Is high dynamic range the next evolution in the industry?

El HDR ofrece una relación de contraste más alta que los formatos de vídeo de hoy, ofreciendo imágenes brillantes con gran profundidad de color, al mismo tiempo que permite negros más profundos, logrando así un gran impacto.

Aunque de forma aún muy tímida, el vídeo con alto rango dinámico (High Dynamic Range, HDR) está calando en la industria broadcast como quedó patente en NAB 2015.

Con la Ultra Alta Definición aún en fase de despegue, el HDR ha venido a demostrar que existe una alternativa a medio camino entre la HD y la UHD para dotar de más realismo a las imágenes.

As a sign of the interest that HDR is awakening in the industry, the NAB decided to award the Best Paper Award at the Las Vegas fair to the research on high dynamic range (HDR) that has been carried out Ericsson and that has been reflected in the document Implications of high dynamic range (HDR) in the high definition (HD) and Ultra High Definition (UHD) broadcast network.

Ericsson believes that HDR has the potential to be the industry's next improvement in delivering the ultimate visual experience.

This is the second consecutive year that Ericsson has been recognized by NAB, having received the Innovation Award last year for its visionary work around 4K UHDTV.

As Ericsson points out in his paper, the challenge now is to explore the potential of HDR video, helping to address the issue of bandwidth required to provide HDR services using existing video compression technology.

HDR video has the ability to improve image quality for 4K UHD as well as high definition content, enabling an enhanced viewing experience for services that are not able to support the increased bandwidth required to stream 4K UHD. The document highlights how HDR offers a higher contrast ratio than today's video formats, delivering brilliant images with great color depth, while allowing for deeper blacks, thus achieving a great natural impact and immersive viewing experience for the viewer.

Sam Matheny, chief technology officer at NAB, said: "HDR has the potential to be the next big evolution of the television industry, offering a transformative advance in image quality. Ericsson's research has reinforced the importance of increasing video compression efficiency for the transmission of content to the end user, and the need for the industry to develop and deliver new standards to enable future distribution."

For his part, Giles Wilson, head of the video compression department at Ericsson, maintains that "HDR offers a significant improvement in quality without having a negative impact on the bandwidth requirements necessary to deliver it. For more than two decades we have been the leading voice in video compression, being a key vector in the transition to digital and high definition technology, and, more recently, UHD."