32 TVBEurope
www.tvbeurope.com April 2013
4k UHDTV:opportunity or hype? Beyond HD:Future Directions
In association with:
Catching the 4k UHDTV wave is not without its difficulties. Guest Opinion by Paola Hobson, senior product manager, Conversion & Modular, Snell
4K UHDTV is a high resolution picture format (3840 × 2160 pixels per frame) which is emerging as the standard for new multimedia services. It has huge artistic advantages compared to conventional SD and HD production, both for content acquisition and special effects (such as zoom). 4k UHDTV offers opportunities for new service development and differentiation to broadcast and media organisations. However, catching the 4k UHDTV wave is not without its difficulties, not least of which is knowing what equipment to invest in while standards have not yet been fully agreed between industry players. In the following discussion, we identify some key issues which broadcast and media organisations need to take into account when planning their transition to 4k UHDTV.
Market opportunity? 4k UHDTV generated a lot of excitement at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), with all the major display vendors announcing and demonstrating 4k UHDTV consumer displays. However, experienced industry players may be asking themselves if this is just a repeat of the hype generated around 3D displays a few years ago, which didn't achieve the expected consumer take-up. It's quite likely that the outcome for 4k UHDTV will be different. Firstly, there is already a good choice of 4k UHDTV cameras on the market, such as from Samsung, Sony, JVC and others. 4k production methods are already well established in the digital cinema domain (although this is a slightly different format 4096 × 2160 rather than the 3840 × 2160 of 4k UHDTV), and don't require the complex rigs needed for 3D production. Secondly, thanks to the adoption of 4k in the film industry and for digital cinema, there are already some 4k effects and editing tools available, which combined with lower costs of data storage, make 4k
UHDTV post production feasible on reasonably powerful workstations.
The chain to the consumer is facilitated by advanced compression technology, including the emerging High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC), and at CES, Eutelsat announced the launch of a 4k UHDTV demonstration channel, allowing broadcasters to experiment with 4k UHDTV services at 40Mbps compressed using MPEG-4. Finally (and where we started) there are a range of 4k UHDTV displays being offered to consumers which are already available in shops, including those from Toshiba, Sony, LG, Panasonic and others. Manufacturers are starting to make available playback devices so customers can watch 4k UHDTV content from a hard-disk while the broadcasters and media distribution companies work out their delivery mechanisms.
Why do consumers want 4k UHDTV? Its clear that there's a technical push for 4k UHDTV underway, but commercial success will only follow if there is a real market demand. Persuading consumers to part with $7,000 and above to replace their current HD TV display requires a step change to the content they currently watch. 4k UHDTV has a much
higher resolution than HDTV
Figure 1: Extracting an HDTV segment from UHDTV for zoom. Top: original shot. Bottom: HDTV zoomed extract showing street scene detail
very high quality zoom, become possible, where a viewer may concentrate on a specific part of the action chosen by the programme director — or, in the case of interactive services, chosen by the viewers themselves. With high bandwidth delivery services to the home, the 4k
Current experiments by broadcasters at 50p and 59.94p have been very successful
(four times spatially) which enables producers to capture much more detail in their scenes, bringing to life spacious wildlife panoramas as well as offering the most detailed action at a sports game. The opportunity to capture a wider field of view enables producers greater freedom in camera placement, thereby enabling more artistic license. With 4k UHDTV, enhanced post production effects, such as
UHDTV viewers will be able to enjoy exceptionally high quality pictures, with much higher degree of involvement in the programme. In addition, most of the 4k UHDTV displays targeted at consumers also support 3D, so the consumer is likely to feel more confident that their spending is a good investment.
Consumer access to 4k UHDTV content could soon be improved, following the Blu-ray
Paola Hobson: Is it just a repeat of the 3D hype? It’s quite likely that the
outcome for 4k UHDTV will be different
Disc Association announcement that it has created a task force within its member companies to investigate extending the Blu-ray spec to deliver 4k UHDTV movie content. Blu-ray has disc capacities of 25GB and 50GB so storage should not be a barrier to movie companies wanting to take advantage of the new Blu-ray spec.
What's the benefit of 4k UHDTV for broadcaster and media companies? They can use 4k UHDTV as an opportunity to create new services and differentiate their existing services. 4k UHDTV gives a stimulus to viewers to start new subscriptions. Improved quality of content delivered to large displays in the home gives
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