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_460_259_70.jpg "Insight TV is one of the few but growing number of UHD channels.")
UHD rollout has been average rather than stellar to date. Matthew Goldman, Senior Vice President, Technology, Media Solutions, Ericsson provides an insightful explanation about why this might be and what issues might tip the scale.
I will say it again and again until someone actually listens. This business of capturing high-quality video for broadcast should not be about capturing ever-higher resolution images. At NAB 2018, many of us will be looking at the latest and greatest 8K cameras, which almost assuredly will become (next year maybe?) the latest and greatest 12K and 16K cameras. So what exactly is the point, to capture images with ever more clarity and crispness that will then be subject to the bands, contours, and other artifacts in a still dominant 8-bit distribution system? Does this fixation with camera resolution really make sense when what’s important to viewers, and is readily apparent to everyone, is greater bit-depth? The truth is, for all the increases in resolution demanded of broadcasters in cameras over the last decade, the foibles of 8-bit video are still very much with us. Indeed, HDR makes ultimate sense to broadcasters and viewers because it delivers expanded dynamic range at 10 bits with smooth gradients, eliminating much of the 8-bit ugliness that have plagued SDR broadcasts for decades.
For years, I have written about the problems associated with trying to be a one-man band television reporter. Now, shooting alone has become the reality for many journalists. How does one balance so many disciplines at once and still do a good job? Here are our thoughts.
The core of any camera is the sensor, and along with the lens, they define and constrain the performance of the camera more so than the downstream processing. There have been many advances in sensors, with the move from vacuum tube devices to semiconductors being one of the great leaps. Although early solid-state cameras used charge-coupled devices (CCD), the favored technology today is complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS). New developments from Panasonic and Sony show that developments continue apace as we head for 8K, HDR and 120P. Panasonic has developed further their organic photoconductive film which separates the function of photon capture from exposure charge accumulation, plus introduces an in-sensor ND filter and global shutter. Sony has developed a sensor with new global shutter design.
No memory card manufacturer has ever gotten a complaint about a card being too fast. Today, video cameras continually feature higher resolution and less compression, resulting in the need for cards of greater speed and capacity. It is a game that is constantly changing.
As cameras have gotten smaller, so have the support accessories that allow them to be used creatively in production shoots. One interesting area is tabletop tripods, which are very light in weight but can often support fairly robust cameras.
JEDEC, the standards group for the microelectronics industry, has announced the UFS 3.0 flash storage standard, which allows speeds of 2.9 GB/s and lower power consumption. It paves the way for 8K video on smartphones.
As any photographer or camera assistant will confess, a dead or dying battery during production quickly becomes a crisis. To avoid the predicament and maintain top performance from your kit of batteries here are some tips.