16 TVBEurope
www.tvbeurope.com September 2013 News & Analysis
Sony makes 4K proof of concept
The Confederations Cup was proving ground for the first multi-camera production in 4K run like an HD production, according to Sony. Analysis by Adrian Pennington
THE RECENT tests by Sony and FIFA of a 4K live production workflow at the Confederations Cup in Brazil have enabled the manufacturer to claim, “we have made a proof of concept that 4K is operationally and technically feasible.” Sony’s live production
manager Norbert Paquet, a veteran of Sony’s FIFA World Cup 2010 3D experiment, was on hand at the Mineirao Stadium in Belo Horizonte alongside Mark Grinyer, Sony’s programme manager for the 2014 tournament, to supervise the 4K shoot of three matches. “We achieved a full 4K
workflow,” Paquet reports. “Viewing was only made in private viewing areas, not broadcast, but as far as the experience of watching the output in the truck goes I can say that it was amazing. This was a milestone for us as the first multi-camera production in 4K that was run like a high definition production.” The core production was based on 3G SDI infrastructure in which each 4K camera signal was split into 4x1080p 60Hz signal quadrents. Seven single CMOS sensor F55 4K cameras were trained on the action alongside two HDC-2500s upconverted to 4K via prototype board. A mix of high-end Fujinon digital cinema lenses requiring external control for focus, zoom and iris and mid-range motorised Fujinon Cabrios were tested. There were also tests for use of several 2/3-inch HD lenses with a special adaptor. “Because of the LEGO brick design
Norbert Paquet: “For zoom it’s bit shallower for sure but the big box HD lenses worked perfectly here”
of the F55 it was easy for engineers in Japan to transform it into a live camera with a fibre adaptor and provide the interfaces needed for live,” explains Paquet. Optical fibre ran the raw data from the F55 back to BPU-4000 baseband processors in the truck. These are 1U rackmount units designed to debayer the RAW data and output four seperate HD signals for transport at 3Gbps over Miranda’s router. Importantly, the BPU-4000s were connected to 3G HDI CCUs providing power and traditional broadcast camera control functions to the F55 camera head. “As far as the CCU is concerned it is talking to a standard camera as the
processing that is done in the camera head for HD is done in the BPU-4000,” adds Paquet. “When the operators rack focus and zoom it’s as if they were using a standard broadcast lens. As far as the camera operators were concerned this was a totally traditional workflow using [HD monitor] Sony BVME-170 Trimaster 17-inch OLEDs to colour match with a conventional RCP (remote control panel) and no specific software. “Whereas with 3D the cameras took a long time to set up and operators needed to relearn how to pan, the technical part of 4K live was easy thanks to the adaptation of the F55. Set-up times were quick — and while it needs engineering work to anticipate how to handle 4 x 3G signals in a truck to ensure everything is routed and synched, it was ultimately straightforward.”
A lesson in lenses The big learning was on the lens side. “We were scared of shallow depth of field but in the end, whether we were
shooting wide angle positions with 2/3-inch or 35mm sensor we found the picture doesn’t change that much. There’s still enough depth of field to cover the action correctly. For zoom it’s a bit shallower for sure but the big box
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