4K

Expected to open in early 2017, the Digital Content Production Training Studio will provide students with the technology to shoot, record and stream footage in high-definition 4K resolution. The studio will feature the latest software and state-of-the-art equipment to service the needs of producers, editors, and engineers alike. Integrated with a wide range of post-production systems and graphics workstations, the digital hub will be able to produce high-end content for entertainment shows, sports broadcasts, and games programming.  

The two engineers offered an overview of TV formats, from the beginning of television through to the latest research and proposed standards for the new digital video format, Ultra-HD.

The presentation, which was hosted by Queen Mary College, Basingstoke, covered not only putting extra pixels on screen, but also making them “better pixels”. “We should be trying to make television look like real life,” said Salmon.

As well as higher resolution images, ultra-HD TV also looks to offer higher dynamic range and improved audio.

HDR is the next major development in Ultra-HD/4K television, vastly improving contrast and detail to enhance the viewer experience.

Wilson dismissed some of the myths that have built up about the new technology: tube cameras and cathode ray tube televisions are not HDR; and the first innovators of this new technology provided charge-coupled image devices for post-tube cameras.

In fact, it was transfer knees and slope processors that compressed highlights and stopped bright detail from blowing out, providing better peak definition for standard television sets.

The joint event – organised by the RTS Centre and IABM, the international trade association for suppliers of broadcast and media technology – was chaired by Dick Hobbs.

It featured a cross-section of industry luminaries: a vendor/service provider, Mike Knowles from Ericsson; consultants, Bruce Devlin from Mr MXF and Broadcast Innovation’s Russell Grute; a customer, former BBC and Disney executive Keith Nicholas; and IABM’s John Ive.

"Ensure you are wearing comfortable shoes" read the last line of the email sent to me from the RTS regarding what I’d need for my first ever IBC experience. With that - I slipped on my new smart shoes I’d bought from Topman the day before to try and ‘look the part’ before setting sail for Heathrow’s Terminal Five. It was just a few short hours later that the service 4 tram pulled in to Station RAI and I got my first look at the venue. “Ah,” I thought to myself as that last line re-read itself in my mind, “really wish I’d had a chance to bed these in”.

The NAB trade show, held every April in Las Vegas, used to bill itself as the place to see kit manufacturers parade their newest wares to broadcasters and producers. Headline-grabbing black boxes that perform cool, new tricks are, however, increasingly rare.

Today's production and post-­production tools tend, instead, to be software. They are, therefore, open to incremental and regular upgrades, and not tied to the cycle of trade shows.

Even the hardware is designed to evolve with tweaks to the central chip set, rather than a wholesale ­redesign.