The original 2019 Broadcast Bridge ‘HDR’ series has been one of our most enduringly popular editorial collections - it's been read by over 50,000 people. This new series takes this essential topic area and revitalizes it with a complete re-write by the original series author Phil Rhodes.

In the intervening years HDR has become a consumer expectation and the range of devices consumers use to access content has proliferated enormously. Most broadcasters and streamers around the world now deliver both SDR and HDR versions of much of their content giving the consumer the ultimate choice of received format. This brings with it a significant set of challenges for broadcasters, especially with live production. How to capture, produce and deliver SDR and HDR simultaneously.

This new series re-visits all the key principles of colorimetry, and the various technical formats and standards involved in acquisition, production and delivery. It then examines the various methodologies and workflows employed by the broadcast community to achieve seamless simultaneous production & delivery. 

Part 1. The Fundamentals Of Brightness & Color

AVAILABLE NOW - Download Part 1 HERE

Article 1 : HDR Picture Fundamentals: Brightness
How humans perceive light and how this relates to the technology we use to capture and display images.

Article 2 : HDR Picture Fundamentals: Color
How humans perceive color and the various compromises involved in representing color, using the historical iterations of display technology.

Article 3 : Expanding Acquisition Capabilities With HDR & WCG
HDR & WCG do present new requirements for vision engineers, but the fundamental principles described here remain familiar and easily manageable.

Part 2. The Production Challenges Of HDR & WCG 

AVAILABLE NOW - Download Part 2 HERE

Article 4 - Expanding Display Capabilities And the Quest For HDR & WCG
Broadcast image production is intrinsically linked to consumer displays and their capacity to reproduce High Dynamic Range and a Wide Color Gamut.

Article 5 - 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.

Article 6 - HDR: A Bigger Stage To Act On
From a creative perspective HDR is all about enabling technology that offers a far broader, deeper palette of light, detail and color to work with.

Article 7 - 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.

Part 3. Achieving Simultaneous SDR-HDR Workflows

AVAILABLE NOW - Download Part 3 HERE

Article 8 - The creative Challenges Of HDR-SDR Simulcast
HDR can make choices easier - or harder - at every stage of production but the biggest challenge may but just how subjective those choices are.

Article 9 - Automating HDR-SDR Conversion
Automation seems like an obvious solution but effective conversion involves understanding what the image content is and therefore what the priorities are for how it should look.

Article 10 - Disruptive Future Technologies For HDR & WCG
Consumer demands and innovations in display technology might change things for the future but it is standardization which perhaps holds the most potential for benefit to broadcasters.