16 TVBEurope Round Table
www.tvbeurope.com October 2013 In association with
4Kchallenge
Eutelsat, in association with TVBEurope, organised a panel of experts on its IBC stand to address the many 4K challenges ahead for end-to-end television transmission. Round Table moderator Chris Forrester reports from the event last month
4K FOR TV (3840x2160 pixels) was visible just about everywhere at IBC in Amsterdam and by common agreement the broadcasting industry is at a tipping point as it prepares to migrate from yesterday’s HDTV to tomorrow’s 4K. And Paris- based Eutelsat is wholly ready for that transition. Indeed, it already has deals in place with VIP players such as Samsung to provide a demo UHD channel that’s beamed into Samsung shops and electrical retailers to provide ‘wow’ at the point of sale.
Eutelsat organised a panel of
experts at IBC to address the many challenges still to be resolved in terms of end-to-end 4K transmission, and its first speaker shocked the audience by revealing that the upcoming Sochi Winter Olympic Games would be captured in 4K, if only for cinema and public area viewing and as part of a technology test. Oleg Kolesnikov, CTO at
Russia’s pay-TV broadcaster NTV Plus, said: “We tested 4K in July in partnership with Russia’s largest production company, Panorama HD. The Olympics in Sochi could represent a strong platform for demonstrating its potential.
“Our tests used the H.264 mosaic cluster of four images using Canon cameras and Ericsson encoders, and using Eutelsat satellites. As an intermediate solution this works but we need to move forward so that the complete image is encoded in one go. We have planned for other tests this autumn, but using HEVC technology.” Kolesnikov added that beaming the content to some cinemas and other public viewing points was the initial target in order to showcase the technology. However, he admitted that NTV+ wanted to get away from the 100Mb of bandwidth needed for the mosaic of four streams and quickly move to HEVC encoding and a single, more efficient stream. “In the long term we definitely need the encoding to cover the complete picture in one stream. Currently the risk is that the thin line that [bisects] the four images could be visible. The fact is that currently each of the four encoders knows nothing about its adjacent encoder and from my perspective we need more co-operation from the [encoder] vendors so that by October this year we can again run tests by encoding a complete image and using HEVC technology.”
New 4K adventure The next panellist was Jerome Vieron from compression specialist Ateme, and by common consensus the whole of the broadcasting value chain is waiting for such companies to start manufacturing encoders incorporating the crucial HEVC-enabled chips-sets. Vieron said Ateme is
working hard on the complete video compression task and was well advanced with plans to deliver professional encoder units to clients. This included 4K and even 8K encoding solutions, working with Japan’s NHK on its Super Hi-Vision project. “We are very busy with
moment the market is not very clear. For us and our competitors we are probably only just at the starting block. So far we do not know what the market wants.”
“Today the
this new 4K adventure for Europe, and have supplied the equipment to Eutelsat to enable its UHD channels to be carried, albeit in H.264. Our R&D work at Ateme is to make the very best solution for UHD and this includes HEVC but that requires us to bring something new to the view, which is a totally immersive experience in terms of the video. It is not just more pixels. We are taking part in the French 4EVER project [looking at many of the production and post production tasks related to UHD] and this includes working with DoReMi, Technicolor, France Televisions, Globecast and Orange.
“Our job is to study Ultra HD and HEVC. I admit we have difficulties because at the
system isn’t stable, because all of us are cutting and pasting existing technology and we have yet to see a complete 4K eco-system” Massimo Bertolotti, Sky Italia
Vieron said he anticipated a
strong demand for suitable equipment from telcos, themselves keen to squeeze higher quality through their existing wires and cables. The cellular industry would also benefit from HEVC encoding. “One market is definitely the OTT sector.” Samsung’s John Adam agreed
that IBC2013 was a 4K show. “The August IFA show in Berlin was also very much a 4K event. However, we also need to be realistic and say there are still gaps that need to be filled. “There are certainly discussions about the connectivity with the set-top box, and we have to solve copy- protection issues, and there’s considerable discussion with Hollywood about that aspect. But looking forward we are seeing broadcasters in Europe, North America and Asia who are gearing up for UHD. The Digital Europe consortium of all the main consumer electronics manufacturers is looking at how best to communicate to viewers the benefits of UHD.
“Indeed, the 4K
train left the station at CES in January 2013. The industry is now awash with 4K displays, and it is only going to get better. The market will become more defined and the connectivity issues
solved. For sure, the consumer electronics industry will be ready the moment the broadcaster industry is ready.” Asked how important key
televisual events such as the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Rio Olympic Games might be in capturing public enthusiasm for UHD, Adam said that in terms of TV any major global event was a catalyst for consumer purchasing of new displays. “We know this always happens. When we look at the 2016 Olympics that will be a very sweet spot for the industry and will undoubtedly be a trigger point at retail and it could be a very good timing from the broadcasters’ point of view.”
Investment monetisation Ludovic Noblet, Dolby Labs’ senior director Technology, Strategy & Planning, said Dolby is ready for the new transmission format. “We last had to do this when HDTV was introduced 10 years ago, which itself followed on from the digitisation of TV. “Viewers were looking for better quality, and now we see the world looking again at something different. UHD is but
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