Technicolor White Paper Touts Its HDR Technology as Well-Suited for ATSC 3.0
Broadcasters that adopt ATSC 3.0 will need to decide how best to serve both high-dynamic-range streams to HDR TVs and standard-dynamic-range streams “to legacy TVs over the ATSC 3.0 environment,” but after the FCC incentive auction won’t have “the ability to simulcast or use two-layer delivery systems to light up SDR and HDR screens simultaneously.” So said a new white paper, "HDR over ATSC 3.0: A Technology Impact Analysis for Broadcast Industry," co-authored by Alan Stein, Technicolor vice president-R&D, and Gérard Faria, chief technology officer at broadcast-equipment supplier TeamCast.
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The paper touts Technicolor's HDR solution -- called “advanced HDR single-stream distribution technology” -- as one method “to address broadcaster requirements in a highly efficient and cost-effective manner.” Co-author Stein chairs ATSC’s S34-1 ad hoc group on ATSC 3.0 video that plans to choose a high-dynamic range technology by Sept. 30 for adoption when the next-generation system’s video codec is elevated to the status of proposed standard (see 1606160052).
Technicolor’s is one of six HDR proposals vying before the S34-1 ad hoc group to be selected as the recommended HDR standard for ATSC 3.0 (see 1605200031). Though the paper advocates the Technicolor HDR as well-suited for ATSC 3.0, it stops well short of describing the technology as uniquely qualified for ATSC 3.0. Nor does the paper make any comparative evaluations of other HDR proposals now before ATSC either by name or by methodology. ATSC representatives didn’t comment Monday on the paper.
“No final selections have yet been made” on an HDR technology for ATSC 3.0, ATSC President Mark Richer emailed us Monday. Richer declined comment specifically on the Technicolor white paper, but added: “Obviously, proponents of various technologies use tools like explanatory papers to explain their positions.”
On the propriety of Stein co-authoring a paper advocating selection of Technicolor’s HDR technology for ATSC 3.0 while he chairs the ad hoc group responsible for picking a winning HDR proposal, “it’s normal and customary in a volunteer organization like ATSC to have specific technology proponents involved with various technologies,” Richer said. “It’s also common for those volunteers to separate their own partisan opinions from the work of the ATSC, and even step aside at certain times when appropriate.” For example, Stein “did not lead the CBS HDR demonstrations this summer,” Richer said of the comparative HDR demos that ATSC ran on the various proposals late June at CBS Labs in New York (see 1606160052). “We have multiple checks and balances in the system, and multiple layers of approval before a given technology is adopted as a standard,” Richer said. “As such, I have no particular concerns about Technicolor and Alan’s leadership with HDR.”
Before any video stream is encoded and distributed, “Technicolor’s HDR pre-processor converts the HDR stream into a 10-bit SDR compatible stream with metadata, which is encoded and transmitted so it may be converted back to HDR when the stream is decoded by an HDR-capable device,” the paper said. “The metadata is ignored by legacy devices equipped with conventional video decoders, and the decoded video can directly be displayed on an SDR screen. No other action is needed.”
The paper says Technicolor’s HDR technology was developed by incorporating “the expertise and experience of color scientists and image experts who have contributed to the production of Oscar Award-winning cinematic releases.” Technicolor’s HDR technology “applies logic and algorithms that do more” than just simply make brights brighter and darks darker, it said. Technicolor's solution “is designed to deliver an experience as it was intended to be captured by producers and artists,” it said.
The “importance to preserving the creative intent in a broadcasting context” also is critical for the transmission of live sports, it said, citing a telecast of a Denver Broncos-Kansas City Chiefs NFL game. “Improper management of color can result in regrettable outcomes if an up-conversion fails to distinguish the contrast between the bright-orange color of the Broncos and the red color of the Chiefs,” the paper said. “Sports fans want to see the game as if they were watching it live. They want to see the shadows on the players. They want to see the brightness of the setting sun. Technicolor can address these issues in the ATSC 3.0 environment with its advanced HDR single-stream distribution technology.”