April 2013 www.tvbeurope.com In association with:


programme producers new artistic scope and freedom to create stunning new material. High quality zoom and other special effects can be integrated into the programming. Transfer of 4k movies into


screen productions can also be much simpler, due to the similar resolutions (3840 × 2160 pixels per frame for UHDTV and 4096 × 2160 for Digital Cinema). Many movie companies are scanning their back catalogues into 4k formats, anticipating new opportunities with future 4k UHDTV delivery mechanisms thereby creating new media services. Availability of compelling 4k UHDTV content will attract consumers, enabling broadcasters and media companies to demonstrate revenue generating service innovation.


Investing in 4k UHDTV Investing in new technology and new workflows is always accompanied by risk. In August 2012, ITU published ITU-R Recommendation BT.2020, which specifies the technical parameters for 4k UHDTV, but there remain many practical questions to consider. Firstly, the 4k UHDTV


standard allows for frame rates from 23.98p up to 120p. Organisations buying 4k UHDTV equipment need to know that the products they buy will support the full range of possible frame rates, so that they are ready for any service that is defined. However, current experiments by broadcasters at 50p and 59.94p have been very successful, so there is a high likelihood that consumer services will be based on these two frame rates. With 3840 × 2160 pixels per


frame, up to 120fps, and 10 or 12 bit colour depth, it's clear that uncompressed 4k UHDTV material has high storage requirements. Fortunately, the costs of storage continue to decrease while capacity of storage solutions rises. In parallel, new compression methods are emerging which provide very efficient encoding of video signals with minimal picture degradation. The High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC) under standardisation in ISO is just one possible codec to help reduce 4k UHDTV storage requirements. 4k UHDTV transmission is


likely to be compressed at least initially, as even today's high bandwidth links to consumers’ homes have insufficient


TVBEurope 33 Beyond HD:Future Directions


capacity to cope with the amount of data required to transmit programmes. However, as improved compression technologies emerge along with more efficient transport mechanisms and higher bandwidths to the home,


transmission issues will diminish over time. 4k UHDTV is a very


promising new opportunity for broadcast and media organisations. It opens up the possibility to develop new revenue streams from


innovative new services, with much scope for new artistic freedom for programme producers. Many elements in the equipment chain from production to consumer are already available or are in


development by manufacturers, bringing the move to 4k UHDTV within the reach of many broadcast and media organisations. Consumer displays are on sale now, setting an expectation of services to come.


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