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October 7, 2013

SMPTE to Convene Symposium on UHDTV

On October 21, 2013, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) will hold its annual Symposium at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, Hollywood, Calif. This year’s Symposium is entitled Next-Generation Image Formats: More, Faster and Better Pixels. As the title implies, the Symposium will cover all elements of Ultra High-Definition (UHD) Television, with a full day of sessions on this important and emerging sector in each of two parallel tracks—one technical and one business-oriented. NAB’s Skip Pizzi is the Program Chair for the technical track.

With guidance from a Program Committee composed of broadcasters and content creators from around the world, the Symposium’s technical-track agenda has been crafted to cover the technology comprehensively, organized into presentations and panels on the following topics:

  • Introduction: UHD—More, Better, and Faster Pixels!
  • Perception: How UHD Relates to the Human Visual Sense
  • Ultra Good Parameter Values—Finding the Compromise
  • Basics of Better Pixels
  • Results of Subjective Tests on Higher Frame Rate TV material
  • Up- and Down-conversion in the UHDTV and 4K era
  • UHD Hollywood Update
  • UHD Broadcast Update
  • UHD Consumer Update
  • Putting it All Together
Presenters and panelists include experts from Hollywood movie studios, U.S. broadcasting companies, international broadcasters such as the EBU, NHK and BBC, video and television equipment manufacturers, academicians and other technologists. Some of the presentations will include new information not previously presented.

Importantly, the Symposium’s technical sessions will stress that UHD is not simply about increasing spatial resolution, but also potentially includes attributes like higher frame rates, wider color gamut, increased luminance dynamic range, improved color resolution, as well as both 4K (“UHD-1”) and 8K (“UHD-2”) pixel displays.

The Symposium’s business track will consider how UHD might fare in professional and consumer implementations over the next several years. Sessions in the business track will cover the following topics:

  • 4K/UHD TV - Will it be a Hit with Consumers?
  • 4K Delivery - Who Will Step Up?
  • 4K in Movie and TV Production - Where Does it Make Sense?
  • 4K in Professional Markets - Is This Where 4K Really Shines?
  • Who Will Make Money in the 4K Ecosystem?
  • 3D, More Colors, High Frame Rates, Greater Dynamic Range - What Best Augments a 4K Display?
The Symposium will also include a demo room where many of the latest UHD-related products and content will be presented.

For registration and other Symposium details, see https://smpte.org/atc2013/symposium.

Regulatory Reminder: Mobile DTV must pass thru Video Description by Tomorrow

As of October 8, 2013, stations that are subject to the FCC’s video description rules (top four network affiliates in the top 25 DMAs) that also operate a mobile DTV service, must carry (pass-thru) Video Descriptions on their mobile transmissions. This requirement was adopted in August, 2011 as part of the Report and Order that reinstated the requirement for broadcasters to carry video described programming. Broadcasters were given an additional two years to implement Video Description on their mobile DTV services. This is only required to the extent that the programming is subject to the current video description rules (i.e. programming from one of the top four networks or top five non-broadcast networks). See TVTechCheck from August 29, 2011. Essentially, this means that if a station broadcasts a video described program on their main DTV service and also broadcasts that program on their mobile service, the descriptions must also be carried on the mobile service. This will require the addition of a second audio channel to the station’s mobile transmissions.

IEEE Broadcast Symposium Takes Place This Week in San Diego

The IEEE Broadcast Symposium is being held this week, Wednesday through Friday, at the Westgate Hotel in San Diego, Calif. This well-known technical conference on radio and television broadcasting technology consists of a three-day program with tutorials, followed by technical sessions, with presentations from broadcast engineering experts from around the world. The Co-chairs for the 2013 Symposium are NAB’s David Layer and Paul Shulins from Greater Media. For those not able to attend in person, the Symposium is also offering a virtual attendance option. The entire Symposium will be streamed live, as well as archived for on-demand viewing up to a year after the event. The conference program can be found here and registration information is here.



 

The October 7, 2013 TV TechCheck is also available in an Adobe Acrobat file. Please click here to read the Adobe Acrobat version of TV TechCheck.