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4k_4k 21/05/2015 18:38 Page 1 Ultra HD 4k is very much the next step for broadcasters and pay-TV providers everywhere. But it is about so much more than just more bits, and it is only the first step on the UHD road. Chris Forrester talked to four UHD insiders in London. situation,” admits Trow, “there are very few genuine UHD services being delivered. There are two camps of broadcasters; those who are committed to UHD in the near term and will have to have proprietary solutions for HDR etc, and those who will wait for common solutions and don’t want to deliver until there is a ready and proven differentiation to HD.... it is messy at the moment.” Will there be common standards for UHD and what do they mean for broadcasters and users? “Standards for picture quality and delivery 4K today and tomorrow So, 4K and UHD – some definitions; are they the same thing, does the viewer care? “There is a difference between 4K and UHD,” states Ian Trow, senior director, emerging technologies at Harmonic, “4k is a cinematic format whereas UHD is its TV counterpart.... but from a branding perspective, while 4k strictly refers to cinematic content at 24 frames per second, I totally understand them being clumped together because the industries are genuinely moving together.” “We always say Ultra HD 4k,” says George Mikeladze , CEO and founder of Qarva, “so people can easily understand what we are talking about. For end users it is the same and they are buying ‘4K’ TVs so this is what they know...” “We use both, even though we are not selling to end users, we feel we need to use the same labels as are used by the consumer industry – we also normally add HEVC because that’s the codec we have to deal with in the network distribution,” adds Johan Bolin, VP products and product marketing at Edgeware. “We do differentiate,” comments Godert Burghard, Global VP Marketing, Irdeto, “because 4k is really kind of empty for us, whereas the complexity really is in the UHD and all the components that comprise it – but I’m a consumer as well and it is there as 4K or 4K UHD everywhere.” “I think it is for the industry to come with a unified branding that makes sure consumers are not misled, at the mo Y[