High Dynamic Range at the SES Industry Days

High Dynamic Range (HDR) is currently a major topic in the broadcast and consumer electronics industries. As reported here earlier this year, the BBC has proposed a candidate HDR Production system based on a Hybrid Log-Gamma law at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

Since that blog post, BBC R&D have been:

• working with Japanese broadcaster Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) to merge our individual proposals into a joint ITU proposal,
• working with colleagues in the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and Broadcast Technology Futures project (BTF) to undertake scientific tests necessary to optimise the joint proposal and create usage guidelines, and
• starting to contribute to the work of the Moving Pictures Experts Group to undertake tests relating to the video compression of HDR content.

• BBC R&D - High Dynamic Range and Hybrid Log-Gamma

We recently collaborated with Samsung and SES to provide content for a demonstration of HDR video at the SES Industry days. This collaboration allowed the BBC, the satellite transmission provider and consumer electronics manufacturer to evaluate the feasibility of an end-to-end broadcast utilising a single distribution bitstream which can be decoded on both HDR receivers and legacy non-HDR receivers – a key feature of the Hybrid Log-Gamma system.

Unlike most previous HDR demos, the footage was not specially graded for the screen it was shown on – proof that the Hybrid Log-Gamma system allows interoperability between screens of different brightnesses and from different manufacturers.

• BBC R&D - London's New Year's Eve Fireworks in UHD and HDR
• BBC R&D - EBU/DVB HDR Workshop

The Industry Days were a great opportunity to get a world’s first broadcast of 3840x2160p50 using our High Dynamic Range proposal on air.

The HDR footage was provided by BBC R&D. The first was a sequence from the BBC Natural History Unit’s ground-breaking programme “Life Story”, colour graded using a Dolby PRM4220 reference monitor, adapted for use with the Hybrid Log-Gamma system by programming its internal Look Up Table (LUT). We’d like to thank the NHU’s Production Innovation team for their help.

The second sequence was shot by BBC R&D at the dress rehearsals of the recent Eurovision 60^th Anniversary Event in London. It was graded using a SIM2 high dynamic range display, but this time adapted for use with the Hybrid Log-Gamma system using an external Look Up Table (LUT). We’d like to thank the BBC Events production team, the EBU (who organise the Eurovision Song Contest) for help with rights clearances and Panasonic for loaning us a 3840x2160p100 High Dynamic Range camera.