At NAB 2016, the UHD Forum issued a set of guidelines designed to help broadcasters make decisions on the deployment of 4K and HDR services in the near term. At IBC 2016, it announced the guidelines had been updated to version 1.1 after consultation with ATSC, CableLabs, CTA, DASH Industry Forum, DECE, DVB, EBU, HDMI Forum, MovieLabs, SCTE/ISBE, SMPTE, UHD Alliance and the Video Services Forum (VSF). The, now public, version of the guidelines incorporates all these groups’ input.
You can download a presentation given on Aug. 24 describing the guidelines at: http://ultrahdforum.org/resources/guidelines-presentation-from-august-24th-webinar-now-available/
The full guidelines can be downloaded at: http://ultrahdforum.org/resources/phasea-guidelines-description/
The UHD Forum did not elaborate on what was changed in the updated version, however.
The Forum’s Plugfest #2 will be held immediately after IBC, and will be hosted by KPN in Hilversum, UK. The focus will be on HDR including HLG on STBs and TVs. The event is by invitation only, but interested parties can get in touch though our Web site or by email to [email protected].
Formed in 2015, the Ultra HD Forum is the global organization responsible for promoting market adoption of Ultra HD by defining industry best practices for the phased introduction of the wide set of technologies facilitating the next-generation television experience. The organization facilitates interoperability testing and collaborates with industry standards bodies to align standard development activities. A list of over 60 participating member companies and additional information about the organization is available at http://ultrahdforum.org.
Analyst Comment
We met the UltraHD Forum at IBC and talked about developments, especially in HDR. The group pointed out to us that, at the moment, during the current “Phase A”, all OTT content providers have chosen to use the PQ curve rather than HLG, although the guidelines support the use of either. PQ to HLG conversion seems clear, but the best way to go the other way is less clear at the moment. The Phase A guidelines only cover static metadata, and real-time scene-based metadata (as used in, for example, Dolby Vision) is not provided for at this stage. It is clear that different technologies are moving at different speeds and that will complicate future development. The group is working on security issues of UltraHD. The guidelines are a useful read if you want to understand the issues and questions that will arise in HDR production and delivery.
The Forum’s Plugfest #2 will be held immediately after IBC, and will be hosted by KPN in Hilversum. The focus will be on HDR including HLG on STBs and TVs. (BR)
