Mark Horton of Ericssons Encoding Division captivated the RTS audience at Thames Valley on Thursday with his enlightening and sometimes controversial insight into UHD.

 

An interactive investigation into the human visual system demonstrated the concept of saccadic eye movement.  Using static slides Mark showed how images we perceive are only partly based on the information presented to the eyes, instead, our perception of detail is a construct of pixel count, frame rate, colour, contrast and very importantly our own memories and experiences.  Down conversion from UHD to HD for simulcast may not be  straightforward as the transform from HDR and WCG 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.  Mark demonstrated that a lens adequate for HD could not be assumed to provide the same level of detail for UHD.

 

Backwards compatibility is the nemesis of the broadcast industry and it’s no different with UHD, presenting four ideas in the broadcast environment it became evident that the most controversial was to send embedded HDR parameter metadata within the signal chain, the audience quickly saw the pitfalls and hotly debated them.  The overwhelming solution suggested was that backwards compatibility had to be as simple as possible, utilising existing infrastructures in TV stations if UHD was to become a mainstream broadcast format.