At a meeting in Lucca last week the Forum for Advance Media in Europe (FAME), co-chaired by the Digital Interoperability Forum (DIF) and the EBU, concluded that industry stakeholders should work together to rapidly conclude the technical specifications for UHD 1 Phase 2 which will add higher frame rate, wider colour gamut and higher dynamic range to the current 4k proposition, based on more pixels than HD, and offer a clearly perceptible step change in the viewing experience for Europe’s consumers.
Over 65 delegates representing all parts of the UHD delivery chain discussed the state of readiness of production equipment, distribution and consumer technologies. Particular concern received also the content availability and associated security requirements. Presentations from NHK from Japan (NextTV Forum that is focussed on Olympia 2020 in Tokyo) and Kobeta from South Korea highlighted the possibility that Europe could lag behind in introducing UHD TV if significant progress is not made soon.
Sheila Cassells, Executive Director of DIF and Co-Chair of FAME, said: “ FAME’s role is to bring stakeholders together to anticipate interoperability issues and foster the exchange of views, information and knowledge. We are committed to making UHD TV a success in Europe and that depends upon a valuable consumer proposition to justify the investment involved. We want to get to that position quickly so that consumers get the most from the advances in equipment already in retail.”
Hans Hoffmann from the EBU Technology and Innovation who co-chaired the FAME workshop with Stephan Heimbecher from Sky Deutschland said: “Following our discussion in Lucca we now have a clear roadmap of what steps the industry stakeholders, standards bodies, operators and broadcasters must take to fulfil the full promise of UHD TV in Europe. We must also look for closer collaboration and support from the European Commission since there should be an interest that European creative content industries can take advantage of this opportunity.. The window of opportunity is about 12 months – to deliver the technical requirements and start prototype tests. Following that we also need to engage the creatives with the UHD TV technologies, through best practices and training, in order to generate content that is appreciated for its good stories and high technical quality. Last but not least we need to work together with the industry on a clear information policy for the European consumers. FAME has clearly generated a momentum, and we need a consequent implementation of our actions identified.”