IBC 2015 Tech: Technicolor & Elemental Tech.

Technicolor, a worldwide media and entertainment technology supplier, and Elemental Technologies, a supplier of software-defined video solutions for multiscreen content delivery, announced Thursday they will demonstrate the world’s first broadcast delivery system of 4K UltraHD high dynamic range (HDR) video at IBC 2015 in Hall 13, Booth M5/M7. 

The live demonstration, which is optimized for broadcasters and pay-tv networks, shows how distributors can upscale high frame rate, standard dynamic range (SDR) events, such as sports, into impactful HDR. In addition, Technicolor and Elemental will highlight compatibility between Technicolor’s single layer backward compatible HDR delivery system and the 4K/HEVC-ready Elemental Live video encoder to illustrate a cost-effective solution for encoding and delivery.

Technicolor’s demonstration includes a new server-based version of its Intelligent Tone Management software that scales SDR source material into the vivid colors, rich contrast and heightened realism of HDR video. This software, based on years of research by leading Hollywood colorists, allows a sports or live events operator to continue using their current SDR cameras, workflow, and infrastructure at a venue, but now enables them to upscale the entire broadcast to HDR. To prove the power and flexibility of the Intelligent Tone Management solution, Technicolor is using uncompressed 4K video at 60 frames per second, to showcase how this new technology makes converting content to HDR seamless for operators. 

“The combination of HDR up conversion, 4K Ultra HD and high frame rate, and distribution of that signal through an entire compressed delivery chain is a world’s first and now Technicolor is showing that it can be done in real-time,” said Mark Turner, VP partnership relations and business development, Technicolor. “Traditionally, sports has always been the highest value content for pay TV companies and broadcasters, and the one that has presented most challenges for next-generation video from a cost -benefit perspective — until now.”

Technicolor’s HDR delivery system allows for a single stream combining both HDR and SDR video, enabling distributors to simultaneously support SDR and the rapidly emerging audience of HDR screens. This backward compatible feature is essential to meet the bandwidth requirements for pay-tv operators and OTT distributors looking to migrate with confidence to an HDR world. Technicolor is using its new 4K HDR set-top box to decode and play live HDR video while simultaneously playing the same signal on a current generation 4K SDR decoder to demonstrate the directly backward compatible stream.

Technicolor’s backward compatibility feature, while built for MPEG-HEVC initially, is independent of video codec and EOTF.

“HDR is important and the industry wants it sooner rather than later given its obvious visual appeal and potential to stimulate UHD device and service uptake,” said Mike Callahan, senior director of solutions marketing at Elemental Technologies. “Software-defined video solutions from Elemental give content programmers a key advantage: flexible, scalable HDR infrastructures that support live and VOD services and easily keep pace with rapid change. It’s a powerful complement to the Technicolor HDR workflow which provides features, such as backward compatibility, for simplifying workflows and reducing storage and delivery costs.”

Elemental is also showcasing the Technicolor single layer solution, running on a video-on-demand (VOD) workflow at their stand (Hall 4, Stand 4.B80).