Emerging standards are making the best of existing pixels. Understand the principles of HDR, learn how to build workflows to simplify production, and deliver the highest quality HDR pictures possible.
Building optimized systems that scale to meet peak demand delivers broadcast facilities that are orders of magnitude more efficient than their static predecessors. In part 2 of this series, we investigate how this can be achieved.
When composing and lighting scenes, DOP’s usually seek to maximize texture and perspective. The rationale is simple: We live in a world that is unmistakably three-dimensional, so DOPs seeking to faithfully represent the natural world exploit a range of ways to promote the three-dimensional illusion.
Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) the host broadcaster for the Games was founded twenty years ago and has arguably gone through its hardest and most intense period of digital transformation for Tokyo 2020.
Aside from being the first Summer Olympics to be delayed a year due to a pandemic—shifting technical plans and causing strict work-arounds to comply with health restrictions—this year’s live coverage by NBCUniversal (NBCU) is noteworthy for its move to all-IP operations within the International Broadcast Center (IBC) onsite in Tokyo and for its use of the network’s extensive and disparately located resources to make the Games a success.
For many years broadcasters have been working with static systems that are difficult to change and upgrade. This two part series explores the unfolding of a more elastic future based on COTS hardware and flexible licensing.
For all of those audiophiles out there, Comcast (parent to NBCUniversal) will offer the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in both Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos immersive audio. Subscribers to the cable giant’s Xfinity TV service—including its X1, Flex and Xfinity Stream app—will have access to the multichannel audio formats while watching NBC Sports’ nightly primetime show, the Opening and Closing ceremonies, and numerous individual sports. Viewers will also be able to customize their viewing experience for the first time via the Comcast Flex aggregation interface.
TV equipment manufacturers are doing what broadcasters do best: Creatively helping each other work through a difficult technical challenge.
So you’re a producer, and your cinematographer is campaigning for the use of anamorphic lenses. Problem is, they’re expensive, and for people who aren’t cinematographic propeller heads, it can seem hard to justify. Let’s look at what’s going on and how we got here, without assuming the reader has a masters’ in cinematography.