September 21, 2016

Advanced HDR Is A Homerun For Live Summer Sports Broadcasts

Technicolor’s Josh Limor describes how Technicolor is helping cable operators gain early experience with HDR.
  • Major League Baseball games and certain Rio Olympics games were distributed in HDR for first time in the summer of 2016.

According to Josh Limor, Technicolor’s Vice President of Technology and Ecosystems Development, HDR video content is noticeably superior to standard dynamic range and is sure to be popular with consumers. Unfortunately, cable operators face a number of challenges to deliver it effectively and economically. For instance, cable providers must make sure standard dynamic range and high dynamic range assets can co-exist, and be compatible with the various different types of displays.

The good news is that cable operators are engaging in successful trials. “Time Warner Cable worked with us to deliver the first ever baseball game in HDR,” Limor says. “Using Advanced HDR from Technicolor, they were able to capture content in SDR that was up-converted to HDR using Technicolor HDR Intelligent Tone Management technology.” 

NBC Sports announced that they used the same Technicolor technology to do HDR production of sports content from the Rio Olympics this summer.  “Almost all the content generated from the Olympics was captured in standard dynamic range. There was HDR content only of the opening ceremony. NBC leveraged technology from Technicolor to create HDR content that was distributed on Samsung HDR devices through their Xfinity app,” explains Limor.

Learn more about HDR for live broadcasts by reading the complete Q&A with Josh Limor.