Company contribution
Company contribution
Rian Bester , CEO , INSIGHT TV , explains how the company brings UHD HDR content to the fore with global social influencers .
In 2017 , HDR went from a buzzword to an industry game-changer that is set to revolutionise our TV viewing experience . But why is this , and what impact does HDR have on the industry and the consumer . In simple terms , high dynamic range ( HDR ) refers to a greater range of brightness levels . The blacks within a picture become darker and the highlights much brighter , recreating an image that ’ s very close to how we see with the human eye . But HDR is more than just a dynamic range . With HDR , bit depth has risen from 8-bit colour ( 16 million colours ) to 10-bit colour ( more than a billion colours ), significantly increasing the picture colour palette and thereby the picture quality .
This increase in picture depth is key but there are two other factors that contribute to HDR . The first is wide colour gamut ( WCG ) - which allows more colours to be displayed . With an HDR picture this can particularly be noticed in the reds , greens and yellows , which display much more vivid colour variations . The other element is high frame rate ( HFR ), which provides much smoother viewing
Tackling Europe
HDR to the fore
during fast motion scenes . When you put these elements together and watch a programme in HDR , the picture becomes richer and much more lifelike for the viewer .
There are some industry experts who think HDR is having a greater impact on the industry than 4K UHD . Why ? Simply because HDR is actually a driver of UHD ; it ’ s something that the consumer can clearly notice . With UHD , if viewers aren ’ t looking at the content on a big screen , they might say the picture looks great but so does an HD image . If you put an HDR picture next to an SDR picture , regardless if it ’ s on a mobile phone or a 55-inch TV screen , there ’ s no doubt that viewers will notice an obvious difference . This is why HDR combined with UHD is accelerating the adoption of UHD — because of the upgraded user experience .
The arrival of HD , then 4K UHD , and now HDR has made broadcast technology accelerate swiftly . The previous generation likely kept a TV for ten or 15 years . But now , in some parts of the world , consumers upgrade their TV sets within three years , and this is speeding up the consumer cycle . This is also putting pressure on consumer electronics manufacturers to enhance and entice consumers to switch to a newer device .
With HDR driving UHD sales , are we likely to see more UHD HDR content available on our TVs at home ? As part of Future Consulting ’ s recent 4K UHD Consumer Market Tracking Report , Futuresource market analyst Tristan Veale says that , “ Despite the strong hardware sales and a significant quantity of content being shot , produced and stored in 4K , only a small proportion of that is readily available to consumers . Therefore , the content gap is appearing to expand as the demand for the higher quality hardware is outstripping the propensity to pay for UHD content . This gap will likely continue to widen until broadcasted UHD becomes more mainstream .”
Maintaining the highest standards
As a 4K UHD pioneer , INSIGHT TV has taken a big step forward with HDR . The industry regards the shift from UHD to HDR to be bigger than the transition from SD to UHD and the channel has certainly overcome challenges to ensure that it maintains high standards . In some cases , it has rejected several versions of a show before it has signed off the final master . This is because the HDR format can exaggerate any tiny flaw in the picture . Problems can arise from the camera or lens used during production , to a speck of dust on the lens . Fixing these issues during the production stage becomes more complex and takes a lot of time and effort . But it ’ s critical to make sure that these corrections are done at the production stage and not later in post .
When one of INSIGHT TV ’ s shows wraps , the team then processes the rushes for post production , which adds a whole new learning experience to the workflow . INSIGHT TV shoots all its rushes in RAW format so that they can be graded at the highest quality . Team members never shoot lower than 10bit except for occasional editorial action shots . These shots must be placed strategically in the edit to blend with the native UHD HDR as much as possible . It ’ s also important to strategically place the use of light and dark shots because the human eye tends to adapt quickly to what it sees .
When INSIGHT TV is in new production negotiations , it emphasises to the production company how important HDR is , especially
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