There are five ways to improve current HDTV: add more pixels (UHD), more luminance levels (HDR), more colour (WCG), more frames per second (HFR) or better audio (NGA).
To test what this means in practice, the EBU organized a live trial production during the first edition of the European Championships (August 2018). Goal was to test ‘Beyond HD’ technology under real-world conditions.
Members & Partners
About 40 representatives from five Members and 20 industry partners worked together to create content in 2160p/100 HDR HLG, 1080p/100 HDR HLG and 1080p/50 SDR. The audio was produced in AC-4 (Dolby Atmos) and several flavours of MPEG-H.
The signals were sent over fibre to the Broadcast Operations Centre in Glasgow and via satellite to the RAI 5G test bed in Italy. The material was also recorded locally, both uncompressed and in XAVC Class 480 (~1,600 Mbps!).
Ideal venue
The event in Berlin was ideal for testing HDR. The combination of bright sunlight and deep shadows, daytime and night-time events, and the use of artificial lighting in the stadium provided a wide variety of challenging conditions. Athletics was chosen as it provides fast-moving action, making it ideal for testing HFR.
The trial proved it is possible to achieve high quality images this way, but it also showed it is not (yet) practical, due to limited support for HFR in current equipment. HDR clearly showed its benefits, especially when bright sunlight or artificial (high)lights werre in the game. The NGA production was above all meant to make Members aware of what Next Generation Audio has to offer. The creative potential of being able to use 'height' in the immersive mix, was well appreciated.
Next steps
The Berlin exercise has provided a wealth of experience for both the participating EBU Members and the industry partners. A selection of 2160p/100 HLG test sequences are available from the EBU for technical testing. Some of those tests are already planned for early 2019, in particular to subjectively evaluate the quality improvements HFR can provide. This is important, as broadcasters have several options to improve their current HD offerings. They can choose which of the new features (UHD, HDR-WCG, HFR, NGA) they want to introduce. There is no need to add all at once.
For more information on the topics of HDR and HFR, check out/join the EBU Video group.