Ultra HD: We have something better, but there is work to be done
By Sam Matheny, CTO & Executive Vice President at the National Association of Broadcasters. Capitol Broadcasting Company is a family business, and I worked there for nearly 20 years earlier in my career. I worked for Jim Goodmon, the CEO that Broadcasting & Cable Magazine referred to as “HDTV’s True Believer”, and someone who promoted […]
State of the Union on UHD Live Sports Streaming in the US
By Thierry Fautier, Managing Director, Your Media Transformation, former President of the Ultra HD Forum. Initially published in May 2024, updated in November 2024. Introduction In the year 2024, as we prepare for the Paris Olympics, which will be produced entirely in UHD HDR for the first time, I want to provide updates on the […]
Some Ultra HD data from the 2020/2021 Olympics
One-third UHD production The chart below represents the amount hours of content produced by OBS during the Tokyo Olympics. By comparison, all productions by HBS at the 2022 FIFA World Cup were Ultra HD; as a reference, our service tracker currently shows that 57% of tracked (Ultra HD services offer HDR, note that the service tracker […]
A Forum Member’s View: Dolby’s Olympic Games
As with previous newsletters, in this article, we explore the experience of one of our members. We talk to Dolby about their learnings from using their technology during the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics. The Covid-induced lockdowns have plagued our industry, but there was a beneficial side effect for once. The extra year allowed NBCU to […]
LUTs for Single Stream SDR-HDR Live Production used for the Olympics Shared with the Industry by NBCU
Early live Ultra HD transmissions, including HDR, have been at the bleeding edge for over five years. One unfortunate side effect has often resulted in subpar SDR for consumers that didn’t have access to an HDR-capable set. With global events that include dozens of cameras and complex workflows, it is not commercially viable to maintain […]
Climbing the Ultra HD OTT ladder
By Thierry Fautier, Past President of the Ultra HD Forum, VP Strategy at Harmonic. I will provide in this blog some personal insights and observations on the Ultra HD OTT market, looking at it from different perspectives: services worldwide, special events, characteristics of production and distribution, devices, interop, and challenges remaining. Version 3 (major updates […]
