Ultra HD Forum, UHD Alliance and 8K Association reveal the future of UHD

Nandhu Nandhakumar, president de Ultra HD Forum; Michael Zink, president and CEO of UHD Alliance; and Chris Chinnock, CEO of 8K Association, address the future of UHD within the framework of the 4K-HDR Summit.

During his interventions, Nandhakumar, Zink y Chinnock have made a comprehensive review of the current state of the UHD, the latest initiatives of its associations and have advanced some of the keys (filmmaker mode o sensors luz) that will mark the coming years of ultra high definition in all its dimensions: 4K, 8K, HDR, WCG, NGA…

The 4K-HDR Summit, organized by Medina Media Events and that has Panorama Audiovisual as media partner, It is the most important event worldwide on Ultra High Definition (UHD) and brings together the best engineers and producers every year in order to share experiences and advances.

Ultra HD Forum: extensive UHD documentation

The day dedicated to the largest organizations dedicated to UHD worldwide has begun with the presentation of Nandhu Nandhakumar, president of Ultra HD Forum. This organization, which has five working groups and a broad representation of the industry, its main objective is to bring together the entire technological ecosystem to put on the table the main challenges of the UHD world.

In his speech, Nandhakumar highlighted the numerous technical documents on which they have recently worked, among which stand out user guides on issues as diverse as ST-2110, ATSC 3.0, DVB-T2, the conversion of HDR a SDR, he watermarking on UHD assets, the color space conversion or guides that bring together and coordinate all the terminology around the that (next generation audio).

Despite the pandemic, Ultra HD Forum continues to work on all types of projects to optimize the UHD experience around the world. Over the coming months, its working groups will address such important issues as interoperability in traditional broadcast and the OTT world; the reinforcement of UHD service tracker, una iniciativa que hace un seguimiento del número de servicios UHD disponibles a nivel global; la consolidación del Filmmaker Mode, in collaboration with UHD Alliance; o un interesante trabajo para estudiar la posibilidad de que los fabricantes de televisiones integren sensores de luz ambiental para que la imagen UHD se ajuste de forma automática dependiendo de las condiciones lumínicas de los hogares de los espectadores.

UHD Alliance: apostando por el Filmmaker Mode

Michael Zink, presidente y director general de UHD Alliance, ha tomado el relevo de Nandhakumar. En su intervención, Zink ha trasladado todas las novedades de la mayor asociación de UHD dedicada, especialmente, al UHD entertainment ecosystem.

Much of his intervention has focused on disseminating the benefits of Filmmaker Mode. This initiative, proposed in 2019, aims to ensure that content reaches viewers the way its creators decided: preserving aspect ratio colors, frame rates and your particular vision of HDR. The mode is activated automatically or through the television remote, updating the television's settings to optimize the UHD experience.

According to Zink, numerous televisions y content providers They are integrating this service. In fact, Prime Video has been the first platform that has implemented automatic activation of this mode on all smart TVs in LG. Another key to the success of this initiative is the support from the creative community. Denis Villeneuve, director of the latest adaptation of Dune, has publicly shown its support for this feature.

Although much of the activity during 2022 UHD Alliance will revolve around Filmmaker Mode, Zink proposes two more work paths in which to invest efforts: work in ambient light conditions (as proposed by your Ultra HD Forum counterpart); and continue doing test of interoperability to make the most of the possibilities of HDMI 2.1 or of Filmmaker Mode.

8K Association: an expanding ecosystem

The review of the current affairs of the large organizations dedicated to UHD has ended with the conference of Chris Chinnock, executive director of the 8K Association. Throughout his speech, Chinnock defended the sustained growth of 8K. 8K capture devices in the areas professionals are already a reality: many films are shot in 8K or higher resolutions by the end of preservation or reframing; and the broadcast field begins to make test broadcasts either with the 200 hours of the Tokyo Olympics or with online streaming 8K 60 fps a 10-bit HDR powered by Intel, Globe y Spin Digital. Furthermore, consumers are progressively discovering the existence of the format through the presence of 8K recording in the latest smartphone models.

The challenges regarding 8K production are many and very diverse, although Chinnock seems optimistic. As he told the viewers of the 4K-HDR Summit, software such as Final Cut Pro o DaVinci Resolve are capable of working solvently at these resolutions (although it recognizes that CPUs / GPUs capable of processing this content are still very high-end solutions). Chinnock compares the state of 8K to that of 4K years ago: “Options have to expand and costs have to reduce.” Regarding standards, the member of the 8K Association highlights the codec HEVC, although over the next few years we will see new developments such as AV1, VV2 (which arrives in 2022 promising a 40% decrease in bitrate) o AVS3 (alternative to VVC that will “dominate” the Chinese market.”

The first broadcasts in 8K, according to Chinnock, will begin to be produced in 2022. Two years later, the major agents in the broadcast world will begin to offer services in 8K more stable through televisions, computers, the first 8K STBs (which could arrive from 2022) or consoles such as PS5 or XBOX Series X.

Although the outlook is promising, there is still time for the development of this technology. Until then, the 8K Association and its 31 members will continue working to certify 8K television models, create White papers, and hold all types of conferences and webinars to continue creating and disseminating knowledge about 8K.