The annual EBU Production Technology Seminar kicked off in Geneva yesterday with two contrasting keynote presentations, from Netflix and from the UK's Digital Producation Partnership (DPP). Kevin McEntee (below right), who's responsible for the digital supply chain at Netflix, stressed that they see the arrival of UHDTV as a great opportunity. In addition to better resolution there would be a longer term need to support higher dynamic range and frame rates and better colours. But there would also be a need to limit the number of technical versions of the content. He made a plea for a standards-based approach to distribution formats and said that the industry shouldn't allow itself to be bound by the legacy of the past.
The impact of cloud technologies was one of the key topics addressed by the BBC's Mark Harrison (below left), a founder of the DPP. The DPP is a joint initiative between BBC, ITV and Channel 4, for which Harrison recently authored a report on how digital technology is changing creativity in television. In his keynote talk he emphasised the need for understanding and dialogue between the creatives and the technologists to profit from new technical opportunities.
The morning was rounded of with a session on codecs for contribution and distribution, covering studio codec tests, an end-to-end HEVC case study and an insight into the evolution of video codecs.
A presentation from Paul Gray of DisplaySearch introduced the afternoon's interactive panel discussion. He made the somewhat surprising assertion that the new technology drivers for big displays in the home will come from the tablet and smartphone sector rather than the comparatively lower volume TV set market. The panel, also featuring Kevin McEntee and Mark Harrison, discussed a wide range of topics, from Google Glass and future video formats to Big Data and the growing role of the cloud.
Day 1 came to a close with a set of parallel tutorials on archives, networks, Quality Control, semantic web and HD content post-production. Throughout the day PTS attendees also had the chance to participate in image dynamic range tests, with the results set to be presented at the end of the event.