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S
ony’s recent release of multi-
codec cameras (the F5 and
F55) is a reminder that there
is no such thing as the ideal
codec. Not only do the cameras sup-
port RAW and existing codecs, but
Sony introduced XAVC codec to give
additional capability and 4K com-
pressed recording.
The choice the Director of
Photography (DoP) uses ultimately de-
pends on a number of issues particular-
ly the program genre. An observational
documentary is less demanding on final
picture quality than prime-time drama.
In an ideal world one codec would
be used from camera to master con-
trol. That would avoid concatenation of
coding artifacts. However in most ap-
plications it is just not practical. In any Automation can be the element that takes media workflow to the next level of efficiency.
workflow there are touchpoints: Image courtesy Harris.
1) camera files
2) editing files and ingest to the playout server as Camera Data
3) delivery broadcast 25Mb/s 4:2:0 long GOP at 20Mb/s. How much data does a sensor cre-
transmission master This is decoded to HD-SDI for the ate? Consider high frame rate record-
4) playout server files master control switcher and keying, ing at 60fps (progressive). A three chip,
Each of these may use a differ- and then finally encoded to HD at a HD camera (1920 x 1080), with a 16-bit
ent codec. For example: shoot HD at nominal 6Mb/s. variable bit rate in a sample, generates 99.5Mb per frame,
MPEG-2 4:2:2, 50Mb/s, long GOP; edit statistical multiplexer. a stream of 6Gb/s or 746MB of data
and finish at DNxHD 145, deliv- every second.
er as HDCAM-SR HD VTRs A 4K (3840 x 2160) single-chip
The first generation of HD cam- Bayer array generates 133Mb per frame
corders based on videotape had a or 8Gb/s.
choice of DVCPRO100 or HDCAM Few sensors have a bit depth of 16, so
recording. WIth data rates of these numbers can be reduced for the 14
100 and 140 Mb/s respec- bits typical for cameras, but that is still
tively not only was com- 5.2Gb/s for the 3-chip HD camera.
pression a necessity, but
the images were down- Single Sensor Color Imaging
sampled from 1920 to 1440 As DoPs demand super 35mm sized
line lengths to lower band- sensors, more cameras are now using
width. HDCAM-SR allowed the single chip design. A three- chip
recording at 440 or 880Mb/s, and re- camera with super 35mm sized sensor
solved many of the quality issues. would be very large. It would also have
The Sony F55 supports RAW, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Before considering the compression a long back focus, meaning that regu-
SStP and XAVC recoridng. format, what is being compressed? lar cine lenses would be unsuitable. It is
1 broadcastengineering.com
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Format W H Bit-depth Bits per frame Mb/s @ 60fps Some of these recorders now support
encoding direct to DNxHD and ProRes,
HD 444 1920 1080 14 87,091,200 5,225 neatly circumventing the need for cod-
HD 444 10-bit 1920 1080 10 62,208,000 3,732 ing or transcoding during ingest to
HD 422 10-bit 1920 1080 10 41,472,000 2,488 the NLE.
HD 422 8-bit 1920 1080 8 33,177,600 1,990
Different Needs
HD 420 8-bit 1920 1080 8 24,883,20 1,492 Most camera codecs use one of the
ISO/IEC MPEG family: MPEG-2,
RAW HD 1920 1080 29,030,400 1,741 MPEG-4 part 2 or AVC. Some DSLRs
record motion JPEG to ease the inter-
Table 1
nal processing requirements. To meet
more cost-effective to use a single sensor linear. Many digital cinema shoot use the conflicting requirements of produc-
with a color filter array (CFA) for large log coding. tions for different genres, camera man-
sensor designs. However, it is accepted ufacturers are offering more choices.
that the resolution of a single sensor The goal of one codec These include:
with a Bayer CFA, with a good demo- But what of the target of using one • RAW output
saicing algorithm, is around 30 percent codec all the way through to master • uncompressed, RGB or YUV, log and
lower than a 3-chip imager of the same control? linear, 12, 10 or 8 bits
pixel dimensions. To improve the performance of their • compressed
For an HD camera , a single chip NLEs, Apple and Avid developed edit- The next step is the introduction of
camera needs a resolution of around specific codecs: ProRes and DNxHD. high-efficiency video coding (HEVC).
2300 x 1300 to equal a 3-chip 1920 x For good performance the NLE requires Most likely this will first appear as a
1080 imager. It should be noted that the minimum rendering to display clips delivery codec, to stream 4K to home
many single chip cameras have sensors on the timeline. The editor’s work will be viewers and lower resolutions to
exceeding this size, so should achieve slowed for a codec that requires consid- mobile devices.
good resolution in HD. erable rendering. Moore’s Law will fix Looking at all this, it looks like a
The single chip camera multi-codec camera is going
can ease the issues of mov- to add choices to support dif-
ing data to the post house. ferent workflows. One camera
If the raw data from the can create large files for grad-
chip is recorded, rather ing, or small files for a straight-
than the demosaiced RGB though edit. One camera can
or YUV signals, then there be used for different produc-
can be considerable saving tion genres. If a camera has
in data. Table 1 shows some an uncompressed output,
numbers for a 14-bit sensor HD-SDI or HDMI, then after-
shooting 60P. A three sen- market field recorders achieve
sor design outputs 5.2Gb/s much the same aim.
against only 1.74 Gb/s from Although one codec from
a RAW sensor. Note the acquisition to the air server
RAW signal is a lower bit The ARRI Alexa can encode to DNxHD and ProRes with suitable works for news and docu-
options installed.
rate than a sub-sampled mentaries, but for other genres
4:2:2 8-bit signal. that require a higher picture
In most cameras, the sub-sampled the rendering issues over time, but 4K quality, then transcoding becomes
YUV signal is truncated to 10 or 8 bits waits in the wings with four times the a necessity.
then encoded using one of the MPEG data rate. Edit workstations always seem A director has all the choices avail-
standards at 1080i 25/29.96 or 720P to be short on power! able, but choosing the right one needs
50/59.94. I-frame or long GOP. For ex- Adding the edit codec immediately a joint decision from the DoP, digital
ample AVC-I at 100Mb/s and XDCAM introduced two transcodes on the input intermediate technician, colorist and
at 50Mb/s. Such data rates are similar to and output of post. editor to achieve the optimum picture
existing SD rates, so easily handled by One route popular with camera man- quality within the many constraints of
networks and storage. Converting from ufacturers is to include onboard record- production, not least being cost. BE
linear to log sampling helps, saving two ing in a compressed, 8-bit. format, and
bits for a given dynamic range, with 12- supply an uncompressed output for one
bit log considered equivalent to 10-bit of the many after-market recorders.
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Codec evolution:
Panasonic’s AVC-Ultra is the
latest iteration of AVC. BY STEVE MULLEN
T
here is no doubt that we are in
the midst of a rapid evolution
of codec design. Traditional
codecs, some might call them
legacy codecs, are gaining evolutionary
improvements. These codecs include
HDCAM, AVC-Intra 50 and 100 as well
as AVCHD 1.0. This article will, after a
brief overview of AVC-Intra and ProRes
422 as well as the new sensors that drive
codec evolution, focus on AVC-Ultra. indicates that an alpha value can be car- export, the original file is used as a source
There are five flavors of ProRes 422 in ried along with each pixel. When camer- of all image data.
comparison to uncompressed video. as record ProRes 4444, the fourth value AVCHD has evolved to version 2,
(See Table 1.) is not present, making the data stream which has two new features: the abil-
Although ProRes 422 codecs are 10- simply 4:4:4. ity to record at frame rates of 50fps or
bit codecs, they may carry 12-bit data The advantage of the ProRes proxy 60fps, and to record at 28Mb/s at these
values. However, they vary in terms codec is best experienced in Final Cut higher frame rates. To date, the AVCHD
of color space and compression ratios. X. When you import any type of data, specification has not been enhanced to
ProRes 4444, however, has additional you have the option of automatically, in support Quad HD or 4K2K images. For
functionality. The first three 4’s indicate the background, creating a ProRes 422 this reason, cameras, such as the JVC
that the codec is capable of carrying ei- or proxy version of the original file. You HMQ10, record Quad HD in generic
ther RGB values or luminance plus two then edit the 4:2:2 10-/12-bit proxy video, AVC/H.264. Using Level 5.1 or Level
chroma components, with all three val- which allows real-time editing of most 5.2, 24fps or 60fps respectively can
ues present for each pixel. The fourth 4 any format on almost any Mac. During be recorded.
Panasonic’s AVC-Intra is avail-
able in two formats: a 50Mb/s codec
and a 100Mb/s codec. AVC-Intra re-
3000
4:4:4 formats 4:2:2 formats cords a complete range of frame rates.
2237 At 1920 x 1080: 23.98p, 25p, 29.97p,
2250 50i and 59.94i. At 1280 x 720: 23.98p,
25p, 29.97p, 50p and 59.94p. The
characteristics of each of these two fla-
Mb/s
1500 1326
vors differ. (See Table 2.)
750
330 Codec parameters
220 147 102 45 All codecs have a similar set of param-
0
Uncompressed ProRes Uncompressed ProRes ProRes ProRes ProRes
eters. These include image resolution,
12-bit 4:4:4 4444 10-bit 4:2:2 422 (HQ) 422 422 (LT) 422 (Proxy) image composition (single frame versus
[no alpha]
two fields), de-Bayered versus raw (pro-
Data rates
Uncompressed and Apple ProRes at 1920 x 1080, 29.97fps gressive-only), image frame rate or field
rate, color sampling (4:4:4, 4:2:2, 4:1:1 or
4:2:0), RGB versus YCrCb, compression
Table 1: ProRes 422 formats ratio, and bit depth.
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frame is fixed
Figure 2. Legacy video sensor and processing
CAVLC entropy coding only
Vmax As a camera’s bit depth increases, the rectly on a monitor, a nonlinear gamma
6
8 smoothness of the camera’s gray scale must be applied to the signal from the
4
7 increases. (See Figure 1.) (Banding is A/D. In the HD world, it’s called Rec. 709.
5 2 reduced.) Therefore, the A/D and post (Red curve.) This curve provides the
6
3
A/D processing traditionally has more video image that we are used to look-
4 5 bits than necessary to capture the sen- ing at. When video will be transferred
3
4 sor’s dynamic range — thereby realiz- to film, a lower contrast video image is
2 ing the sensor’s potential. required. (Blue curve.) The “X” marks
3
2 1 Both ProRes 4444 and AVC-Ultra can the point where the filmic curve yields
2 provide 12-bit sample depth. Alternately, a brighter mid-tone image that reduces
1
1 1 data can be converted to log values. In this apparent contrast.
Vmin
1-bit 2-bit 3-bit
case, 16 bits can be represented by only 10 Consider a contemporary sensor.
bits. Thus, when looking at bit depth spec- (See Figure 3.) The illumination range
Figure 1. Grayscale smoothness as a
ifications, it’s important to know whether remains the same at 18 stops. The
function of bit depth it’s log data. potential sensor range, however, has
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720p
720p 720p
1080p 720p
Frame size 1080p 1080p
2K 1080p
1080i 1080i
4K
10- to 12-bit 10-bit pixel
10-bit pixel 8-bit pixel depth
Bit depth pixel depth at depth at
depth at 4:2:2 at 4:2:0
4:4:4 4:2:2
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B
roadcast contribution appli-
cations like newsgathering,
event broadcasting or content
exchange currently benefit
from the large availability of high-speed
networks. These high-bandwidth links
open the way to a higher video qual-
ity and distinctive operational require-
ments such as lower end-to-end delays
or the ability to store the content for fur-
ther edition.
Because a lighter video compres-
sion is needed, the complexity of
common long-GOP codecs can be
avoided, and simpler methods like
intra-only compression can be consid-
ered. These techniques compress pic- Engineers have a variety of video coding tools available. Choosing a “best fit” involves
tures independently, which is highly making choices between multiple performance factors.
desirable when low latency and error
robustness are of major importance. redundancies, predicted pixels are Another problem inherent to long-
Several intra-only codecs, like JPEG found in already decoded adjacent pic- GOP compression relates to video qual-
2000 or MPEG-2 Intra, are today avail- tures, while spatial prediction is built ity that varies significantly from picture
able, but they might not meet all broad- with pixels found in the same picture. to picture. For example, Figure 1 depicts
casters’ needs. Long-GOP compression makes use of the PSNR along the sequence ParkJoy
AVC-I, which is simply an intra-only both methods, and intra-only compres- when encoding it in long-GOP and in
version of H.264/AVC compression, of- sion is restricted to spatial prediction. intra-only. While the quality of the long-
fers a significant bit-rate reduction over Long-GOP approaches are more ef- GOP pictures is always higher than the
MPEG-2 Intra, while keeping the same ficient than intra-only compression, but one of their intra-only counterparts, it
advantages in terms of interoperability. they have also distinctive disadvantages: varies considerably. On the other hand,
AVC-I was standardized in 2005, but • Handling picture dependencies may the quality of consecutive intra-only
broadcast contribution products sup- be complex when seeking in a file. coded pictures is much more stable.
porting it were not launched until 2011. This makes editing a long-GOP file a Therefore, intra-only compression
Therefore, it may be seen as a brand new complex task. might be a better choice than long-GOP
technology, and studies have to be per- • Any decoding error might spread from when:
formed to evaluate if they match current- a picture to the following ones and span • Enough bandwidth is available on the
ly available technologies in operational a full GOP. This means that a single network;
use cases. transmission error can affect decod- • Low end-to-end latency is a decisive
ing for several hundred milliseconds of requirement;
Why intra compression? video and, therefore, be very noticeable. • Streams have to be edited; and
Video compression uses spatial and • Encoding and decoding delay might be • The application is sensitive to trans-
temporal redundancies to reduce the bit increased using long-GOP techniques mission errors.
rate needed to transmit or store video compared to intra-only because of com- Several intra-only codecs are cur-
content. When exploiting temporal pression tools complexity. rently available to broadcasters to
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was done by expert viewers on a large artifacts are difficult to notice. However, Conclusion
set of test sequences representative of noise or film-grain looks low-pass fil- The availability of high speed net-
high-definition broadcast contribution tered, and its structure sometimes seems works for contribution applications
content, mostly interlaced. slightly modified. Even so, it wasn’t felt enables broadcasters to use intra-only
The outcome of this evaluation is that this was an important issue. video compression codecs instead of
two codecs are most suitable for high All those defects are less visible as the the more traditional long-GOP for-
bit-rate intra uses — AVC-I and JPEG bit rate is increased. But, while AVC-I mats. This allows them to benefit from
2000. The detail level appears to be picture quality raises uniformly, some distinctive advantages like: low encod-
about the same with both codecs on bit JPEG 2000 products may still exhibit ing and decoding delays; more constant
video quality; easy edit ability when the
content is stored; and lower sensitivity
The outcome of the investigation is that to transmission errors. However, cur-
rently available intra-only video codecs
two codecs are most suitable for high bit- require one to choose between interop-
rate Intra uses — AVC-I and JPEG 2000. erability and coding efficiency.
AVC-I, being just the restriction
of standard H.264/AVC to intra-only
rates ranging from 50Mb/s to 150Mb/s. blurriness artifacts, even at 180Mb/s. coding, avoids making difficult com-
This confirms that the coding efficien- Using available JPEG 2000 contribution promises. It is more efficient than other
cy of AVC-I and JPEG 2000 is close. pairs, a bit rate at which compression is available intra-only codecs, but, more
However, coding artifacts are different. visually lossless on all high-definition importantly, it benefits from the strong
broadcast content was not found. On standardization efforts that permitted
AVC-I and JPEG-2000 the other hand, some encoders appeared H.264/AVC to replace MPEG-2 in many
artifacts visually lossless at 150Mb/s, even when broadcastapplications.
Below 100Mb/s, a problematic defect encoding grainy content like movies. Finally, a subjective study across a
was observed similarly on both codecs: range of products from multiple ven-
Pictures can exhibit an annoying flicker. Bit rates in contribution dors identified specific coding artifacts
This issue is caused by a temporal in- The subjective analysis of an actu- that may occur and confirmed the visu-
stability in the coding decisions, ampli- al AVC-I implementation on various al superiority of AVC-I versus MPEG-2
fied by noise. It seems to appear below broadcast contribution content allows and JPEG 2000, whenmeasured at high
85Mb/s with JPEG 2000 and below us to categorize its usage according to bit rates. BE
75Mb/s with AVC-I. And, it worsens the available transmission bandwidth.
as the bit rate decreases. At 50Mb/s and On page 48, Table 2 presents findings Pierre Larbier is CTO for ATEME.
below, the flicker is extremely problem- on 1080i25 and 720p50 high-definition
atic, and it was felt that the video quality formats.
was too low for high-quality broadcast Because AVC-I does not make use
contribution applications, even when of temporal redundancies, 30Hz con-
the source is downscaled to 1440 x 1080 tent (1080i30 or 720p60) is more dif-
or 960 x 720. ficult to encode than 25Hz material.
Around 100Mb/s, both codecs per- Additionally, to achieve the same per-
form well, even on challenging content. ceived video quality level, bit rates have
Pictures are flicker-free, and coding to be raised by 20 percent.
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T
oday’s broadcasters are look-
ing for the highest image
quality, flexible delivery for-
mats, interoperability and
standardized profiles for interactive
video transport and workflows. They
also have a vested interest in a common
high-end format to archive, preserve
and monetize the avalanche of video
footage generated globally.
This is the story behind the rapid adop-
tion of JPEG 2000 compression in the con-
tribution chain. Standardized broadcast
profiles were adopted in 2010 to match
current industry needs (JPEG 2000 Part
1 Amendment 3 — Profiles for Broadcast
Application — ISO/IEC 15444-1:2004/
Amd3), ensuring this wavelet-based co-
dec’s benchmark position in contribution. When JPEG2000 is used as an intraframe video codec, each frame is treated a single
In parallel, these broadcast profiles unit, making it well suited for production applications.
have also filled the industrywide need
for compression standards to archive compression efficiency, but to give also lossless compression, progressive and
and create mezzanine formats, allowing the user better control and flexibility parsable code streams, error resilience,
transcoding to a variety of media dis- throughout the image processing chain. region of interest (ROI), random access
tribution channels. The ongoing stan- The codec provides unique features that and other features in one integrated al-
dardization process of the Interoperable are not available in any other compres- gorithm. (See Figure 1 on page 10.)
Master Format (IMF) by SMPTE based sion method. In video applications, JPEG 2000 is
on JPEG 2000 profiles brings the adop- used as an intraframe codec, so it close-
tion full-circle. JPEG 2000 under ly matches the production workflow in
The U.S. Library of Congress, the the spotlight which each frame of a video is treated as
French Institut National de l’Audiovisuel JPEG 2000 is based on the discrete a single unit. In Hollywood, its ability to
(INA) and several Hollywood studios wavelet transform (DWT) and uses compress frame by frame has made this
have selected the codec for the long- scalar quantization, context modeling, technology popular for digital interme-
term preservation of a century of audio- arithmetic coding and post-compres- diate coding. If the purpose of compres-
visual contents. sion rate allocation. JPEG 2000 provides sion is the distribution of essence and no
JPEG 2000 is different from other random access (i.e. involving a minimal further editing is expected, long-GOP
video codecs. MPEG and other DCT- decoding) to the block level in each sub- MPEG is typically preferred.
based codecs have been designed to band, thus making it possible to decode
optimize the compression efficiency a region, a low-resolution or a low-qual- Broadcast processes
to deliver video to viewers via a pipe ity image version of the image without JPEG 2000 brings valuable features to
with limited bandwidth. JPEG 2000, having to decode it as a whole. the broadcast process, including ingest,
with its wavelet transform algorithm, JPEG 2000 is a true improvement transcoding, captioning, quality control
brings features not only for image in functionality, providing lossy and or audio track management. Its inherent
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The future
Several initiatives are pushing the
industry beyond today’s HD: NHK
Super Hi-Vision, also called 8K and
UHDTV, the Higher Frame Rates in
Cinema initiative by James Cameron
and Peter Jackson (up to 120fps),
16-bit color depth, and the numerous
manufacturers that are now offering
4K technology.
The need for efficient codecs has
gained significant attraction amongst
the industry. The future of JPEG 2000
is bright as it is an open standard that
requires less power, consumes less
space in hardware implementations
and generally delivers greater scalabil-
ity, flexibility and visual quality than
other codecs. An increasing number of
manufacturers, broadcasters and pro-
ducers are using JPEG 2000 implemen-
tations to adapt today’s industry to these
new challenges. BE
Jean-Baptiste Lorent and François Macé are
product managers at intoPIX.
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T
he line of compression
schemes is stretching out.
Very soon, we could potential-
ly have MPEG-2 through to
HEVC in use in a single program chain.
All this complicates workflows and
calls for careful planning to avoid un-
necessary transcoding.
Do we need all these compression
standards? Well, yes. As picture reso-
lutions increase, the demand for high-
er efficiency compression will only
increase in step. MPEG-2 started out
for standard definition applications but
has been stretched for HD acquisition
and delivery.
MPEG-4 was going to be the answer
to everything, from small phones up to The codec you use will be dictated by the camera you choose, so interoperability will
movie screens. That has only worked by remain an issue.
adding a new Part for a new compres-
sion scheme. Video started out as Part 2 solid–state memory cards, with 128GB compromise comes in. If the camera
- Visual Objects. That didn’t prove much and larger capacity, has eased those has an adequate internal compression
more efficient that MPEG-2, so AVC restrictions. format, then uncompressed or raw
was born — MPEG-4 Part 10. However, Camera vendors will design whatever data can be made available via SDI or
the demands for mobile video and the gets the best pictures to sell their camer- HDMI connectors for users who want
advent of 4K has led to the need for an as. But, that has led to all manner of cod- more of the sensor information. The ex-
even more efficient codec than AVC, ing schemes and compression formats ternal recorder has become a common
and that has come to fruition as HEVC — and there is the matter of contain- sight, especially with single large sensor
or H.265. ers or wrappers. The rise of the single cameras. Many external recorders also
Where does that leave camera design- sensor has added a further choice, raw allow encoding into an edit format like
ers? One benchmark in the specification or coded. DNxHD or ProRes, speeding the ingest
is record time. In the days of tape, shoot- Camera designers have to adopt a process in post.
ers came to expect three or four hours codec format that meets a number of, For the broadcaster, all this choice
of record time for a tape; that’s proba- sometimes conflicting, requirements. gives flexibility at the production stage,
bly one day’s work. Wind forward a few First, it must meet the quality expecta- but does not lead to standardization
years, and writing camera files to mem- tions for the camera, for its price and in the workflow. The edit bay must
ory cards gives a record time somewhere format. Second, it must not be power deal with this plethora of formats, a
between 30 minutes and two hours, all hungry. Third, the data rate must be far step from the days of two primary
depends on how much compression you as low as possible to ease demands on tape formats, the Betacam family and
use. Some cameras have multiple card the camera storage cards. And fourth, the DV family. Even a format like AVC
slots to give longer record times. sometimes a little overlooked, it must be I-frame encoding comes in two flavors:
That’s going to mean a handful of compatible with popular NLEs. Panasonic’s AVC-Intra (and Ultra) plus
cards to manage and offload to backed The low data rate demands indi- Sony’s XAVC. The former is high 422
disk storage each day. I can hear the film cate an efficient codec design, but the profile, level 4.1 and the latter is level
guys thinking “a luxury — we had ten- more recent the compression format, 5.2. So much for interoperability.
minute reels. We had to stop, change the more processing power is needed, The drive to support 4K is one rea-
reels and check the gate before you were immediately conflicting with the low son Sony has adopted 5.2, as lower levels
off again.” power requirement. Hence the popular- only support up to 2K resolution, and
After a period where record times ity of MPEG-2 long after AVC was re- Panasonic have introduced AVC-Ultra
were restricted, the availability of leased. This is where the big engineering to support higher data rates.
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A
t the 2013 NAB Show, the
proliferation of next-gen-
eration MPEG compression
technology, namely HEVC-
compatible (aka, H.265) software and
hardware encoders and decoders, gave
the impression that the technology nec-
essary to move and then display large
data files containing the highest qual-
ity HD (1080p/60) and 4K (3840 x 2160
pixels for delivery or 4096 x 2160 pixels
for production) content was ready to be
deployed. This would clearly improve
the value of bandwidth-constrained
networks. However, a lack of an indus-
try standard, the need for significantly
more processing power to accurately
compress such files and the ongoing As image resolution and video screen size continue to increase and viewers increasingly
move towards the current state-of-the- demand their content on a multiple devices, engineers will need to use a variety of
art (and standardized in January) AVC video coding tools to serve each device or channel.
(H.264) technology to distribute full example, which makes them easier to image quality results. In all cases the
HD 1080p files would seem to make distribute and saves operators in content H.265 decode looked visibly better,
High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) storage costs. even at bit rates as low as 5Mb/s (at the
a far off reality. At the NAB Show, companies such Fraunhofer exhibit booth). Each seem-
This is not to say that it won’t hap- as Elemental Technologies, Ericsson, ingly challenged the other to a compres-
pen, but don’t hold your breath, as most Fraunhofer Institute, Harmonic, sion/image quality contest comparison.
people we spoke to at the show say it’s Media Excel, Motorola, Rovi Corp. and Elemental — which showed the abili-
at least five years off. The benefits to Vanguard Video showed hardware and ty to encode 1080p/60 content to HEVC
multiplatform delivery associated with software solutions (in prototype form) in real time — went so far as to issue
the new HEVC is said to be a 50-per- and side-by-side demonstrations of a highly public “HEVC Throwdown.”
cent improvement in bit-rate efficiency H.265 and H.264 encoding to compare The contest dared competitors and
when compared to the Advanced Video
Coding (AVC) scheme, while maintain-
ing the same image quality or better.
Like H.264 before it, HEVC is the lat-
est version of the MPEG standard. It’s
uses the same idea of recognizing the
difference in motion between frames
and finding near-identical areas with-
in a single frame. With HEVC, these
similarities are subtracted from subse-
quent frames, and whatever is left in
each partial frame is mathematically
transformed to reduce the amount of
data needed to store each frame. This
results in smaller files with nearly the Elemental Technologies hosted a “HEVC Throwdown” at NAB to compare compression
same quality as the 4K original, for results across multiple delivery platforms.
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customers to bring content on a USB the end of the day, the technology has to Ericsson, for the first time ever, has de-
drive and have it encoded in H.265 by be configured in such a way that makes veloped its own compression chip. It’s
Elemental and then see it simultaneous- it practical and cost-effective to use. As a purpose-built, easily programmable
ly streamed live (at 500Kb/s) to a tablet an industry, we’re not there yet.” design that includes all our own algo-
device and at 1080p resolution to a high- rithms that have been developed over
definition television. Participants were Addressing legacy years of lab and real-world testing. The
encouraged to visit other video process- infrastructure Main 10 profile is key to this.”
ing companies at NAB to request the At the show, Ericsson unveiled its Telcos Verizon in the U.S. and TELUS
same demonstration of capabilities. It AVP 4000 encoder platform for the de- in Canada are now experimenting with
wasn’t clear how many participated, but livery of TV services over all networks. the new AVP 4000 to support future TV
it was a small number. The unit is using Ericsson’s in-house platforms with high-quality picture and
“Those that only had DVD sources
weren’t able to attempt the challenge be-
cause we didn’t have input for that, but
those that had USB drives were able to
load onto our server and see the trans-
code process at real-time (say 30fps),
and now they have those transcoded
files for evaluation in their labs,” said
Keith Wymbs, vice president of market-
ing at Elemental. Ericsson’s AVP 4400 encoder employs the company’s new compression chip.
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THE VIDEO CODING HANDBOOK BroadcastEngineering
significant quality gains when compared and decoding — using a Vanguard soft- Coding Experts Group and the ISO/
to legacy HD content similarly upcon- ware encoder/decoder at its 2013 NAB IEC Moving Pictures Experts Group
verted to Ultra HD.” Show booth. The company’s stated goal (MPEG) are working on it. There is now
Fraunhofer HHI showed a new real- was to highlight how the compression a Recommendation ITU-T H.265 being
time video compression H.265/ MPEG- efficiency of HEVC facilitates the de- considered for ratification.] Once a stan-
HEVC engine, in software, that it said livery of high-quality video over band- dard is established, vendors will then
it developed with leading players in width-constrained networks to multiple build products to support it. Satellite-
mobile technology and consumer elec- platforms. One demo focused on a real- and fiber-based contribution should
tronics. At NAB, the research institute’s time HEVC encoder delivering stream- benefit the most in the short term.
exhibit booth included a demonstration ing content to a Google Nexus 10 tablet The consensus is that there’s still a
of HEVC decoding of 4K content at 5 for real-time decoding and playback. lot of improvement being made to the
Mb/s (the lowest with good quality that A second demo showcased real-time MPEG compression platform, so the de-
I saw on the show floor). HEVC HTTP live streaming to an Apple livery of HD, 4K and even higher image
“At Fraunhofer, we are dedicated to iPad. A third featured an IP set-top box quality content is possible to support
develop technologies and standards that decoding HEVC. widespread consumer consumption. It’s
not only solve the issues faced by the in- While the talk of this year’s NAB just a matter of how long it will take.BE
dustry today, but anticipate the needs Show was 4K delivery, the technology
of the future,” said Dr. Thomas Schierl, is not yet ready for real-world deploy-
head of group multimedia communica- ments. There’s too much legacy equip-
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