payout or compensation for re-location to the under-500 MHz ghetto. No mandate to update the digital tuners nor upgrade of the broadcast technology.

CM:What are the key dominos in the chain that need to be knocked over for the consumers to feel this is real and start spending? Is it availability of “great titles,” consumer devices, branded premium channels, marketing or something else not yet concocted?
DeFILIPPIS: Well the key growth driver is mobile/OTT; so how will 4K play in these devices? When a Google Nexus supports native 4K decoding, when Apple promotes their “8K” screens and iTunes UHDTV offerings, then UHD will take off.

CM:The young adults of today are notorious for consuming social content on small, portable devices. They are the future money for this. Why do they need it?
DeFILIPPIS: Cause as they get older, need to have larger screens so they can read their tweets.

CM:How do we as an industry start our advancement to UHD and HDR?
DeFILIPPIS: Run around, start many organizations that advocate people go out and spend more for larger TV’s.

CM:What is the immediate opportunity for a TV group with regard to these technologies?
DeFILIPPIS: Let the other guy go first. 

CM:Are we now headed toward 1080p60 with HDR and wide color as a first step, with 4K used in production and on-set display etc.?
DeFILIPPIS: Maybe.

CM:What are your thoughts on HDR HD facilities versus native 4K HDR?
DeFILIPPIS: Well while HDR HD is more affordable, so much of the industry is in shell shock and can’t rationalize spending any capex. So if a channel has the opportunity to upgrade, might as well go for 4K.

CM:Is the notion of HDR for HD now officially dead?
DeFILIPPIS: Stillborn perhaps?

CM:Given the file sizes, do you think we should be significantly compressing in acquisition and post, just as we did in the early stages of HD?
DeFILIPPIS: All aspects of 4k makes the workflow more of a problem. However if there can be a universal file format for UHDTV, this alone would speed adoption.

CM:HDCam, while not perfect, was a pragmatic way of getting to HD and getting material out to audiences. What’s the equivalent for UHD?
DeFILIPPIS: Good news is that in the time from HDCam (130Mbps) we are now able to support 250Mbps in production. Given that video compression is not linear—4K does not take four times the bitrate of HDTV—the production bitrate maybe close to the 250Mbps range.

CM:4K, 8K, UHD, and HDR require a very large network topology to support file transport. How do we justify that investment when the delivery to the home will not support the transport without heavy compression for years to come?
DeFILIPPIS: A bit of apples and oranges. Yes live UHD requires large amounts of bandwidth and storage. Given that HDTV/MPEG-2 routinely uses 11-18Mbps, UHDTV using HEVC can be delivered without much more (or less) bandwidth. The more difficult problem is agreeing to the distribution modalities.

CM:Will 4K become a standard transmission? 
DeFILIPPIS: Sure. Just numbers on a piece of paper.

CM:What are you views on affordability of transmission methods for 4K, that is, broadcast, broadband and/or satellite?
DeFILIPPIS: 4K is as affordable in it’s time as HD was in the late ’90s. The real issue is the cost for any change to the established infrastructure.

CM:Do any of you on the panel think there is benefit to using HDR and/or 4K to author a better HD product that can be delivered to consumers without significant changes to current infrastructure, instead of racing to provide 4K?
DeFILIPPIS: This is happening today… use of 4K cameras to capture and then downsampled in post to 2K, while preserving the 4K digital negative.

CM:Shooting UHD side-by-side with HD is too costly. How can we reduce the cost of producing sports in UHD and HDR? 
DeFILIPPIS: Ultimately, side-by-side is not practical. So we have to develop the ability to interoperate between UHD, HDR and HDTV.

CM:How can we do live production of HDR sports without needing separate “shaders” for an HDR/wide color gamut output and an SDR/normal color gamut output for legacy TVs?
DeFILIPPIS: We need to develop tools and monitoring techniques to allow video ops to “shade” for both HDR and SDR.

CM:Do you think that high frame rate is suitable for all genres?
DeFILIPPIS: Yes, in the context that HFR capture can be used for any frame rate (24, 25, 30…). However, artistically we are accustomed to seeing some content at low frame rate and other content at high frame rate.

CM:Given the propensity of advertisers for brighter brights and whiter whites, how do we avoid the CALM Act for brightness?
DeFILIPPIS: Have Congress work on more important matters such as the budget, hunger, terrorism, etc…

CM:How do we integrate interstitials into programming without brightness and color wars?
DeFILIPPIS: Ultimately, this is a self-correcting problem. If commercials are obnoxious, people will tune out, or cut cords or go read a book.

CM:How well can we produce for both HD and HDR without serious compromises, particularly in graphics or saturated colors?
DeFILIPPIS: By it’s nature, HDR is a different pallet than SDR. One could “paint” within the Rec. 709 lines, and HDR will convey these colors but no real benefit. Or paint outside the Rec. 709 lines and try to downsample to SDR, with mixed results.

CM:Given the constraints of the television, cable and satellite system, how comparable will the broadcast experience be to the ultra Blu-ray?
DeFILIPPIS: Apples to oranges. Ultra Blu-ray is not limited by bitrate nor have to support both HDR and SDR.

CM:Given the wide disparity of displays and capabilities on the market, how well can we author once and use everywhere, and how much will the user experience vary?
DeFILIPPIS: Hey, just like NTSC, Never the same color!

CM:As HDR displays get better and do a nice job of presenting SDR-graded content better than it would look on a legacy UHD display, does this challenge the value of specific HDR grading? What percentage of average consumers will appreciate the difference?”
DeFILIPPIS: Unless some one has a side-by-side set of UHDTVs, one showing the SDR upsampled and the other HDR graded, who knows? Try watching a movie on DVD and then Blu-ray HD. Not exactly the same.

CM: When will lower-end 4K cameras offer servo lenses?
DeFILIPPIS: Not sure what lower-end 4K cameras exist… but the key issue about 4K cameras is the optics not the cost or electronics.

Also see…
April 16, 2016
“Q&A: Matthew Goldman on 4K, UHD, HDR and More”
“Is it worth the investment to build a native 2160p infrastructure for the gain in user experience? This is what the broadcaster needs to grapple. This question is very different between a Hollywood studio production and live TV production or distribution.”

April 11, 2016
“Q&A: Mark Schubin on 4K, UHD, HDR and More”
“In my opinion, HDR and HFR offer the most bang for the buck. HDR might be easier to implement, but it can increase motion artifacts, bringing us back to HFR.”

PRINCETON, N.J. & LUXEMBOURG – Satellite operator SES S.A. and cable MSO company Armstrong have teamed up to initiate a live and linear Ultra HD trial. Armstrong is testing SES’s camera-to-screen UHD ecosystem at its Butler, Pa. cable lab.

SES’s UHD offering combines broadcast and IP technologies in a fully-manageable, scalable service. The system uses satellite’s broadcast advantages and multicasting capabilities of DOCSIS 3.0, which is used as the advanced transmission standard by cable systems.

“We are very excited to have Armstrong as the first to test our linear Ultra HD solution in a real-world environment,” said Steve Corda, VP of business development for SES in North America. “The learnings from these tests will allow us to continue toward our objective aimed at accelerating the roll-out of linear-live Ultra HD into cable TV into households across North America with a very cost efficient, scalable and high performance delivery system.”