Mark Horton of Ericsson’s Encoding Division offered the Thames Valley Centre an enlightening and sometimes controversial insight into Ultra-HDTV in mid-March.
Conducting an interactive investigation into the human visual system, Horton demonstrated the concept of saccadic eye movement.
Horton showed how the images we perceive are only partly based on the information presented to the eyes. Instead, the audience’s perception of detail is a construct of pixel count, frame rate, colour, contrast and, importantly, its own memories and experiences.
He suggested that down conversion from Ultra-HDTV to HD for simulcast may not be straightforward because the transformation from high dynamic range and wide colour gamut to HD is not necessarily linear.
The many elements of a zoom lens give rise to potential additive diffraction and diffusion. Consequently, highly complex computer controlled systems are used to grind the lens to reach the optimum compromise of operational control, distortion and clarity for a specific application. Horton demonstrated that a lens adequate for HD could not be assumed to provide the same level of detail for Ultra-HDTV.
Backwards compatibility has always proved problematic for the broadcast industry and Ultra-HDTV is no different.
At the Thames Valley event, which was co-hosted by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, the most popular view was that backwards compatibility had to be as simple as possible, utilising existing infrastructures in TV stations if Ultra-HDTV was to become a mainstream broadcast format.