This reporter always enjoy the future technology area at IBC and I often save up visits to the end of a long day. If I get around the ‘moodily-lit STBs’, to quote Paul Gray of IHS, then I head over to the area for some time.
The first item for a large number of years has been the displays brought over by NHK of Japan to show the progress towards the launch of 8K Super Hi-vision in 2020. Every year there is something impressive and 2016 was no exception. The first 8K demo that I saw at IBC was, I think, a projection display from JVC and was a great experience. In subsequent years, the displays have included 8K LCDs from Sharp, but they were not really big, so the impact of the resolution is more muted.
NTT OLED – Image:MekoThis year, NHK showed an 8K display made from four separate 65″ UltraHD OLED panels from LG Display that were joined together to create a 130″ display. The panels were extremely thin and the suggestion of the display was that the display might be rollable, although as the OLEDs were on glass substrates, that was not actually possible. However, NTT does see the idea of a 100″+ rollable display for showing Super Hi-Vision as one that the technology will be used in the future and NHK and LG are working together to explore this concept. There was also an impressive demonstration of 8K HDR (based on HLG) content from the Rio Olympics.
NHK was also showing an autostereoscopic 3D system that uses 25 different view ports and exploits a 13.3″ 8K OLED, similar to one that has previously been demonstrated in the past at SID and sourced from SEL. The system uses lenses at the capture point and also on the display.
NHK’s AS3D Demo. Image:Meko
NHK’s AS3D System. Image:Meko
4Ever is a French initiative that is looking at the user experience of advanced video technologies such as UltraHD and HDR. The news we got from the group at IBC was that its tests of HFR have shown that users prefer ‘by 10 to 20 points’ HFR content over standard content, even when more compression is applied to bring the bandwidths of the standard and high frame rate to the same level.
We had a look at what B<>Com was doing in HDR, but reported on this separately. (BCom Converts Between SDR and HDR)
There were a number of demonstrations of 3D technology. A demonstration of a live telepresence system from NTT was called ‘Kirari!’ The system adds images extracted from their backgrounds and superimposed in front of backgrounds that were composed of multiple HD videos. For more information, contact [email protected]. (I found that the effect was of seeing a “miniature figure in a fish tank” rather than feeling that I had a window into another world or place – BR)
NTT Kirari Diagram. Image:Meko
NTT’s Kirari Telepresence System. Image:Meko
Ozo is a start-up, developed from Nokia, that is working on professional 360º cameras. There are eight sensors, each with 2K x 2K resolution. Staff told us that stitching typically takes around 45 minutes and the camera will cost around $40,000. Ozo is working with Neulion to provide 360º video for live OTT events.
Ozo’s 360 camera costs $40K. Image:Meko
