September2013
www.tvbeurope.com
TVBEurope 23
News & Analysis Guest Opinion
Embrace Ultra HD
BROADCASTERS HAVE nothing to fear from Ultra-HD. The coming transition will be much easier to implement than the one from SD to HD. Most of the broadcast world began its arduous migration to HD only with additional motivation from national governments, and depending on where you live, that transformation may still be ongoing. There were plenty of hurdles to overcome but the most significant pain points were the analogue-to-digital transition, 4:3-to-16:9 aspect ratio reformatting, and the need for more bandwidth (fatter pipes) from acquisition through delivery. The first hurdle was the most significant, involving the fundamentals of acquisition, production, delivery and consumption of video. Facilities had to be equipped and
Dan Maloney: Professional 4K+ acquisition is a reality today
employees trained to deal with digital video workflows, which was very costly. The second hurdle was rooted in the tube-to-panel display aspect ratio disparity. The 4:3- to-16:9 migration meant that content edited for display on a 4:3 tube had to be compromised to fill the 16:9 screen of a panel
Ultra-HD is a natural, graceful evolution of HD says Matrox Video technical marketing manager Dan Maloney
choose from also contributed to the variables influencing transition decisions. Infrastructure to support HD
and, conversely, content edited for display on a panel had to be altered to fill a tube screen. To this day, the majority of television viewers experience some level of format mismatch and a less than ideal viewing experience when channel surfing. The fact that there were two possible panel resolutions to
video was the last hurdle to overcome. Once the transition to digital was accomplished, increasing bandwidth to support HD throughout the plant and out to the viewer was solved purely through technology upgrades. General purpose IT technologies, compression technologies, over-the-air infrastructure, telco bandwidth availability, and inexpensive HD panels evolved rapidly, driving costs down for all. Will the transition to 4K have the same growing pains? Not by a long shot! Only the fatter pipe hurdle must be overcome. In some parts of the broadcast workflow it already has been, in others it is just around the corner. Options abound.
Given a choice, people always
watch high definition over standard definition, and given a choice they will also watch Ultra-HD over HD. There is certainly a question mark surrounding the nature of Ultra-HD delivery — however once available, it will be adopted by a subset of viewers, whichever incarnation(s) it takes. Right now, broadcasters should consider acquiring their most valuable content in Ultra-HD to ensure that they can extract the maximum value from this asset in the long run. Affordable, professional 4K+ acquisition is a reality today with native Ultra-HD post production systems and Ultra-HD displays on the way. Matrox and our technology partners will help empower the transition to 4K. We see Ultra-HD as a natural and graceful evolution of high definition, one that broadcasters should embrace because it represents additional payback for the expensive, arduous transition to HD they have just been through.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84