November 2013
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4K and cinema: At war or together forever?
BKSTS, THE society for the film and television industry in the UK held a panel discussion this month on ‘The Merging of Film and TV’, in association with the BFI. Chaired by BKSTS president Roland Brown, a panel of industry experts shared their views on ultra-high definiton technology, 4K television and cinema, and their future relationship. Paul Scanlon, director
of BT Media Broadcast UHD production, opened the discussion with a presentation on how BT Vision, in association with Ericsson, recorded a live multi-camera 4K/UHD production of a rugby match and broadcast it as-live to IBC in September. He questioned whether there was room for celluloid, arguing that “digital is moving forward and we have to embrace it.” Milan Krsljanin, business
development manager at ARRI shared a more positive outlook on film: “Hopefully film will last a long time because it is a beautiful medium.” Television productions now rival film, Krsljanin argued, with BBC productions like Downton Abbey and Peaky Blinders shot in the same quality as major films — “they really look outstanding.” As a result, “cinema needs to raise the bar and offer more than what’s available at home.” Krsljanin sees this as a “golden opportunity” to increase frame rate and dynamic range to encourage more people to pay for the cinema experience.
Panel members (front row) Andy Quested, Peter Wilson, Milan Krsljanin and Simon Gauntlett with (behind) BKSTS president and panel Chair Roland Brown
Moving cinema into the home Rather than more people visiting the cinema, the future will see the cinema experience moving into the home, commented
In agreement with much of
Johns’ comment was Andy Quested, head of technology BBC HD & 3D. Audience demand for better colour, luminance and frame rate is
News & Contents Contents
1-25 News & Analysis Off the stage After 20 years at TVBEurope, Fergal Ringrose departs the editor’s chair 4
delivered to audiences. 4K comes with a cost — in workflow, cabling, storage etc. As such, 4K productions will at first be limited to special events such as ballet performances, concerts and sports. There is also the question of audience demand — although the technology may be available to deliver such productions, broadcasters “actually need the audience that wants to see it. It’s a question of using the technology appropriately for the right venue, audience and content.” Simon Gauntlett, technology
director DTG, also placed an emphasis on content and raised the issue of how best to present content to the viewer. The merging of TV and cinema means that we have to move away from strict categorisation: “We are moving to a world with different types of content.”
“It’s when things move too quickly they start to fall apart. You need to take the time to do it, to get it right”
Chris Johns, chief engineer Broadcast Strategy, BSkyB
Chris Johns, chief engineer Broadcast Strategy, BSkyB. More people are investing in bigger TV screens for their homes, with “84-inch becoming increasingly popular.” In Johns’ opinion, progression should happen gradually. “It’s great when things don’t move too fast,” he said. “It’s when things move too quickly they start to fall apart. You need to take the time to do it, to get it right,” he concluded.
growing, and we are “moving to a point when cinema and TV will merge to give us something better than real life.” Despite this positive outlook,
the practicalities of delivering such a service still need to be considered. Alison Hutchins, senior propositions manager BT Media and Broadcast, BT Wholesale, argued that “until compression technology is developed further” it cannot be
Things are moving at a rapid pace and the quality of some TV productions is now rivaling that of film, despite smaller budgets. Whether the “beautiful medium” of film remains popular is open to debate, though it seems cinema will have to offer audiences more if we are to apply Scanlon’s comment to the future of TV: “Technology moves forward and it wins in the end.”
14-36 IBC Wrap-Up A look back at the new products, ideas and debates at this year’s IBC, held in Amsterdam in September, including reflections from key industry figures
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New camera round-up: The evolution revolution David Fox looks at the new cameras and acquisition technology showing at IBC2013
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Cheeseman scouts the clouds for Sky
Neal Romanek talks with Sky’s head of advanced production and innovation on Sky’s relationship with the cloud
38-39 The Business Case Tim Thorsteinson departed as Grass Valley’s president and CEO in 2001. Now he is back, and makes time to catch up with David Fox
40-49 The Workflow Sport illustrated
Philip Stevens discovers how Liga-TV is keeping up with Russian viewer demand for increasingly immersive football coverage
Progression and Evolutions Evolutions has branched out from Soho to open a new post production house in the south west of England. Holly Ashford finds out more about the Bristol facility
50 News Review
A look back at some of the month’s most exciting stories from the broadcast technology industry 50
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VB288 OBJECTIVE QoE CONTENT EXTRACTOR performs objective video and audio measurements of MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 streams and offers remote video-wall capability.
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