Supporting the transition to 4K

David Ackroyd

Author: David Ackroyd

Published 1st January 2014

by David Ackroyd
Issue 84 - December 2013 Plasma, LCD and LED screen technologies brought broadcasters HD audiences that justified their investment in HDTV. Recent computer monitors, tablets, mobile phones, digital cinema and 3D have driven an explosion in viewing formats. Together they have created an appetite for continued change and development in screen technologies. The new Ultra Hi-Def formats promise further enhancement of spatial and temporal resolution. Broadcasters, filmmakers, researchers, equipment manufacturers and others looking to go Ultra Hi-Def will need a full suite of test & measurement tools to support their transition from todays 3G, HD and SD standards. This article looks at the issues from the point of view of innovative test & measurement equipment developer OmniTek, whose Ultra 4K Tool Box was previewed in September at IBC 2013.
The case for supporting Ultra Hi-Def is compelling. While it could be thought that there is not sufficient demand for further increases in spatial and temporal resolution, the costs are not what they were when HDTV was new, and the ability of broadcasters and telcos to accommodate and deliver different resolution services is far advanced from the early days of HDTV uptake. With non-broadcast applications such as large screen events and digital cinema growing all the time, there is undoubtedly serious interest in developing professional equipment to handle formats beyond those currently handled by most broadcast equipment.
With that interest comes the need for early and advanced tools to assist in the development of new products and systems. A number of issues are raised in offering that support.

Which standards to support

Precisely which video standards will be taken up by the industry is currently up in the air. While the SMPTE standards for UHDTV1 (4K) & UHDTV2 (8K) and the 2022 (compressed and uncompressed) video over IP standards have published, the transport standard for SDI at 6Gb/s is just emerging and standards for 12Gb/s (and above) have not yet been agreed. However, thanks to similarities with previous generations, standards agreement and compatibility is a less contentious issue than it was when previous formats were introduced and it is expected that progress can be made alongside the emergence of these standards.
Of equal interest to these increases in spatial resolution are the increased temporal frame rates that are being proposed and gaining support. Already 48Hz cinema releases have demonstrated the support for improved temporal resolution and this may be a direction broadcasters could favour. 120Hz had also been widely tested. These higher frame rates could also provide a solution for consumer device manufacturers needing to counter definition weariness amongst consumers.
Alongside the new resolutions are alternative physical transport methods to consider, suiting different usages. Key players here are DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 2.0 connections, both of which support 4Kx2K/60. Test environments supporting HDMI 2.0 connections will probably also need to cater for HDCP 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2 4K+ content protection schemes. Which standards emerge as winners will depend on experiments with prototype products and systems, and coordinated collaboration between manufacturers and end-users whether broadcast, telco, digital cinema, AV, medical or signage. It is likely that many formats will coexist as suitable for different media, and there will be a constant requirement for multistandard equipment, as there is with SD & HD now. What facilities to offer Experiments are already being carried out beyond the development laboratory to test operational issues with 4K UHDTV1 and devise practical solutions. It is expected that these experiments will soon be extended to 8K UHDTV2. Whether these tests are carried out in a studio or in an Outside Broadcast set-up, UHD TV test gear is needed to assist with the signal multiplexing, transport and conversion that is needed in these experimental environments.
Similarly any tests looking at interoperability between prototypes and or between items of equipment from different manufacturers will require format conversion, test signal generation and signal analysis.
As with previous video formats, all new video technologies will need tools and test equipment to get them from the drawing board to the field and, wherever possible, the benefit of the accumulated experience of engineers who understand the detail of thesenew technologies ahead of the system designer.

The OmniTek Ultra 4K Tool Box

Ultra 4K Tool Box is the companys fi rst product supporting 4K video. It is designed by video engineers for video engineers and it is designed to allow manufacturers, broadcaster and systems integrators of all types to build, test and commission 4K products and systems by providing multiple options for analysis and image processing of Ultra HDTV and Digital Cinema signals in all current and anticipated 4K video formats up to 4096 x 2160/60p.
The Tool Box is based around the companys new OZ745 video development platform and it offers a wide range of connection formats, together with two USB 2.0 ports for control and a 1G Ethernet port for graphical display in a browser, SNMP control etc. It has 4 bi-directional multirate SDI I/O connections; an additional multi-rate SDI input for Eye and Jitter monitoring; a composite input; an HDMI 1.4a input and output pair; dual 6G-SDI inputs, dual 6G-SDI outputs and Display Port 1.2 in and out connectors for 4K/60Hz I/O.
The Ultra 4K Tool Box can be set up to act as a 4K Analyser or as 4K Image Format Converter or a 4K Generator as required. When operating an analyser, it offers (for any of its inputs) image display, video status monitoring; video timing measurement, and pixel data display (including expanded ANCs). It also offers highly accurate eye and jitter analysis that will enable the source of any signal errors to be rapidly located across the full range of SDI signals from SD to 6G an industry fi rst. When operating as an image converter, it offers up, down & cross conversion across all supported formats, de-interlacing (including full motion-adaptive diagonal processing), 6-axis colour correction (YUV and RGB), user-controlled Pan & Scan, and dynamic Crop & Zoom which in turn allows real-time 4K DVE. When operating as a generator, it supports moving test patterns such as zoneplates and composited images with moving video elements. It can also both play-out and capture uncompressed video and importantly for testing can insert jitter into its SDI video streams, with jitter amplitude, frequency and waveform profi le all under user control.
The Ultra Tool Box also benefi ts from the inclusion of an SFP+ cage which will allow high-speed interconnections such as fi bre and 10G Ethernet to be supported in the future.
Looking ahead
Whatever improvements happen to television in the future, you can confi dently predict that it is going to be faster in one way or another, which in the end means a higher data rate, whether that be single-stream or multi-stream, electrical or optical, packet-based or direct. OmniTek has many years of experience both in developing its own Video Test & Measurement systems and in designing products for other manufacturers. We like to think that OmniTeks exposure to the cutting-edge design requirements of its consultancy clients puts it in an unchallenged position to develop leading edge, high speed video processing systems not just for Ultra Hi-Def but for whatever future video standards are introduced.
www.omnitek.tv

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