Essential Guide: Live HDR Down-Conversion

September 9th 2019 - 01:50 PM
Tony Orme, Editor at The Broadcast Bridge

Live sports productions are the natural home for HDR. The increase in luminance latitude combined with extended color space delivers an immersive experience never before witnessed by the home viewer. But backwards compatibility must still be maintained for legacy SDR audiences.

In this Essential Guide we delve deep into the HDR to SDR down-conversion process to understand the optimal strategies for simultaneously delivering HDR and SDR transmissions. For example, should we expose for HDR or SDR? And why does it matter?

HDR down-conversion may at first seem like an easy task. But the complex interactions of contrast, color, and the human visual system (HVS) soon expose the intricacies of deriving SDR from HDR. To avoid dual workflows and spiraling costs, automation is key to delivering simultaneous real-time HDR and SDR workflows.

This Essential Guide digs deep into tone mapping operators (TMOs) to understand how they work and the different parameters needed to satisfy the contrast dependent HVS. S-Curves, logarithmic transfer functions and bit conversion are all explored to gain a better understanding of the real-time HDR to SDR down-conversion.

Sponsors Lynx Technik provide an in depth discussion of how to overcome the practical challenges of real-time HDR to SDR down-conversion. Collaborating with the RheinMain University of Applied Sciences, Lynx Technik demonstrate how their real-time adaptive algorithms, based on research from the university, provide outstanding HDR to SDR down-conversions.

Download this Essential Guide now to understand the challenges of real-time HDR-SDR conversion. Understand the complexities of the HVS interaction with HDR down-conversion. And master the TMO and its applications in real-time live sports productions.

This Essential Guide is a must for anybody looking to build and install HDR and SDR workflows. It’s essential for broadcast engineers and creatives alike. Download this Essential Guide now.

Supported by

You might also like...

HDR Picture Fundamentals: Camera Technology

Understanding the terminology and technical theory of camera sensors & lenses is a key element of specifying systems to meet the consumer desire for High Dynamic Range.

IP Security For Broadcasters: Part 2 - The Problem To Be Solved

By assuming that IP must be made secure, we run the risk of missing a more fundamental question that is often overlooked: why is IP so insecure?

Standards: Part 22 - Inside AIFF Files

Compared with other popular standards in use, AIFF is ancient. The core functionality was stabilized over 30 years ago and remains unchanged.

IP Security For Broadcasters: Part 1 - Psychology Of Security

As engineers and technologists, it’s easy to become bogged down in the technical solutions that maintain high levels of computer security, but the first port of call in designing any secure system should be to consider the user and t…

Demands On Production With HDR & WCG

The adoption of HDR requires adjustments in workflow that place different requirements on both people and technology, especially when multiple formats are required simultaneously.