Taiwan PTS Steps into 8K with NHK Assistance
Recently we heard about a great 8K project in Taiwan that was presented as a premiere at a public projection event. We found out that the program, a documentary on the historic Alishan Forest steam railway that was made as a co-production between the Public Television Service, Taiwan and NHK of Japan.
We followed up the story and were able to interview Jessie Shih, the Senior Producer in PTS Taiwan that created the documentary and the event.
Shih explained that the railway has an important place in the history of Taiwan and that the line, rated as one of the most beautiful forest lines in the world, had been renovated along with one of the original steam engines. She told us that one of the reasons that 8K was chosen for the project was that there was a desire to create a really high quality asset and ‘digital twin’ of the railway. Taiwan wants to preserve the details of many of its traditional cultural assets. (NHK of Japan has also done work in this area.)
NHK Helped with Technology
However, PTS did not have experience with 8K production so reached out to NHK which was extremely helpful and eventually became a co-producer. Two cameras were used, both supplied by NHK. The ‘A’ camera was a Red Raptor while the other was a Nikon Z9, an older model, The Nikon has now been replaced with a new Sony Burano camera. NHK provided staff including the Director of Photography (DOP). Matsushita-san and the female director, Endo-san. PTS technicialns operated the Red camera, but the Nikon was often hand held and the greater experience of the NHK team was important, so they took the lead.
8K Needs a Different Approach
Shih told us that she is a great fan of Hollywood productions with great effects and fast cuts, but she quickly learned from NHK that 8K needs a different approach. As Intel recently said, with 8K it’s often better to let the viewer zoom for themselves! The sound recording was done in 22.2 audio with two technicians from NHK and one from PTS, with NHK setting the audio agenda. NHK also led on the music. PTS is an award winner for audio technology, but NHK was very keen to take the lead on the sound.
The content was also captured in 8K with RAW files, and with large amounts of content being captured, storage quickly became an issue. PTS had prepared 50TB of storage for the project, but eventually, there was 61TB. As Shih pointed out – when you are 2,000M up a mountain, the logistics of adding more storage can be challenging! Color grading was done and a rough cut was made every night with back-ups taking until midnight. It was two weeks ‘almost without sleep’, Shih explained.
PTS has its own team using drones for aerial shots and they were able to produce the extremely steady, accurate and controlled shots that NHK was looking for.
Post Production
Post production was done on an Apple M2 Pro-based system which was bought by PTS for the production. The content was encoded in HEVC with HLG for the HDR system. For the public presentation, a regrade was made to Rec. 709 with SDR as it was expected that there would be challenges in the projection system to get good HDR. A Delta/ Digital Projection Insight Laser 8K Gen II 8K projector was hired for the presentation in Taipei. This has an output of 37,000 ANSI lumens.
A second 25 minute version of the documentary was made that was optimized for the higher specification immersive theatre in the Taipei Science Education Museum. This had more of the ‘Hollywood effects’ to make for a very immersive experience. As separate color grade was made to get the best effect.
Looking Ahead
Looking ahead, Shih told us that she is planning to do more work on immersive and XR experiences exploiting 8K. There is a real thirst in these location-based entertainment (LBE) places for the highest quality content and budgets have more room than for broadcast at the moment. One project that she is working on is a Taiwan/Singapore/UK collaboration to document the Nano World.
