One of the first victims of the resolution war is likely to be the shuttered 3D television screen
UHDTV system is on the threshold of availability. This is the time to understand what is happening in UHDTV and to help shape the future. “Since UHDTV is about high quality pictures, compression artefacts of the kind we see today with HDTV broadcasting in some cases may be less acceptable. How far below 140Mbps it may be possible to compress UHDTV transparently remains to be seen. Satellite operators are currently studying the possibility of satellite broadcasting of UHDTV using the 22 gigahertz satellite band which has considerable capacity available and seems to be an initial way it will be possible to deliver UHDTV to the public.” Matthew Goldman and Mark Horton of Ericsson delivered a useful overview of progress in High Efficiency Video Coding: “4K TV delivery to the home is a prime driver behind HEVC. 4K resolution has been with us for many years in digital film. There is a large existing infrastructure of 4K digital cameras, 4K film scanners and telecines, 4K post production systems, 4K playback servers and 4K display devices. “Much of today’s HD content is actually shot at 4K and then subsampled for delivery. There is a growing library of 4K content that could be the basis of future film, TV drama and TV documentary channels to the home. 4K digital film can require 48 megabytes or more to store a single noncompressed frame at 4096 x 3112 pixels using 4:4:4 10-bit sampling.
“These daunting figures seem to rule out practical 4K TV for the foreseeable future but the reality is much more plausible. 4K TV only involves handling four times more data than HDTV, approximately 3840 x 2160 at 4:2:2 10-bit — a slightly more modest 20MB per frame, non-compressed. “Early HEVC tests have shown
that original non-compressed 4K TV can be shown at 18Mbps compressed. This figure effectively means 4K TV could potentially be shown at bitrates currently used for MPEG-2 Video based HD services.” Corporate acquisitions are often big news at NAB but this year the focus was as much on businesses for sale as on companies acquired. Harris, which in its time has hoovered up major players such as Leitch, leaked prior to NAB and later
TVBEurope 43 NAB Wrap-Up
Harris confirmed that it was looking to divest its entire Broadcast Communications division. Does it seriously imagine the broadcast industry is running out of steam?
confirmed that it was looking to divest its entire Broadcast Communications division (see TVBEurope’s May issue). Does it seriously imagine the broadcast industry is running out of steam?
For the stars along the pitch:
Audio equipment from Lawo. What applies to the heroes on the pitch also applies to the stars backstage: the better the equipment, the better the performance. This is why Lawo is also at the football event 2012 — as the most important partner for high-performance audio technology. When the ball wizards in Poland or the Ukraine take to the field, Lawo takes control of the audio. When you think performance, think Lawo. www.lawo.de