“Live production environments, particularly in sports, now operate in mixed-format conditions where HDR video, SDR advertising, and graphics overlays intersect in real time. This complexity has exposed limitations in traditional static conversion approaches,” said Ryan Wallenberg, Vice President of Engineering at Cobalt Digital. 

The static diffuse white capability allows operators to define a consistent white point across content while maintaining the benefits of dynamic, frame-by-frame processing. The result is greater visual stability across feeds and graphics without sacrificing adaptability.

“The enhancement reflects ongoing collaboration between Advanced HDR by Technicolor and Cobalt Digital, shaped by feedback from live production teams. It also acknowledges the continued reliance on legacy workflows. Static conversion methods remain widely used, creating friction as organizations transition to HDR,” said Rick Dumont, Head of Business Development for Advanced HDR by Technicolor.

By combining stability with dynamic optimization, the feature serves as a bridge between legacy and next-generation approaches.

Cobalt Digital integrates the capability into its 9904 card, which now also supports ST 2110 and both SDI and SMPTE infrastructures. The underlying Advanced HDR by Technicolor framework enables HDR to SDR and SDR to HDR conversion while preserving signal integrity.

The feature moves from earlier custom implementations into a fully commercialized offering, expanding access to a broader range of broadcasters and content providers This support is critical as broadcasters increasingly adopt ATSC 3.0, which includes HDR to enhance the viewing experience across all TV resolutions.  

The release comes as production models continue to evolve. Remote workflows are expanding, but major live events still rely on hybrid production environments. In both cases, consistent signal handling across formats is becoming a critical requirement.

Advanced HDR by Technicolor and Cobalt Digital present the enhancement at NAB through curated demonstrations that highlight its impact on real-world content. Meetings with Advanced HDR by Technicolor executives at Central Hall — C3062MR are available by invitation only. Demonstrations will be provided by Cobalt Digital at North Hall — N1340.  

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About Advanced HDR by Technicolor

Advanced HDR by Technicolor is a suite of high-dynamic-range (HDR) technologies designed to deliver superior video quality across a variety of display devices and network environments. Developed as a collaboration between InterDigital and Philips, it includes formats like SL-HDR1, SL-HDR2, and SL-HDR3, which dynamically optimize and convert HDR content to match the capabilities of the display device in real-time. This allows broadcasters and content providers to deliver a high-quality viewing experience with improved contrast, brightness, and color accuracy while maximizing bandwidth efficiency. With support for multiple distribution workflows, Advanced HDR by Technicolor enables seamless integration into existing infrastructures, making it a preferred solution for broadcasters seeking to future-proof their HDR delivery. Advanced HDR by Technicolor’s partnerships include broadcasters, streaming service providers, TV and conversion box manufacturers, SoC producers as well as hardware and software solution providers. To learn more about Advanced HDR by Technicolor visit:

https://advancedhdrbytechnicolor.pro. 

About Cobalt Digital

Cobalt Digital Inc. designs and manufactures award-winning ST 2110, IPMX, and SDI conversion, compression, processing, routing, control, and multiviewer technology for the production, broadcast television, and ProAV environments. As a founding member in the openGear® initiative, Cobalt offers a full range of openGear® compliant solutions as well as video and audio processing products for closed caption compliance, production trucks, master control, HD news, signal transport, audio loudness processing, and color correction. Cobalt’s Blue Box Group line of interface mini-converter boxes streamlines and simplifies a wide range of ST 2110, IPMX, and SDI conversion and processing tasks. In addition, the company’s multi-image display processors enable multiviewer capabilities in the most demanding studio and remote production/broadcasting environments. Cobalt Digital products are distributed through a worldwide network of dealers, system integrators, and other partnerships. For further information visit: www.cobaltdigital.com

Momentum is building around dynamic HDR conversion as broadcasters and streaming service providers seek to deliver premium video quality without increasing bandwidth or workflow complexity. Deployment of Advanced HDR by Technicolor is expanding across NEXTGEN TV (ATSC 3.0) and into HDR streaming operations. Implementations with partners such as Hisense combine Advanced HDR by Technicolor with NEXTGEN TV capabilities to enhance the viewing experience of live sports.  The solution is also supported by core video workflow providers across the ecosystem including Mainconcept, Cobalt, Ateme and Amagi.   

Demonstrations will focus on a few key developments in how HDR is produced and distributed: 

• Dynamic HDR conversion solution that replaces static LUTs processing while optimizing content frame by frame and maintaining contrast, brightness and color depth across varying types of content. 

   

• Single-stream delivery of HDR and SDR which eliminates the need for parallel workflows and enables one signal to serve legacy SDR and HDR-enabled devices.

   

• HDR delivery within SDR bandwidth constraints using existing 8-bit AVC workflows, removing the requirements for 10-bit HEVC implementations.

   

• Content provided at UHD/HDR-like quality at less than 25% of the bandwidth usually associated with such formats.

This approach challenges workflows that have prioritized SDR compatibility over HDR performance.  

“Production teams selecting the predictable and safe path of legacy SDR workflows and static LUTs HDR are limiting the viewing experience of consumers while undermining the business case for this technology. If HDR is to be considered a premium feature, then it must be delivered as the ‘hero’ format rather than the compromise,” said Rick Dumont, head of business development for Advanced HDR by Technicolor.   

As broadcasters and streaming service providers compete in an increasingly saturated market, the inconsistent implementation of HDR has weakened the technology’s ability to capture consumer attention, lessening its impact as a driver of subscriptions or advertising dollars. 

At the same time, the production teams that choose to maintain separate SDR and HDR workflows introduce added costs to production, storage and distribution. Those parallel workflows are going to be more difficult to sustain as content libraries continue to grow and live production demands become more complex.   

By comparison, a single-stream approach reduces the requirements on infrastructure and bandwidth while simplifying operations. There is no longer a need for manual color adjustments and grading decisions which can deteriorate performance across devices.     

At NAB 2026, attendees will be able to experience:

• Side-by-side comparison of static vs. dynamic HDR conversion
• Demonstrations of a HDR-first workflow
• End-to-end delivery scenarios using a single HDR signal with SDR downconversion capability 
• A showcase of the latest NEXTGEN TV conversion devices integrated with Advanced HDR by Technicolor which include ADTH, Geniatech, MyVelo TV, ZapperBox, and Zinwell. 

 Advanced HDR by Technicolor experts will be on hand during the show at the following locations:  

• Advanced HDR by Technicolor Meeting Room (Invitation Only) located at C3062MR in Central Hall
• ATSC booth located at C1655 in Central Hall
   
  The Advanced HDR by technicolor team will showcase a single master workflow leveraging dynamic HDR conversion that maintains high quality HDR, while providing best possible SDR at the same time, throughout the content value chain. Experts will also demonstrate how dynamic conversion with Intelligent Tone Management outperforms legacy systems based on static LUTs conversion.

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About Advanced HDR by Technicolor

Advanced HDR by Technicolor is a suite of high-dynamic-range (HDR) technologies designed to deliver superior video quality across a variety of display devices and network environments. Developed as a collaboration between InterDigital and Philips, it includes formats like SL-HDR1, SL-HDR2, and SL-HDR3, which dynamically optimize and convert HDR content to match the capabilities of the display device in real-time. This allows broadcasters and content providers to deliver a high-quality viewing experience with improved contrast, brightness, and color accuracy while maximizing bandwidth efficiency. With support for multiple distribution workflows, Advanced HDR by Technicolor enables seamless integration into existing infrastructures, making it a preferred solution for broadcasters seeking to future-proof their HDR delivery. Advanced HDR by Technicolor’s partnerships include broadcasters, streaming service providers, TV and conversion box manufacturers, SoC producers as well as hardware and software solution providers. To learn more about Advanced HDR by Technicolor visit:

https://advancedhdrbytechnicolor.pro. 

That, he says, is where Advanced HDR by Technicolor comes in. This solution uses embedded metadata and machine learning to deliver a single stream as HDR on devices that support it, while automatically falling back to SDR on those that do not, protecting investments in legacy infrastructure without sacrificing image quality on modern displays.

“If you only have one HDR pipeline, you can drop the SDR pipeline completely,” he said. “That’s a huge benefit for both broadcast and streaming service providers. And on the viewer side, they benefit because regardless of what device they have, they’re always getting the highest quality stream that is possible.”

The challenge of converting legacy SDR content into HDR-compatible formats is particularly acute for Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television, or FAST, services. These platforms have built large audiences by offering free access to older catalog content, from 1970s sitcoms and 1990s dramas to more modern blockbusters. But that content arrives in a patchwork of formats, color spaces, resolutions, and aspect ratios that were never designed to coexist in a single distribution pipeline.

Managing Multi-Generational Content Complexity for A Modern Audience

Legacy content, he explained, often carries inconsistent color metadata, varying gamma settings, and brightness levels that do not meet HDR mastering standards. Content that was originally shot on analog formats adds further complications. Upscaling, de-interlacing, and color remapping all introduce processing demands that can threaten the low-latency performance that live scheduling and dynamic ad insertion require.

That last point matters enormously to FAST operators, whose entire business model depends on advertising. If an HDR program is interrupted by an SDR commercial, the jarring brightness shift is not just an aesthetic problem. It is a failure that undermines the premium experience that operators are selling to both viewers and advertisers.

“Users who pay a lot for premium content or a huge live sports event would be very frustrated if there is a break in the HDR processing,” Schönberger said. “The ad must be HDR in the same way as the premium content.”

MainConcept’s codec handles that conversion on the fly, translating incoming SDR advertising feeds into HDR output without introducing visible transitions or latency. Schönberger said the technology exists to execute that process seamlessly, but it requires some integration work on the operator side.

Adding to the complexity is the fact that HDR itself is not a single standard. The market currently supports at least six distinct formats, including HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG), PQ, and Advanced HDR by Technicolor. Each format carries different technical requirements, and playback devices do not always support every option.

MainConcept’s approach centers on building support for all of those formats directly into its encoder software development kits, which are licensed to broadcasters, OTT platforms, production companies, and operators in industries ranging from security surveillance to medical imaging.

That said, Schönberger highlighted Advanced HDR by Technicolor as a format with particular promise for operators navigating the SDR-to-HDR transition. The technology can take an existing eight-bit SDR feed and generate HDR output from it, meaning operators do not necessarily need to overhaul their production infrastructure to begin delivering HDR content. It also supports HDR-to-dynamic-HDR conversion, adjusting metadata on a per-frame basis to maximize image quality across different display types.

“You can stick to your existing eight-bit SDR infrastructure,” Schönberger said. “You can easily turn your legacy SDR content into HDR, and in the end you only have one stream.”

The format has already been adopted into broadcast standards. It is part of the TV 2.5 standard in Brazil and is included in ATSC 3.0, the next-generation broadcast specification being deployed across the United States. Several U.S. broadcasters, including Sinclair and Gray Media, have already put the technology into production.

Beyond traditional broadcast and streaming, Schönberger sees HDR playing a growing role in augmented reality, virtual reality, and extended reality applications, particularly as wearable devices become more capable. The deeper blacks, brighter highlights, and expanded color palette that HDR enables translate directly into more convincing immersive environments.

“The audience wants to dive completely into the premium content they’ve paid for,” he said.

“HDR extends the contrast ratio and color palette beyond SDR. It shows a more realistic, more detailed, and more immersive picture quality regardless of whether devices support standard definition (SD), high definition (HD) or ultra-high definition (UHD) content.”

Preparing for an HDR Future

Schönberger said the trajectory of the industry is clearly toward dynamic HDR, which adjusts image parameters frame by frame rather than applying a single static setting to an entire program. Doing that at scale, particularly for live content, will increasingly require automated and AI-assisted processing tools.

“Doing this on the fly requires AI-driven or automated tools,” he said. “Dynamic HDR is the future.”

For an industry still managing the long tail of SDR infrastructure while racing to deliver premium HDR experiences, the codec layer may be the least visible but most essential piece of the puzzle. 

Watch the Full Vidcast Interview Here.

Q: MainConcept has been in the codec business for more than three decades. How does that depth of experience shape the way you approach a technology shift like HDR?

Frank Schönberger: It gives you perspective that younger companies simply do not have. We have watched the industry move through analog to digital, standard definition to high definition, file-based workflows to streaming, and now this HDR transition. Each of those shifts created winners and losers, and the difference usually came down to whether a company could support the old infrastructure while building for the new one. That is essentially the same challenge we face today. Our customers cannot abandon their SDR viewers overnight. They need solutions that allow them to move toward HDR without leaving legacy audiences behind, and without doubling their operational costs in the process.

Q: Premium content has always been a differentiator, but you seem to be saying the stakes are higher now. Why?

Schönberger: The number of streaming services competing for subscriber attention has grown dramatically. At the same time, broadcast is losing ground to streaming in most markets. So you have a situation where everyone is fighting for the same viewer, the same subscriber dollar, the same advertising spend. Premium content, and the technology that delivers it at its best, becomes a real competitive lever. HDR is part of that. When it works well, it is genuinely better. Brighter whites, deeper blacks, more vivid colors. It is a more realistic picture. Viewers who have experienced it on a quality display notice the difference, and that matters to the operators paying for it.

Q: HDR is not a single standard. There are at least six formats in active use. How does MainConcept manage that fragmentation?

Schönberger: That fragmentation is one of the more difficult aspects of the current landscape. You have HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, Hybrid Log-Gamma, PQ, and Advanced HDR by Technicolor, and each of them has different technical requirements and different levels of device support. Our approach is to build support for all of those formats into our encoder software development kits (SDKs) so that our customers are not forced to make an either-or decision. We also have a dedicated universal color space converter that handles the transformation between formats, including conversion back to SDR when needed. The goal is to give operators the flexibility to work within whatever HDR ecosystem their distribution partners and device manufacturers require.

Q: The industry has largely been running dual workflows, one for SDR and one for HDR. What does that actually cost an operator?

Schönberger: It doubles everything. You have double the hardware, double the maintenance, double the operational overhead. For a broadcaster with a large content catalog and multiple distribution channels, that is a significant ongoing expense. And it creates workflow complexity that introduces risk. More moving parts means more opportunities for something to go wrong, especially in live production environments where you have no margin for error. The industry has understood for some time that the goal should be a single pipeline that serves both SDR and HDR audiences from one stream. The question has always been how to get there without degrading quality at either end.

Q: That is where Advanced HDR by Technicolor enters the picture. How does it address the single-stream problem?

Schönberger: Advanced HDR by Technicolor is genuinely well-suited to this challenge because of the way it was designed. It uses embedded metadata and machine learning to deliver a single stream as HDR on devices that support it, while automatically falling back to SDR on those that do not, protecting investments in legacy infrastructure without sacrificing image quality on modern displays. And the machine learning component is important. Traditional SDR-to-HDR conversion relied on static lookup tables, which produced inconsistent results and compressed the HDR signal in ways that undermined the whole point of using HDR in the first place. The adaptive approach in Advanced HDR by Technicolor adjusts on a per-frame basis, which is what you need for live content where lighting conditions are constantly changing. A stadium broadcast at noon looks nothing like the same stadium at dusk, and a static conversion cannot handle that transition gracefully.

Q: Free ad-supported streaming services carry enormous libraries of older content. What specific challenges does that create for HDR delivery?

Schönberger: The scale and inconsistency of legacy content are core issues. When you have a catalog built over decades, you are dealing with content that was produced under completely different technical standards. Different color spaces, different gamma curves, different aspect ratios, varying levels of metadata, some of it analog in origin. There is no single conversion approach that handles all of that uniformly. Each piece of content may need a different treatment to look correct in an HDR environment. And the operational complexity compounds when you factor in live scheduling and dynamic ad insertion, because you may be switching between content from completely different eras and technical backgrounds within a single viewing session. The codec infrastructure has to absorb all of that variation and produce a consistent output stream.

Q: The advertising model is the revenue engine for FAST services. What happens when an HDR program is interrupted by an SDR commercial?

Schönberger: It is a real problem, and it goes beyond aesthetics. When a viewer is watching premium HDR content and an SDR advertisement appears, there is an immediate and jarring shift in brightness and color quality. The viewer notices. In some cases, it looks like something has gone wrong with the broadcast. For an operator who has positioned their service around a premium viewing experience, that is a credibility problem. The ad has to match the quality of the content surrounding it. Our encoders handle that conversion in real time, translating an incoming SDR advertising feed into HDR output without introducing a visible break. The viewer should only notice the ad, not the technical transition.

Q: Where does HDR fit in the emerging world of augmented and virtual reality?

Schönberger: It is a natural fit. The whole premise of immersive content is that you want the viewer to feel present in what they are watching. HDR contributes directly to that by extending the contrast ratio and color palette beyond what SDR can produce, which means the image is closer to what the human eye actually perceives in real life. As wearable devices improve, the display technology will increasingly be capable of rendering HDR content in ways that are genuinely immersive. The production and delivery infrastructure needs to be ready for that. Dynamic HDR, which adjusts image parameters on a per-frame basis rather than applying a single static setting across a whole program, is where that is heading. It is more computationally demanding, but the combination of better processing hardware and AI-assisted automation is making it practical at scale.

Key Takeaways

The HDR transition is not simply a display technology upgrade. It is a fundamental reorganization of how video content gets produced, packaged, and delivered across an increasingly fragmented device landscape. For operators managing legacy content libraries, dual SDR and HDR workflows, and advertising feeds that may arrive in any format, the codec layer is the critical point of integration.

Schönberger’s central argument is that the industry no longer needs to accept the cost and complexity of parallel pipelines. Solutions like Advanced HDR by Technicolor, now available as an MainConcept SDK and already deployed by broadcasters operating under ATSC 3.0, make single-stream delivery viable today. The technology handles the SDR-to-HDR conversion in real time, preserves metadata integrity through the encoding process, and adapts dynamically to the kind of variable content that defines modern broadcasting. For an industry navigating simultaneous pressures from subscriber competition, advertising revenue requirements, and the approaching demands of immersive media, that combination of efficiency and quality may prove to be the most consequential codec development in a generation.

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About Advanced HDR by Technicolor

Advanced HDR by Technicolor is a suite of high-dynamic-range (HDR) technologies designed to deliver superior video quality across a variety of display devices and network environments. Developed as a collaboration with InterDigital, Philips and Technicolor, it includes formats like SL-HDR1, SL-HDR2, and SL-HDR3, which dynamically optimize HDR content to match the capabilities of the display device in real-time. This allows broadcasters and content providers to deliver a high-quality viewing experience with improved contrast, brightness, and color accuracy while maximizing bandwidth efficiency. With support for multiple distribution workflows, Advanced HDR by Technicolor enables seamless integration into existing infrastructures, making it a preferred solution for broadcasters seeking to future-proof their HDR delivery. To learn more about Advanced HDR by Technicolor visit: https://advancedhdrbytechnicolor.pro.  

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

This announcement marks the latest development in the evolving relationship between ATEME and Advanced HDR by Technicolor.

In addition to available implementations of Advanced HDR by Technicolor technologies in production, playout and file-based conversions, the integration of Advanced HDR by Technicolor with ATEME’s TITAN increases scalability and deployment capabilities for broadcasters. It is now possible to leverage the capabilities of different vendors to deliver premium HDR viewing experiences to consumers. HDR content enabled by Advanced HDR by Technicolor can be delivered along with AVC, HEVC and VVC codecs and from any SDR or HDR source content.

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About Advanced HDR by Technicolor

A collaboration between Philips, InterDigital and Technicolor, Advanced HDR by Technicolor® is a suite of High Dynamic Range (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 full freedom and flexibility to manage contrast, brightness and color saturation.
  
  
• The Single Layer HDR (SL-HDR) is a dynamic and tunable real-time tool that implements the ETSI SL-HDR standards to generate and deliver a single, consistent, high-quality broadcast stream starting from any mix of input content (such as live, movies, news) across a wide range of HDR formats (HDR10, HLG, S-LOG3). 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. Thanks to the unique backward compatibility feature of SL-HDR1, consumers who do not have HDR devices can enjoy the highest quality SDR experience.

 To learn more about Advanced HDR by Technicolor visit:

https://advancedhdrbytechnicolor.pro/ 

“This is because the vast majority of video ecosystem energy consumption occurs when consumers view content on their devices,” she explains.

To address this fact, Advanced HDR by Technicolor offers display adaptation technology that ensures the delivery of premium HDR content tailored to the capabilities of receiving devices, regardless of whether they are TVs, mobile devices or tablets.

“Advanced HDR by Technicolor’s dynamic metadata feature allows for the adaptation of peak luminance levels, reducing power and energy consumption without sacrificing the viewing experience,” says Allie.

Single Stream Distribution of SDR and HDR

Innovations in dynamic metadata explain another significant contribution to the industry’s sustainability objectives.

The adoption of Single Layer HDR (SL-HDR) — a dynamic and tunable real-time tool that generates and delivers a single, consistent, high-quality stream — transforms HDR input streams into SDR-with-metadata streams to compatible receivers, providing consumers with high-quality HDR images.

“Delivering SDR and HDR content typically requires increased bandwidth and storage to support separate streams and infrastructure. Advanced HDR by Technicolor addresses this challenge by delivering a single SDR stream with metadata that automatically converts video when it recognizes that the receiving device supports HDR,” she says.

This optimizes resource utilization while ensuring accurate rendering across compatible devices.

“In addition, the integration of versatile video coding (VVC) with metadata further enhances compression efficiency, reducing storage requirements and other resource requirements,” says Allie.

These and other HDR innovations will be demonstrated during NAB 2024 at both the ATSC booth – W3056 and Ultra HD Forum booth – W4007.

Journalists and analysts interested in organizing briefings or interviews can schedule appointments at the ATSC booth click here at the Ultra HD Forum booth click here. 

To learn more about Advanced HDR by Technicolor visit:

https://advancedhdrbytechnicolor.pro/