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NAB Labs
Futures Park to Present 4K, 8K and more at 2013 NAB Show
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2013
NAB Technology Innovation Awards
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 NAB
is currently accepting nominations
for the 2013 NAB Technology Innovation Awards. First presented
at the 2009 NAB Show, NAB presents the award to organizations
that bring advanced technology exhibits and demonstrations
of significant merit to the NAB Show. The nominated exhibit
should present advanced research and development projects
in communications technologies that have not yet been commercialized.
Candidates
for the Technology Innovation Awards must be organizations
who are currently exhibiting at the NAB Show. The size of
the organization is not a determining factor. Nominated projects
may not be commercial products that have been offered for
sale prior to or at the NAB Show. The merit of the technology
exhibit is the sole factor to be taken into account. The entry
deadline is February 22, 2013. The awards will be presented
at the NAB Technology Luncheon on April 10, 2013 at the NAB
Show in Las Vegas.
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At the 2013
NAB Show (Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV, April 6-11,
2013), the NAB Labs Futures Park will feature high-profile media
technologies currently in development by researchers around the
world. Established in 2009 as the “International Research Park,”
starting in 2013 the NAB Labs Futures Park will present demonstrations
specifically chosen by NAB Labs for presentation to the broad international
audience at the NAB Show.
A wide variety of demonstrations are set for the 2013 Futures Park.
A short summary is presented below.
NHK
The Japanese national public-service broadcaster NHK will demonstrate
numerous elements of its 8K Super Hi-Vision (SHV) system, including
content recorded at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, displayed
on a 300-inch screen with 22.2 channel sound playback. The NHK exhibit
will also feature portable and 120 Hz studio cameras recently developed
for SHV, and production tools for the system’s 22.2 channel
audio format. The interactive capabilities of a converged broadband/broadcast
service will also be presented in a demonstration of the NHK “Hybridcast”
service.
Perhaps most
importantly, the NHK demo will also include the first demonstration
anywhere in the world outside Japan of over-the-air broadcast transmission
and reception of the Super Hi-Vision service, using two 6MHz TV
channels.
 SHV’s
7680 x 4320 video format provides 16 times the number of pixels
as HDTV, for stunning clarity and an immersive visual experience.
Meanwhile, the system’s massive multichannel audio system produces
unprecedented realism in a 3D sound space for viewers located anywhere
within a large viewing area.
NHK will also make a presentation at the NAB Broadcast Engineering
Conference (BEC) on public viewing sessions using Super-HiVision
at the 2012 London Olympics, and will also publish a paper on that
topic in the BEC Proceedings.
ETRI
The Korean research and development organization Electronics and
Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) also has planned a
full slate of exhibits. Among these is a proposed next-generation
TV broadcast system that provides 4K service to fixed receivers
and HD service to mobile receivers, in a single multiplexed transmission.
ETRI will also
present an advanced “soundbar” demonstration, by which
speakers above and below a TV screen can present virtualized 22.2
channel 3D audio representation, plus a proposed “smart TV”
software platform based on HTML5 that provides individual “personal
home screens” for each family member.
Another interesting demonstration from ETRI is a “mirrored
smart remote control,” by which a handheld touchscreen device
provides a representation of the image currently displayed on a
large, fixed (non-touchscreen) TV in the room, and allows the user
to remotely interact with the large TV as if touching it, but from
a comfortable distance, using the handheld device’s screen
as a proxy. The ETRI booth also promises exhibits on adaptive video
streaming, low-latency 3D gaming, and augmented reality for TV programs.
FIMS (EBU
and AMWA)
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Advanced Media Workflow
Association (AMWA) will demonstrate the latest developments of their
joint effort on the Framework for Interoperable Media Services (FIMS),
which enables a new approach to system architecture offering increased
flexibility and cost-effectiveness to media production processes.
The initiative has published a V1.0 of its specification, which
covers the capture, transfer and transform stages of production.
Presentations will also highlight currently ongoing work on FIMS
repository and QC/analysis elements. FIMS representatives will also
present their current status at the NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference
(BEC), and will publish a paper in the BEC Proceedings.
AMWA will also
highlight its independent work on application specifications for
the adoption of MXF in news production, program contribution, commercial
delivery, archiving and preservation, along with its compliance
testing efforts for these specifications.
Zaxel Corporation
The Japanese firm Zaxel Corporation will present its recent work
on developing cost-effective, high-quality 4:4:4 images using the
H.264/MPEG AVC codec. The company cites the growing need for such
efficiencies with the emergence of a consumer market for 4K content.
Project FINE
A consortium of European broadcasters and content providers has
been at work for several years on the Free-viewpoint Immersive Networked
Experience (FINE). At this year’s Futures Park they will present
the culmination of their effort, funded in part by the EBU, which
allows consumers to place a virtual camera into a live-action scene
and move it freely in space and time, thereby heightening immersion
and engagement with the scene. Demonstrations will be presented
using sports content, displayed on main and second screens.
Academia
Results of important academic research in multiview video image
processing, video color processing and multispectral video will
be presented by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), one
of the world’s leading institutions in imaging research. Again
the movement toward 4K makes this work increasingly important, and
presentations will highlight work on methods of enhancing color
gamut and spectral resolution, including how they relate to color
rendition of underwater photography and applications on new laser-based
video projectors. Multiview work on enhanced sports highlights and
replays will also be presented by RIT.
Meanwhile, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) of Singapore will
demonstrate its work on Multi-screen Cloud Social TV, by which television
viewers can “pull” a program from a fixed TV screen onto
a tablet or smartphone, or “throw” a program from a portable
device to a fixed screen, and continue watching it seamlessly. Developers
at NTU call this “video teleportation,” and believe it
will be an important component of future TV systems. The technology
also allows on-demand distributed viewing sessions to be set up,
so a group of physically separated users can synchronously watch
a common program, and comment by video chat, voice or text, creating
a “virtual living room experience.”
 The
NAB Labs Futures Park will be located in the North Hall of the Las
Vegas Convention Center, and will be open to all NAB Show attendees
during regular exhibit hours (9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through
Wednesday, and 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Thursday).
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