36 executive summary theibcdaily NHK
IBC2012 International Honour for Excellence Region: Global
Keiichi Kubota, Masayuki Matsumoto, Shuichi Fujisawa
From HD to Super-HD and beyond S
ometimes it takes years—even decades—to turn a good idea into reality. NHK makes a habit of it. The Japanese public service broadcaster’s research division, NHK Science and Technology Research Laboratories (STRL), stands at the forefront of broadcasting technology with a staggering
record of achievements over 80 years that shows no sign of slowing down. There can be no more justifiable recipient of the IBC2012
International Honour for Excellence. Landmarks include the efforts of NHK's technical and production teams at the Tokyo Olympics 1964 which enabled simultaneous intercontinental viewing [to the US] of the Games via satellite and in colour for the first time. Remarkably, that was also the year that NHK’s research into
Hi-Vision began, paving the way for the HDTV standard we know today, whilst finding time to develop plasma screens en-route. In 1984 NHK pioneered the world’s first direct broadcast satellite service, for which it was awarded an IEEE Milestone Award. This was the culmination of 18 years of research that included the development of an in expensive low-noise receiver and investigations of rain attenuation in the 12 GHz band. RRL, NASDA, TSCJ, Toshiba Corporation, General Electric Company, and NASA participated with NHK to make satellite broadcasting to the home a practical reality. Among the many current strands of its research is Super Hi-
Vision, the implementation of high resolution broadcasting which offers a screen resolution 16 times greater than HD, together with 22.2 channel immersive surround sound. NHK STRL engineers are working on the complete chain, from high resolution high speed CMOS cameras through recording and transmission equipment to screens and projection displays. A launch date of 2020 in Japan once seemed pie in the sky
but increasingly seems just the start of UltraHDTV, the world’s potential successor broadcasting format. Indeed Dr Keiichi Kubota, executive director-general for engineering recently suggested that transmission tests beginning 2016 were viable. NHK president Masayuki Matsumoto accepted the IHFE
Award with Kubota and Shuichi Fujisawa, current head of STRL, cementing the broadcaster’s longstanding relationship with IBC. “IBC is for NHK a place to announce new technologies and put on displays showcasing the results of research,” says Kubota. “In 2008, we carried out international transmission experiments in SHV, in collaboration with a number of entities, including the BBC, RAI, and EBU. The IBC is an effective catalyst for bringing together broadcasters and institutes around
By Adrian Pennington
the world to pursue research and development. In our view, IBC plays a very important role.” At last year’s IBC the Best Conference Paper Award was won by Yukihiro Nishida and colleagues for their paper on the limits of vision and how that has now defined the parameters for Super Hi-Vision. Amazingly STRL is already studying systems beyond SHV including Integral 3D TV, which uses an array of miniature lenses for both shooting and display to produce stunning autostereoscopic pictures regardless of the viewer’s position. At the same time it is researching electronic holography systems which use a spatial light modulator consisting of arrays of miniature optical pixels of controllable light to deliver unprece- dented high resolutions. Given NHK’s track record in developing science-fiction into everyday reality several decades in advance there is every reason to watch this space with interest. The institute says it has already established the basic operations including a still 3D image display and is now working on the moving 3D holographic images themselves. The lab, which employs 230 full time R&D engineers, is also
Sometimes we feel under pressure to maintain our lead but we strive to
convert that feeling into a positive sense of tension
addressing the second screen, helping a consortium of broadcasters launch a shareable platform, Hybridcast, which synchronises broadband to broadcast content and which the consortia is keen to see standardised by the Worldwide Web Consortium. “We are proud, more than anything else, of the continuing commitment to technical excellence, creativity, and the desire to develop broadcasting technologies, which has been displayed by all of our engineers over the years,” says Kubota. “We want to retain and build on this motivation for evolving broadcasting technologies, fulfilling our role to the full.” A SMPTE Fellow, Kubota has spent more than 30 years at NHK. “HDTV brings together a very wide range of technologies in terms of the cameras and other production equipment, the transmission technologies, and the receivers that bring HDTV into the home,” he says. “HDTV would not have spread if we lacked any one of those technologies. So in that sense, I’m very moved by the fact that HD has now become a world standard.
“Sometimes we feel under pressure to maintain our lead, but we strive to convert that feeling of pressure into a positive sense of tension,” he adds. “We have a sense of mission in our R&D to continue supporting progress in broadcasting technologies. Our role is to share the results of our research far and wide, in order to contribute to the advancement of broadcasting around the globe.”
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