roundtable_round 28/11/2013 16:50 Page 2
ROUND TABLE
Watch the whole discussion at www.advanced-television.com
not quite there, there will be new extensions
early next year and I expect fast adoption. For
delivery to the home, the roadblock at the
moment is decoding devices in the home. The
major roll outs to the home will be 2015
onwards,” predicts Murra.
“It’s a typical chicken and egg sit uation.
We are a semiconductor company, we are
building decoders anticipating there will be
content in the market. Our decoders will be in
market in 2014 and then it’s a case of ‘if you
build it they will come’ there will be trial
services in 2014 but I don’t see any launches
before 2015,” says McKenna.
“The client devices are definitely the
longest lead in,” agrees Kramer, “the Olympics
in 2016 is the next major event on the horizon
that can drive those upgrades.”
“There’s a legacy market worldwide of tens
of millions of devices,” notes Murra, “so, it is
not only about deploying a new standard but
maximising the current infrastructure, this is
why we continue investing in MPEG-4 and
even MPEG-2 development.”
“For sure, everything has to be backward
compatible. When you put in a chip set into a
home it has to be able to decode whatever
“Most broadcasters are looking at
HEVC and also 4K services.”
John Nemeth, Elemental
signal is sent to it,” says McKenna.
So what are the prospects for Ultra HD?
“It will be all about the user experience,”
says Murra, “so, we are talking about higher
frame rates – we are talking in the industry
about 50-60 a second as a minimum – and
higher bit depths too; HEVC as a standard has
10 bits for its first release.”
technology and services. Our
offering comprises services,
software and infrastructure
within Information and
Communications Technology
for telecom operators and
other industries. Today 40
percent of the world’s mobile
traffic goes through Ericsson
networks and we support
customers’ networks servicing
more than 2.5 billion
subscriptions.
“I think with HEVC we’ve got a chance to
really step up to the next level of broadcast
and I hope we pick a common playing field
that everyone achieves, that does lift the
standard to a new level,” says McKenna.
“Broadcasters know they have to deliver a
wow factor. Current HD quickly became the
current SD, so we’ve all got to move the game
on,” warns Nemeth.
“Yes, and I think the wow factor lies
particularly in those frame rates as far as
consumer perception is concerned,”
comments Cramer.
“The viewing experience is certainly
different. It is a larger field of vision compared
to HD and that means a greater sense of
presence and this means a different way of
shooting. In tests it has taken a lot to figure
out the best way to capture this for best
effect,” Murra relates.
Is there a resistance from providers who
have spent on HD and 3D to re-equip again?
“I’m certainly not going to say they
shouldn’t,” admits Nemeth, “but in that sense
they are ready for it... I think people are
putting 3D to one side as a bit of a one-off and
the next move to HEVC 4K is really the next
HD, we won’t be calling it Ultra when it comes
out it will be HD and what we do today will be
SD.”
“In countries like India, there’s a move to
digitisation and that’s SD, so UHD is a long
way off. But in Europe broadcasters are
accepting that buying cycles are coming down
from 10 years to six-to-seven; it’s the same as
buying a PC, you know there’s a better one
coming later but at some point you have to get
on the bus,” says McKenna.
Just what bandwidth will be needed to
deliver these services?
“For HD you are talking 5-8MBs,” says
Cramer, “so 4K with twice the compression
should be perhaps 12-15MBs.”
“It is the billion dollar question,”
comments Murra, “HEVC should reduce
bandwidth 50 per cent for an equivalent
service. On LTE we have done demos
delivering streams to mobile at under 1MBs.
For 4K it is difficult to say because we don’t
We are more than 110,000
people working with
customers in more than 180
countries. Founded in 1876,
Ericsson is headquartered in
Stockholm, Sweden.
Rovi
Rovi Corporation is a global
leader in digital
entertainment technology
solutions, powering the
have a reference but the ambition is to deliver
4k over the same bandwidth as today’s
MPEG2 HD. How much capacity also depends
on the content – low frame rate films less,
high action sports much more...”
Is it also a chance for audio to make its
mark?
“As George Lucas says audio is 50 per cent
of the movie experience and if we are
upgrading the video experience we need to
upgrade the audio as well,” declares
McKenna. “Going back to when Nicam came
in, when an audience was shown the same
video movie with mono and then with stereo,
70 per cent said that with stereo, the picture
quality was better even though it was
identical. It is hugely important,” agrees
Nemeth,
What about 8K; should the market wait?
“We’ve seen 8k in demos and it looks
stunning. But normal viewing distance
requires very large screens, which is a
problem in European and Asian homes. I
think any tenable 8K service is years away,
but our research shows that people want a
better quality of experience now,” says Murra.
“And it is about the whole quality of
“At some point you have to get on
the bus.”
Noel McKenna, Entropic
experience; multi-screen, the social
connectivity,” adds Kramer.
“I think it is fair to say most broadcasters
want a new standard like a hole in the head.
For us it is all about giving them a choice.
They don’t have to do 4K but for goodness
sake choose technology that isn’t going to
strand you in a cul-de-sac,” warns Nemeth.
creation, distribution,
discovery and enjoyment of
entertainment at home or on
the go.
We are revolutionising the
entertainment landscape with
an extensive platform of
products and services for
consumer electronics
manufacturers, service
providers, studios, retailers
and portals, advertisers,
mobile carriers and STB
manufacturers.
These customers use our
offerings - guidance
technology, entertainment
data, video production tools,
video delivery platforms,
content protection, content
networking and advertising
technologies, and media
playback solutions - to bring
consumers unique and
exciting entertainment
experiences anywhere.
EUROMEDIA 27