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.
The power and flexibility of cloud computing is being felt by broadcasters throughout the world. Scaling delivers incredible resource and the levels of resilience available from international public cloud vendors is truly eye watering. It’s difficult to see how any broadcaster would run out of computing power or storage, even with 4K and 8K infrastructures.
Video, audio and metadata monitoring in the IP domain requires different parameter checking than is typically available from the mainstream monitoring tools found in IT. The contents of the data payload are less predictable and packet distribution more tightly defined leading to the need to use specialist media stream centric monitoring tools.
For many years broadcasters have been working with static systems that are difficult to change and upgrade. Although we have video and audio routing, the often-tangled mess of jackfield patch-cords is testament to how flexible broadcast systems really need to be to meet the demands of modern program making.
High dynamic range and wide color gamut combined with 4K resolution and progressive frame rates have catapulted broadcast television to new levels of immersive experience for the viewer. As HDR and WCG are relatively new to television, we need to both understand their application and how we monitor them to enable us to surpass the levels of quality and immersive experience cinematographers demand.
SDI has been and continues to be a mature and stable standard for the distribution of video, audio and metadata in broadcast facilities. From its inception in the 1989 to the modern quad-link 12G-SDI available today, it has stood the test of time and even with the advent of IP and Ethernet, it shows no sign of waning.
HDR is taking the broadcasting world by storm. The combination of a greater dynamic range and wider color gamut is delivering images that truly bring the immersive experience to home viewers. Vibrant colors and detailed specular highlights build a kind of realism into broadcast productions that our predecessors could only have ever dreamed of.
HDR offers unbelievable new opportunities for broadcast television. Not only do we have massively improved dynamic range with the potential of eye-watering contrast ratios, but we also have the opportunity to work with a significantly increased color gamut to deliver vivid and highly saturated colors.
Live sports productions are the natural home for HDR. The increase in luminance latitude combined with extended color space delivers an immersive experience never before witnessed by the home viewer. But backwards compatibility must still be maintained for legacy SDR audiences.