Better, Not More Pixels Please…and a Sensible Commercial Model!

In fact, you couldn’t walk far around any of the exhibitor halls without being confronted by a large TV screen showing rich, deep images in the latest and greatest high definition. ‘It’s all here, it’s all do-able and your audiences want it right now’ was very much the (maybe slightly embellished) mantra from the vendor community.

And it’s not just the vendors. There were also kind words for 4k uttered across the speaker circuit, with many broadcasters and studios discussing how they’re already capturing in 4k today, with the renewed attention to image quality ‘ushering in a new age of focus on the craft of cinematography’.

So, what’s not to like? Based on what I’ve seen at IBC this year, there seem to be few that doubt that 4k (or at least 8k!) is now coming. It’s comprehensively moved on from an interesting project around the Olympics to something that’s going to hit our screens sooner rather than later. And therein lies the potential problem…

Beyond the producers and vendors, you don’t have to search too far to spot more than one furrowed brow from those involved in the world of content preparation and distribution. Among the many concerns harboured by the folks ‘technically’ charged with getting UHD on the air is the standards landscape around the first incarnation of 4k – which appears to be leaving some unimpressed – garnering a fear that the consumer experience will be underwhelming. And the questions don’t stop there. What will be the quality impact of showing up-converted assets on UHD screens? Are we set to unleash a new wave of confusion on audiences with UHD after the first rounds of HD Ready, HDTV, 1080i, 1080p? Not to mention the trials and tribulations of working with what are still likely to be very large files in already creaking workflows…

There’s clearly a spectrum of concerns around 4k – ranging all the way from technology to audiences. And for me, it’s potentially the latter which represents the largest challenge. Will audiences become disenfranchised with UHD if the new ‘image quality landscape’ starts to become even more confusing, not ‘incredibly’ better, and at the same time potentially short lived (bearing in mind that the 4k screen you may buy next year could be superseded by an 8k one a couple of years after that)? And even if 4k is a big consumer hit, will the increasingly cash constrained broadcaster have the ability to upgrade multiple parts of its infrastructure estate to 4k, and then 8k?

So, many questions for 4k – which in all fairness is why I think it’s played and will continue to play such a big role both this year and in years to come. To repeat an oft used phrase at IBC this year – ‘what we need are better pixels, not more pixels’. It strikes me that while this is abundantly true, we may also need to seriously think about how we take the consumer on the journey, and figure out a business model that makes UHD work for everybody.

Kris Hardiman, Head of Product Management.