High dynamic range and wide color gamut combined with 4K resolution and progressive frame rates have catapulted broadcast television to new levels of immersive experience for the viewer. As HDR and WCG are relatively new to television, we need to both understand their application and how we monitor them to enable us to surpass the levels of quality and immersive experience cinematographers demand.
Until very recently, the idea that editors and VFX artists could work remotely from one another seemed a far-off reality. Yet, Work From Home measures mean media companies have had to pivot overnight to a remote work setup. Content creation may never be the same again.
As IP technology continues to mature and the industry gains a better understanding of how IT-centric infrastructures work, many broadcasters are now eager to migrate away from the limitations of SDI to grow their businesses and make them better able to support increased production demands and multiplatform distribution.
Recent international events have overtaken normality causing us to take an even closer look at how we make television. Physical isolation is greatly accelerating our interest in Remote Production, REMI and At-Home working, and this is more important now than it ever has been.
The dominant reason for the adoption of color difference working is that it allows the color difference signals to be reduced in bandwidth without obvious loss of picture quality. Only the luma signal needs to be retained at full bandwidth. There are various ways in which that can be done.
In the last article in this series we looked at how SDI has developed over the years to reach an incredible 47.52Gbits/sec for quad-link 12G. In this article, we dig deeper and uncover the technology enabling SDI and its advantages.
Sometimes to understand the big picture of modern television broadcasting, it is helpful to understand its history. After the medium’s live formative years, it was the use of video tape beginning in about 1958 that permanently changed television production forever.
In parts 1 and 2 of this three part series we discussed the benefits Remote Production has over traditional outside broadcasts, and the core infrastructures needed to make this work. In the third and final part of this series, we look at the challenges and costs associated with making live sports work effectively on Remote Production models to employ less equipment and crew on site, and to logistically cover more events using an IP infrastructure.