Technicolor’s Kirk Barker Discusses How Operators in APAC Region Can Harness HDR to Enhance TV Viewing Experiences
SINGAPORE – May 25, 2017—CMMA 2017—The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has its sights on High Dynamic Range (HDR), an imaging technology that manages luminescence to provide richer contrasts, deeper shadows, and brighter highlights. And although standards are still evolving, it’s time to go live with HDR productions, according to Kirk Barker—Senior Vice President of Engineering And Product Management, Technicolorin —a recent podcast for journalists.
“At this point, we’ve been doing a lot of trials, a lot of testing, and we think we have the workflows worked out. It’s time to make this thing real and to really get it out into consumers’ hands. There are no major blockers,” says Barker. “We now have TVs that are in the marketplace that can do in excess of 1,000 nits. We’ve got distribution technologies that are cost-efficient and are able to be done in a way that can support existing infrastructures. And we have production tools and the capabilities to do live productions—in addition to offline workflows. We have everything we need to make it real today.”
“At this point, we’ve been doing a lot of trials, a lot of testing, and we think we have the workflows worked out. It’s time to make this thing real and to really get it out into consumers’ hands. There are no major blockers,” says Barker. “We now have TVs that are in the marketplace that can do in excess of 1,000 nits. We’ve got distribution technologies that are cost-efficient and are able to be done in a way that can support existing infrastructures. And we have production tools and the capabilities to do live productions—in addition to offline workflows. We have everything we need to make it real today.”
Technicolor has been working with a number of partners in the APAC region to roll out HDR technologies.
“What’s exciting is that with some of our solutions we can roll out an upconverted HDR version of either a movie or episodic content at a very small incremental increase to the overall cost of production. So, unlike some of the other technologies —where you have to throw out everything that is currently in place, causing huge capital improvement investments—here’s a technology that has demonstrable value to customers and can be provided at a reasonable cost. It can really put network service providers (NSPs) who deploy HDR in a position to make a difference,” explains Barker.
The other advantage for Asia Pacific is that many countries have relatively high internet speeds. This allows them to deploy HDR technology very quickly without changing out the broadcast infrastructure, utilizing internet protocol (IP) and over-the-top (OTT) services to provide an HDR version of content with even a greater speed to market.
“What’s exciting is that with some of our solutions we can roll out an upconverted HDR version of either a movie or episodic content at a very small incremental increase to the overall cost of production. So, unlike some of the other technologies —where you have to throw out everything that is currently in place, causing huge capital improvement investments—here’s a technology that has demonstrable value to customers and can be provided at a reasonable cost. It can really put network service providers (NSPs) who deploy HDR in a position to make a difference,” explains Barker.
The other advantage for Asia Pacific is that many countries have relatively high internet speeds. This allows them to deploy HDR technology very quickly without changing out the broadcast infrastructure, utilizing internet protocol (IP) and over-the-top (OTT) services to provide an HDR version of content with even a greater speed to market.
Kirk Barker —Technicolor
Beyond the service provider community, Technicolor is also working with big players in the consumer electronics arena.
“We believe it’s very important to create the best possible displays. That’s why we’ve teamed with partners like LG. The distribution can be done in a way that provides both high-quality SDR signals and high-quality HDR signals, in a compression-efficient manner that is distributed in a way that can be supported from an operational perspective. And that’s why we’re working with partners like SK Broadband,” says Barker.
“Finally, on the production side, it is fine that you can display great content and can distribute great content, but you actually have to create great content. And that’s where we’re working with our partners on the production trucks and on the grading of content to make sure that we really get that part right as well. If we’re not able to produce a really stunning sports game in HDR, then it won’t matter that you have these great TVs.”
To listen to the podcast or read the full Q&A with Kirk Barker visit: http://thefuturetrust.technicolor.com/article/the-future-…
Journalists and analysts are free to pull quotes from this Q&A feature with attribution in media and market reports. For more details and context, contact: Lane Cooper +1 323 817 7547 Lane.cooper@technicolor.com
Andre Rodriguez +1 323 817 6716 andre.rodriguez@technicolor.com
Photo: https://www.prlog.org/12642244/1
“We believe it’s very important to create the best possible displays. That’s why we’ve teamed with partners like LG. The distribution can be done in a way that provides both high-quality SDR signals and high-quality HDR signals, in a compression-efficient manner that is distributed in a way that can be supported from an operational perspective. And that’s why we’re working with partners like SK Broadband,” says Barker.
“Finally, on the production side, it is fine that you can display great content and can distribute great content, but you actually have to create great content. And that’s where we’re working with our partners on the production trucks and on the grading of content to make sure that we really get that part right as well. If we’re not able to produce a really stunning sports game in HDR, then it won’t matter that you have these great TVs.”
To listen to the podcast or read the full Q&A with Kirk Barker visit: http://thefuturetrust.technicolor.com/article/the-future-…
Journalists and analysts are free to pull quotes from this Q&A feature with attribution in media and market reports. For more details and context, contact: Lane Cooper +1 323 817 7547 Lane.cooper@technicolor.com
Andre Rodriguez +1 323 817 6716 andre.rodriguez@technicolor.com
Photo: https://www.prlog.org/12642244/1
