While HDR has largely been touted as a viewing innovation that is closely associated with UHD, the team behind Advanced HDR by Technicolor—a collaboration between Philips, InterDigital and Technicolor—believes that HD distribution strategies for HDR can create more options for delivering higher-quality experiences for experiences across a greater range of circumstances.

“HDR can significantly enhance HD content, not just UHD 4K, providing a better viewing experience on HD TVs and other devices. By utilizing HDR for HD content, providers can achieve bandwidth savings while delivering brilliant video content. It largely expands availability of HDR content and access to high-quality visual experiences to a broader audience,” he says.

Overcoming Misconceptions about HDR

It is a message that will require an industry-wide shift in perspectives — especially among streaming providers whose customers access content from a variety of venues and circumstances.

“The growth of streaming service providers in recent years has been driven by several factors, including increasing internet connectivity, advancements in technology, changing consumer preferences, and the proliferation of mobile devices. But they do face some challenges that must be addressed head-on,” says Dumont.

For instance, streaming providers must ensure that content is delivered smoothly, with limited buffering, even in areas with limited internet bandwidth while maintaining a high-quality viewing experience. This means that connections for stable viewing of UHD are not always available.

“Many people assume that HDR is married with 4K content, but that is not the case. HDR technology over HD allows viewers to enjoy improved color, contrast, and overall image quality without UHD. They can have a more immersive and visually appealing experience,” he says. Also, HDR improves the perceived resolution as adjacent pixels might have the same color but have different brightness that HDR will bring out.

HDR over HD has a more significant visual impact than SDR over UHD because HDR presents more accurate colors, smoother light and color shading, and more detailed images while reducing bandwidth requirements by a factor of four simply because HD uses only one-fourth of the pixels.

This leaves the industry with addressing the challenge of providing high-quality HDR with 8-bit coding when, theoretically, a 10-bit color depth is needed in HDR to prevent coding artifacts — like banding. It is an issue, however, that can be effectively addressed with the adoption of dynamic automation and meta-data from Advanced HDR by Technicolor.

Resolving 10-Bit Color Depth HDR Requirements for HD Streaming

Advanced HDR by Technicolor is a suite of production, distribution and display solutions that leverages machine learning (ML) technology to maximize image quality and enhance the consumer viewing experience.

The solution’s intelligent tone management (ITM) tool provides a dynamic, tunable, real-time solution to up-convert SDR content to HDR with full freedom and flexibility to manage contrast, brightness and color saturation.

Its single Layer HDR (SL-HDR) technology is a dynamic and tunable real-time tool that implements the ETSI SL-HDR standards to generate and deliver a single, consistent, high-quality stream. SL-HDR transforms HDR input streams into SDR-plus-metadata streams. SL-HDR compatible receivers provide consumers with high-quality HDR images that can be adapted to optimize the display capabilities of their devices.

When it comes to addressing the 10-bit color-depth performance to HD, the dynamic — or adaptive — nature of SL-HDR preprocessing allows coding to be used more efficiently compared to the static formats like HDR10 and HLG.

“Hence where HDR10 needs a 10-bit bit-depth and typically HEVC coding, SL-HDR can use AVC in 8-bit as used by legacy systems, making it less bandwidth hungry and at the same time ensuring backward compatibility with legacy SDR systems,” states Dumont.

The metadata transmission in the SL-HDR stream allows optimal use of the receiving device’s dynamic range by adjusting the HDR quality to its capability. This avoids overexposure with limited dynamic range capabilities while maximizing the capabilities of TVs that support high dynamic range.

“Advanced HDR by Technicolor can deliver an extremely high-quality, high-dynamic-range image in HD without compromising content creators’ intent or viewers’ experiences. Dynamic conversions accomplish this outcome in a stable manner—at scale—while minimizing the factors that typically add cost and complexity to the creation, storage and distribution process,” he says.

The value proposition for streaming providers includes reduced storage requirements – by using 8-bit instead of 10-bit as well as storage of SDR and HDR in a single stream – and improved stability for lower bandwidth connections. By utilizing HDR to enhance HD video, streaming providers can save significant bandwidth compared to 4K HDR video while still delivering the same brilliant quality for the vast majority of video content.

“The bottom line is that HDR on HD is ideal for meeting the requirements of service providers that seek a bandwidth-efficient streaming solution for delivering significantly more vibrant video content. Advanced HDR by Technicolor can make it happen,” concludes Dumont.

To read the full Q&A with Rick Dumont, please visit: https://bit.ly/3Xm8Zju 

HDR can significantly enhance full HD content, not just UHD 4K, providing a better viewing experience on HD TVs. This approach improves color, contrast, and overall image quality, making it a valuable proposition for streaming providers. By utilizing HDR for HD content, providers can achieve bandwidth savings while delivering brilliant video content, expanding the possibilities for high-quality visuals accessible to a broader audience.

We caught up with Rick Dumont, Head of Business Development for Wireless and HDR at Philips to learn more. Here is what he had to say:

Q: Streaming service providers account for a growing share of how people worldwide enjoy their entertainment experiences. As this market evolves, what are the major challenges streaming providers face?

Rick Dumont: Streaming service providers have indeed been experiencing rapid growth in recent years, driven by several factors, including increasing internet connectivity, advancements in technology, changing consumer preferences, and the proliferation of mobile devices. But they do face some challenges that must be addressed head-on.

For instance, streaming providers must ensure that their content can be delivered smoothly and with limited buffering, even in areas with limited internet bandwidth. They need to maintain a high-quality viewing experience for their users, including consistent video and audio quality, regardless of the device or network connection. Similarly, streaming providers need to efficiently deliver their content to a wide range of devices and platforms, including smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, and gaming consoles.

And while the category is growing, the market is extremely crowded and competitive. Numerous providers are vying for users’ attention. Streaming providers need to differentiate themselves and offer unique content or features to attract and retain subscribers by continually improving the user experience, including better and consistent video quality, faster load times, intuitive interfaces and seamless integration with other devices and services.

The team behind Advanced HDR by Technicolor—which includes Philips, InterDigital and Technicolor—strongly believes that intelligent adoption of high-dynamic range (HDR) strategies for content creation, distribution and delivery can address many of these issues.

Q: Why is it important to understand that HDR can enhance full HD and not just UHD 4K?

Dumont: It is essential because the market does not understand that HDR—especially Advanced HDR by Technicolor—allows for a better viewing experience on HD TVs. This is significant because, globally, the lion’s share of available content is still in HD (2K) and not UHD (4K).

Many people assume that HDR is married with 4K content, but that is not the case. By implementing HDR technology on full HD content, viewers can enjoy improved color, contrast, and overall image quality. They can have a more immersive and visually appealing experience. In fact, HDR over HD has a more significant visual impact than SDR over UHD because HDR presents more accurate colors, smoother light and color shading, and more detailed images. Indeed, utilizing HDR over HD content reduces bandwidth requirements by a factor of four simply because HD uses only one-fourth of the pixels.

This leaves us with the challenge of providing high-quality HDR with 8-bit coding when, theoretically, a 10-bit color depth is needed. However, this issue can be effectively addressed.

The bottom line is that HDR on HD is ideal for meeting the requirements of broadcasters and service providers that seek a bandwidth-efficient streaming or broadcasting solution for delivering significantly more vibrant video content.

Q: Can you be more specific about the differences in the data and processing effort required for delivering HD versus UHD content?

Dumont: HDR uses 10-bit bit depth to prevent coding artifacts like “banding”. However, with SL-HDR preprocessing as in Advanced HDR by Technicolor, the dynamic or adaptive nature allows coding to be used more efficiently compared to the static coding allocation of formats like HDR10 and HLG. Hence where HDR10 needs a 10-bit bit-depth and typically HEVC coding, SL-HDR can use AVC in 8-bit as used by legacy systems, making it less bandwidth hungry and at the same time backward compatible with legacy SDR systems.

So, from a content creation perspective, HDR over UHD content creation means more data is processed during editing, color grading, and special effects rendering. This requires more powerful hardware and storage solutions to efficiently handle the increased data volume.

In contrast, HDR over HD content involves smaller file sizes and less demanding processing requirements. The single-layer HDR (SL-HDR) pre-processing done by Advanced HDR by Technicolor optimizes 8-bit quantization, leaving no visible coding artifacts like banding. In addition, the HDR and SDR formats can be stored and distributed in a single stream, halving storage space for the coding ladders.

The metadata transmission in the SL-HDR stream allows optimal use of the TV’s dynamic range by adjusting the HDR quality to the TV’s capability. This avoids overexposure on TVs with limited dynamic range capabilities while maximizing the capabilities of TVs that support high dynamic range.

Advanced HDR by Technicolor can deliver an extremely high-quality, high-dynamic-range image in HD without compromising content creators’ intent or viewers’ experiences. Dynamic conversions accomplish this outcome in a stable manner—at scale—while minimizing the factors that typically add cost and complexity to the creation, storage and distribution process.

Q: Why is dynamic HDR content conversion necessary to provide a stable viewing experience?

Dumont: Most TVs in viewers’ homes today are only SDR capable, even though most newly sold TVs support HDR already. The transition period to have all TVs in homes support HDR will take another 5 to 10 years in the USA. Therefore simultaneous support of SDR and HDR for video streaming and broadcast will remain imperative for quite some time. Unlike static (LUT) conversion from HDR to SDR. dynamic conversions allow native HDR video to remain uncompromised and be distributed at the best possible quality, while also making sure that the SDR video is of optimal quality and remains consistent.

Dynamic conversions are also critical when capturing content, especially for live outdoor sporting events. Without dynamic conversion, the brightness levels of the HDR content would need to be manually adjusted continuously as lighting conditions can dramatically change when the action moves from a bright sunlight to shaded area. Consider a soccer ball or a golf ball (or any ball), or a race car moving from bright sunlight to a shaded place of a stadium or a place with trees; or the camera position moving from facing towards the sun to facing away from the sun. Without a dynamic conversion from HDR to SDR this results in compromised viewing experiences for consumers with HDR TVs and suboptimal viewing experiences for those with only SDR-capable TVs.

Hence, by automating the conversion process, HDR content can be delivered to the viewer in a stable and reliable manner, regardless of the viewing conditions or changes in lighting conditions.

Q: How do these features of HDR in general — and Advanced HDR by Technicolor in particular — benefit streaming service providers?

Dumont: The value proposition for streaming providers includes reduced storage requirements and improved stability for lower bandwidth connections. By utilizing HDR to enhance HD video, streaming providers can save significant bandwidth compared to 4K HDR video while still delivering the same brilliant quality for the vast majority of video content.

Instead of transmitting content at over 20 megabits per second, they can achieve the same experience at less than ten megabits per second.

This results in a significant reduction in storage requirements. Additionally, lower bandwidth connections, such as those over Wi-Fi, become more stable and reliable when streaming HDR content at a lower bit rate. For those viewing over a 4G or 5G cellular connection, the monthly data package for mobile use will last much longer while allowing subscribers to enjoy much better video quality. 

To listen to the full Interview with Rick Dumont, visit:

https://bit.ly/HDRonHD

On the video content distribution front, broadcasting and streaming services are evolving with HDR on separate but parallel tracks. While the market remains most mature in the United States, thanks largely to the fact that HDR technologies in general – and Advanced HDR by Technicolor in particular – have been incorporated into the ATSC 3.0 standard, there is growing evidence of strong interest and implementation among digital content distributors across the Asia Pacific region.

“In China, for example, HDR is not included in the country’s broadcasting standards, but there is a strong focus on supporting HDR technologies among over-the-top (OTT) service providers,” says Dumont.

Ecosystem Collaboration and Coordination in Region Critical to Success

This is significant because service providers set the example and raise consumer expectations about how content should be transmitted and consumed. What’s more, service providers are collaborating with other elements of the entertainment technology value chain to leverage their position in the market by providing customer premises equipment (CPE) – like set-top boxes – and consumer electronics (CE) solutions – including dongles or connected TVs (CTVs) that enable and support HDR.

“It is essential that ecosystem collaboration continue to gain momentum around HDR to accelerate adoption and deliver the full promise of this technology to consumers across the region. The successful implementation of HDR requires the cooperation of system-on-chip manufacturers, TV and device manufacturers, content distributors, and content owners. The industry as a whole cannot simply focus on whether a TV brand supports an HDR format. It truly is an end-to-end game,” he explains.

For broadcasters and streaming service providers across Asia, HDR also offers an opportunity to build on the highly regarded value delivered in presenting live events.

“Consumers in the region are among the most avid sports and popular music fans in the world. Live sports content such as the World Cup, the English Premier League and Formula 1 are popular with audiences in China, South Korea and Japan. It will be important for network service operators – including cable and telco companies – as well as pay-TV players – to deliver these live sports events in the highest possible image quality, which today requires HDR technology,” says Dumont.

HDR’s Implementation for Mobile Phones

Growing consumer expectations for premium viewing experiences are not limited to the traditional living room environment. Consumers also recognize HDR as a desirable feature on personal devices such as mobile phones and tablets.

“Compared to audiences in Europe and North America, audiences in the Asia Pacific region consume more media on mobile devices than they do on TVs. In many remote regions, access to wired data can be limited and sometimes nonexistent. As a result, wireless services delivered over cellular networks represent the main source of video content delivery,” says Dumont.

These consumers expect – and deserve – access to high-quality experiences. Consequently, mobile operators and over-the-top content providers that make HDR content available have an opportunity to improve engagement and protect and enhance critical revenue streams.

Delivering HDR Content Efficiently and Cost-Effectively

The good news, says Dumont, is that recent developments in HDR have laid the foundation for the entire ecosystem to provide premium experiences to TVs and mobile devices in a technically efficient and cost-effective manner. This is especially true for those embracing Advanced HDR by Technicolor.

Advanced HDR by Technicolor – a collaboration between Philips, InterDigital and Technicolor – is a suite of HDR production, distribution and display solutions that leverages machine learning (ML) technology to maximize image quality and enhance the consumer viewing experience. There are two major components to Advanced HDR by Technicolor.

The Intelligent Tone Management (ITM) tool provides a dynamic, tunable, real-time solution to up-convert SDR content to HDR with complete freedom and flexibility to manage contrast, brightness and color saturation.

Its Single Layer HDR (SL-HDR) is a dynamic and tunable real-time tool that implements ETSI SL-HDR standards to generate and deliver a consistent, high-quality broadcast stream. SL-HDR1 transforms HDR input streams into SDR-plus-metadata streams. SL-HDR compatible receivers provide consumers with high-quality HDR images that can be adapted to optimize the display capabilities of their devices.

Broadcasters and OTT distributors can reduce the cost and complexity associated with SDR and HDR distribution and management while improving the viewing experience because Advanced HDR by Technicolor automatically optimizes each image to the maximum capability of the receiving device.

“We are working with the entertainment technology ecosystem across Asia to align our technology development roadmaps with the requirements of SoC manufacturers, TV makers as well as content owners, and distributors so that technologies and value propositions offered by each of these key organizations are integrated to upconvert existing SDR content to HDR while opening the door to native-HDR content for consumers across the region.”

Here is what he had to say.

Q: With demand for video entertainment content projected to remain strong — even in an uncertain economic 2023 — how will HDR support consumer engagement with broadcast TV and streaming services providers? 

Rick Dumont: We tend to assume that everyone knows what HDR is, but the reality is that many consumers need to understand the differences between high definition and high dynamic range. This is one of the biggest challenges that the market faces today. 

With the exception of the excellent progress made by the Sinclair Broadcast Group in the United States, there is limited high dynamic range content available on broadcast stations today. This is unfortunate because once people experience HDR, they immediately appreciate how a brighter image can deliver much more detail on the screen, resulting in a superior viewing experience. 

As a result, it will be necessary for the entire industry to work together to streamline the integration of HDR technologies into their production and distribution processes. The whole ecosystem must also work together to ensure a consistent and persistent message to consumers explaining the unique value proposition of HDR.

We are reaching a critical mass of consumers with high-definition TVs equipped with HDR capabilities. The next step is ensuring that HDR content is made available and that consumers are aware of the significant progress the entire industry is making to enhance the viewing experience. That will drive the second and third waves of consumer adoption.

Leaders in the industry must also work together to enhance the availability of HDR programming by upconverting content developed in standard dynamic range (SDR). TV manufacturers are already doing their utmost to convert the content they receive in SDR to HDR. This exposes consumers to an even broader spectrum of HDR experiences.

The challenge on this front is to ensure that two critical factors are addressed: 1) that viewers receive consistent, high-quality experiences; and 2) that the creative intent of content producers is respected and transmitted to HDR devices. 

The good news is that the industry is making excellent progress on this front. The work done by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC 3.0) is helping to resolve this challenge by integrating HDR — and specifically Advanced HDR by Technicolor — into their standard.

This helps to ensure that the original artistic vision is delivered and displayed in a consistently high-quality manner across all devices. True scalable success, however, requires effective — and automated — collaboration across the content creation, content capture, streaming distribution and broadcast communities.

Q: What is the role of component players — such as chipset manufacturers — in ensuring HDR-capable TVs are available across different regional markets?

Dumont:  The system on chip (SoC) community is critical in providing the primary processing capabilities needed to make TVs HDR capable. Chipset manufacturers are in the vanguard position of ensuring HDR components are integrated into today’s televisions. 

The capabilities of TV screens are also critical. Regarding HDR, screen performance is defined in units of brightness known as Nits. Most TV screens sold on 4K HDR TVs support nit levels of over one thousand nits. This is a massive improvement over standard dynamic range TVs, which only have a capacity for a few hundred nits. 

MediaTek and Realtek are among the SoC manufacturers embedding HDR capabilities into the next generation of TVs, while companies like Amlogic are integrating similar SoCs into set-top boxes, bridging the gap between TVs with and without ATSC 3.0 capabilities. These streaming boxes support chipsets that can process HDR by having consumers switch on the functionality.  

Q: Can you tell us about your involvement with Advanced HDR by Technicolor? 

Dumont:  Advanced HDR by Technicolor is a collaboration between Philips, InterDigital and Technicolor. It is a suite of high dynamic range production, distribution and display solutions that leverages machine learning to maximize the image quality of any HDR format. It was designed to protect — and enhance — investments in infrastructure and devices made by industry and consumers.

Advanced HDR by Technicolor, from the very onset, prioritized providing HDR content across the board. No matter what type of screen and whether your original content is SDR, HDR or another format. 

The technologies included in the suite enable content creators and broadcasters to conserve resources and reduce costs thanks to a highly automated conversion process between legacy standard dynamic range and HDR. At the same time, these solutions offer easy-to-use, full-tuning capabilities to match any video quality requirement.

Regardless of the type of content — episodic, feature film, live sporting events, legacy content and even advertisement — Advanced HDR by Technicolor delivers consistent, high-quality images and brightness that is fully compatible with today’s TV and mobile device screens. This is important because viewing experiences can be disrupted when the show you’re viewing is in HDR and an advertisement is presented in SDR. 

It’s imperative to have a consistent viewing experience across the board. 

Advanced HDR by Technicolor has worked very hard to get infrastructure and tools in place to ensure that all content is converted and delivered to end users cost-effectively while preserving the creative intent. 

Q: How is Advanced HDR by Technicolor being received in the market, and what key milestones can we expect to see in 2023?

Dumont: The solution is gaining rapid traction across the industry. For instance, Advanced HDR by Technicolor has already partnered with Sinclair Broadcast Group to deliver HDR content all day, every day of the year, to more than 30 U.S. markets through its affiliate TV stations.

We have also partnered with Hisense to bring Advanced HDR by Technicolor to their customers. 

We are working with several streaming content providers to ensure episodic and feature film offerings are delivered in the best quality possible on any screen. We are also working with broadcasters, streaming providers and content producers to convert any type of content — regardless of the type of file and format — to HDR on any screen.   

Given the current momentum, we expect HDR to be fully available on 50% of screens worldwide within two years.

To listen to the full interview with Rick Dumont, please visit: 
https://bit.ly/43GwPH8