Mobile World congress in Barcelona its specification and logo for portable devices:‘ MOBILE HDR PREMIUM’.

“ Enjoying high-quality programming on portable devices including laptops, notebooks, tablets and smartphones has become a primary mode of content consumption for a large and ever-growing segment of the consumer entertainment audience. The UHDA’ s MOBILE HDR PREMIUM designation confirms that a device meets UHDA- defined performance criteria for resolution, dynamic range, colour space and bit depth and delivers a consistent premium experience.”

“ The dramatic improvement of screens in battery operated devices, coupled with the emergence of 4K and 4K with HDR streaming offerings through services such as Amazon, Netflix and others, makes it possible for

consumers to get a much richer and more immersive experience on their computers, tablets and smartphones,” said UHDA

President, Hanno Basse.“ The expansion of our certification of logo programme will help consumers identify premium portable products that take full advantage of the wealth of HDR content coming to market.”

“ Portable devices are a primary mode of video consumption and the category itself is a key component of the rapidly expanding Ultra HD ecosystem,” added Basse.

Since its introduction, consumer adoption of Ultra HD hardware and software has seen incredible growth with an estimated 100 million households worldwide currently enjoying an Ultra HD experience, and by 2020 Futuresource Consulting estimates there will be 450m UHD TV households.

As the category has grown, so has the UHD Alliance, which was founded in April 2015 by 10 companies and now counts more than 50 global leaders in consumer electronics, entertainment, content distribution and technology among its membership. The UHDA unveiled its Ultra HD PREMIUM certification and logo program for televisions and prerecorded content at CES 2016, followed swiftly by certification of Ultra HD Blu-ray players in April 2016.

The UHDA MOBILE HDR PREMIUM specifications cover a range of devices, screen sizes and resolutions with

parameters for dynamic range, colour space and bit depth:

Device

Resolution

Dynamic Range

Colour Space

Bit Depth

Smartphones( 3- to 7-inch screens)

60 pixels / degree

. 0005-540 nits

90 % of P3 colour gamut

10

Tablets( 7- to 12.9 inch screens

60 pixels / degree

. 0005-540 nits

90 % of P3 colour gamut

10

Laptops( 9.5- to 18-inch screens

60 pixels / degree

. 0005-540 nits or 0.1-600 nits

90 % of P3 colour gamut

10

Following the approval by the DVB Steering Board for TS 101 154 V2.3.1 – Specification for the use of Video and Audio Coding in Broadcasting Applications based on the MPEG-2 Transport Stream, ETSI( European Telecommunications Standards Institute) has officially published the DVB specification as an ETSI standard. The timely move by ETSI facilitates the necessary interoperability that will enable broadcasters and CE manufacturers to provide UHD-1 Phase 2 products and services. This could mean that the first DVB UHD-1 Phase 2 services, that include the new features, would be available later in

2017.

The new standard covers various elements for the improvement of video and audio quality for broadcast TV services including High Dynamic Range( HDR) which

significantly increases the contrast ratio and results in pictures with more‘ sparkle’. The DVB solutions for HDR include both Hybrid Log Gamma( HLG) and Perceptual Quantizer( PQ) transfer functions. Furthermore, the new standard defines Higher Frame Rates( HFR), offering sharper images of moving objects by going beyond the

current 50 / 60 frames per second. When it comes to audio, DVB has added the latest Next Generation Audio( NGA) schemes to provide immersive and personalised audio content using object- or

scene-based audio coding. DVB’ s completion of the specification required great dedication, with over 30 companies and other interested parties participating in the Technical Module group on Audio- Visual Coding( TM-AVC). It is estimated that some 50 online meetings and 10 days of physical meetings took

place in TM-AVC during the year that it was working on the specification. Commercial guidance on Next Generation Audio was provided by the Commercial Module group on Audio-Visual Coding( CM-AVC), whilst commercial guidance on UHD-1 Phase 2 video was provided by the Commercial Module group on UHDTV( CM-UHDTV).

The DVB says the commitment by its members bears testament to how standards bodies play an important role and emphasises the importance of getting consensus and wide approval for new standards. The move by ETSI to standardise this important specification further confirms DVB’ s vital role in the industry today.