Cedia 2024 Panel Highlights 8K Benefits
At the 2024 Cedia Expo, the 8K Association organized a panel session on the ‘Smart Stage’ that looked at “8K Content & How it Can Influence the Viewing Experience”.
Juan Reyes, Director of Operations from the Association, was the moderator and he started by highlighting the work that has gone on to build an 8K ecosystem from capture to display and to allow consumers to get “8K Ready”.
Speakers were
- Bob Gorelick – an award winning cinematographer and cameraman from the Society of Camera Operators (The Dark Knight, Pulp Fiction, Stranger Things etc)
- Elibron Khoshabeh – VP of sales for BZB Gear (switchers, extenders, decoders)
- Ravi Velhal – Director, Global Content Strategy at Intel (Intel’s 8K activities)
Gorelick introduced himself as having worked on many project since the 1980s. Khoshabeh said that BZB Gear works on commercial and consumer distribution and processing. Velhal has been involved with 8K since 2008 and (as we have reported) been involved in 8K development especially around the Olympics. Intel would like to see more companies to join in the process of developing 8K and is happy to evangelize for 8K.
The Speakers
Khoshabeh said that his firm is focussed on making equipment for transporting the content from creators but also from gaming consoles. He wants to be able to support 8K over cable or fiber and allow display on single or multiple displays. The firm also plans to introduce 8K in its broadcast PTZ cameras in 2025. It wants to help dealers and installers to equip their customers with the right infrastucture.
Using DisplayStream Compression (DSC) BZB Gear can send 8K over HDBaseT 3 up to 100M over copper and uncompressed 8K60P content over fiber with its matrix switchers. By the end of the year it wants to have an 8K 16 x 16 switcher for residential or commercial use. It can be used to capture content from cameras and distribute to control panels or large LED displays.
Intel Has a Long History in Media Format Standardization
Velhal highlighted the long history by Intel of developing media formats and initiatives. It has moved from analogue and SD to HD, 4K and now 8K. As a silicon provider, it likes to look at all the elements needed to go from ‘glass to glass’ including encoding and decoding. Intel has been publicly showing 8K since 2016. Japan has two channels of 8K already and Intel has worked with NHK on the 2020 Olympics, but did much more for the Paris Olympics (see our coverage here and here – ed.). VVC is a key technology to bring bitrates to a practical level for consumers.
Later in the talk, Velhal amplified his comments on VVC explaining that for the Tokyo Olympics Intel used the HEVC codec and to achieve the right quality (his mantra is always, more, faster better pixels) of video and audio, the bitrate used was from 80 to 100Mbps. The content comes from the camera at 40 Gbps and this is compressed in real-time in less than a second.
80-100 Mbps mandates a consumer internet connection of around 500Mbps to 1Gbps for smooth viewing. Using VVC while maintaining the quality of the 300Mbps mezzanine quality, with developers such as Spin Digital, the bitrate was cut to 40-60Mbps in Paris. That means you can watch 8K sports with around 250Mbps of home connectivity.
The VVC codec used for the Paris streams exploits scene-based encoding parameters to optimise the use of bandwidth. Using Intel processor extensions, many scenes could be encoded at 5-20Mbps, but the quoted range is 40-60Mbps. 319 hours of Olympic content was captured creating 8 petabytes of data. This data was compressed by a factor of 1500:1 while maintaining broadcast quality. Viewers need to be able to see the full benefits of the 8K experience to understand why it is desirable, so quality had to be maintained.
The Cinematographer’s View
Gorelick looked at the content creator’s point of view. He has moved from 2K to 4K to 6K and now to 8K and at each stage the tools to do this have got better and better. His aim is always to provide the best possible quality of image and content that he can. He is very excited about the possibilities with 8K.
At present, he continued, the content is mainly shot still with 4K cameras but 8K cameras are ‘on a short horizon’. Every generation of technology has provided a broader palette of options, from lighting and latitude to color density and with less noise.
Game Consoles are Starting to Support 8K
BZB Gear said that media players and games consoles are starting to provide 8K content with streaming content providers aiming to supply 8K and you want to be able to put that content around the home. You also need good control systems to automate the distribution. HDMI 2.1 is established and 8K projectors are available as well as flat panel sets. Processors are needed to match the right content to the right displays and also downscale to match lower than 8K displays.
There is an increasing range of 8K content available and there is a big interest in distributing 8K for VR headsets. Further, the cost of 8K-enabled devices is not that much more than 4K, unlike the past when trading up meant spending a lot more. By putting in 8K infrastructure you are future proofing for the up coming 8K products. In medical applications, the resolution is critical – you really need the highest possible quality and refresh rates.
Sports are the ‘Holy Grail’
Velhal reinforced the importance of 8K for medical use, but he sees sports as ‘the Holy Grail’ for 8K as that is where consumers are happy to spend money. Intel has file-based solutions for 8K post production but even if you are not delivering in 8K, 2K and 4K content that is derived from 8K capture is much better looking. There are more and more 8K-capable cameras such as the Canon R5 or Sony Alpha series. Once you experience 8K for sport, you don’t want to go back.
Gorelick said that the 8K content is much more immersive than lower resolutions and really ‘draws in the audience’. It leaves the viewer with a more lasting impression of the content and that is great for creators.
Khoshabeh agreed with this point and highlighted that for integrators and dealers it is not a difficult step to make to go from 4K to 8K. There is nothing to worry about.
Velhal thanked the Association for its work in promoting 8K and Reyes thanked the panelists and invited questions at the 8K Association booth.
You can view the panel here.
