Denver Nuggets – Advanced HDR By Technicolor

Technicolor’s Josh Limor on Lessons Learned from Spectrum SportsNet HDR Broadcast of NBA Game Between LA Lakers and Denver Nuggets

HOLLYWOOD, California- March 14, 2017 —As broadcasters look for ways to deliver better video experiences to consumers who invest in the latest generation of television sets, the industry has set its sights on High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology. Broadcasters are testing the ability to bring major sporting events to consumers who can receive HDR signals…without leaving SDR audiences behind.

In a podcast interview for journalists, Josh Limor, VP of Technology and Ecosystem Development at Technicolor, discusses the latest demonstration of HDR in action during the first live end-to-end HDR broadcast of a Spectrum SportsNet NBA game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets (including commercials, other interstitials, and graphics).

“To date,” explains Limor, “there have been a lot of tests to broadcast different elements of HDR. Our goal with this broadcast was to take it to the next step.”

Technicolor had already been involved in demonstrating how a standard dynamic range (SDR) production of a live sporting event could be up-converted to HDR and distributed to people’s homes through Technicolor’s HDR distribution platform.

“This time, the production involved a mixture of HDR and SDR elements; some of the cameras were shooting native HDR, and some cameras were standard dynamic range. We were able to show how to create a high dynamic range broadcast that can be distributed in standard dynamic range and high dynamic range to people’s homes,” he says.

The SDR cameras were up-converted to HDR using Technicolor’s Intelligent Tone Management (ITM) technology, and all of the content was cut together and produced in SLOG3, Sony’s proprietary HDR log curve.

“A unique feature of Technicolor’s distribution platform is that it doesn’t care what HDR curve you’re using, it’s compatible with all of them – PQ, HLG, SLOG3, or anything else that anyone comes up with next. Our distribution takes that into account to distribute it appropriately to each and every home,” says Limor.

HDR devices are still relatively new in consumers’ homes. While prices for HDR sets are already beginning to drop year over year to drive demand for HDR technology, the market is still in its early stages.

“In the meantime, we have shown that we can link the SDR and HDR worlds in a single stream broadcast. This allows broadcasters to move confidently forward and advance their HDR production strategy,” Limor says.

To listen to the podcast or read the entire Q&A with Limor visit: http://thefuturetrust.technicolor.com/article/the-future-…
Journalists and analysts are free to pull quotes from this Q&A feature with attribution in media and market reports. For more details and context, contact: Lane Cooper 323 817 7547 lane.cooper@technicolor.com

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