Spectrum scarcity is giving TV channels and broadcast operators a real challenge to introduce 4K services for terrestrial television. Combining scalable coding with HEVC and hybrid broadcast/broadband distribution is an answer. In this solution, HDTV transmissions on DTT remains unchanged and an enhancement layer is sent over the internet to allow the TV set or the set top box to decode and display the 4K picture.
You don’t need a “secret decoder ring” to understand IP terminology. However, if you think that a DAM involves water, that SOAP is for the shower, that PAM is your cousin’s name and ESB is short for Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street Band, read on. You have some catching up to do.
A recent pricing announcement by HEVC Advance, one of two groups pooling patents for HEVC compression technology among rights holders, has done little to clarify the situation for device makers. The launch in April 2015 of HEVC Advance surprised many in the industry who are not close followers of the compression field since it had appeared until then that all patents would be administered by another group called MPEG LA.
Without standards, the world would be a very difficult place to live in. There are many kinds of standards that affect almost every aspect of live – technology is just one of those areas. We can consider language as a kind of standard that allows people in one part of the world to communicate with each other. International finance uses standardised methods of accounting to try to provide a consistent framework for doing business. Currency itself is a symbolic representation of value that we use as a standard for exchange of goods and services.
So we need standards to get on with our daily lives. In our industry and many others, technological development is not regulated or centrally organised; it takes place in a free-for-all where commercial realities hold sway. But in order to build workable infrastructure for a national or international cellular phone system or a broadcasting network, these commercial interests have to be tempered by some kind of framework that allows competing energies to be channeled in roughly the same direction.
The outside broadcast (OB) truck is a microcosm of a studio control room. Placed in any number of settings, from theater productions and sporting events, to one-off concerts and festivals, OB trucks play a crucial role in delivering up to the minute, high quality content.
For all of last year’s talk about distributing 4K television to home viewers, there has been little real progress on making it a reality. The only place 4K technology is being used regularly is in some sports production and in the making of premium television programming.
File-based workflows are ubiquitous in the broadcast world today. The file-based flow has brought enormous efficiencies and made adoption of emerging technologies like Adaptive Bit-Rate (ABR), 4K, UHD, and beyond possible. Multiple delivery formats are now possible because of file-based workflows and its integration with traditional IT infrastructure. However, the adoption of file-based flows comes with its own set of challenges. The first one, of course, is - does my file have the right media, in the right format and without artifacts?
How collaborative media platforms can help the broadcast industry win the war for talent.
