A Statement of Position on Advanced Technologies IP HDR & 4K WHITE PAPER

A Statement of Position on Advanced Technologies IP HDR & 4K WHITE PAPER

A STATEMENT OF POSITION ON ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES Boromy Ung, Chief Product Officer Precious few surviving broadcast technology companies can lay claim to more than 50 years of innovation. Yet in 1966 the company that would become ChyronHego invented the character generator, establishing the standard bearer for graphics creation. That s a significant statement backed by a significant history of leadership. 2

Today, ChyonHego is a software-driven company that is always looking forward, always contemplating the possibilities brought about by the advent of new technologies. We operate in a very fast, forward-looking industry. Our best and brightest sit on standards bodies and participate in industry workgroups. We take on this responsibility so that we can anticipate, and in turn have an impact on, the technology trends that will ultimately affect our customers. At ChyronHego, we pride ourselves as innovators. While our overarching philosophy is that technology must be a means to an end to solve the market problems that adversely affect your business, it is the drive for innovation that will, in the end, advance your business to new levels of success. This is how we approach everything we do within the world live production, and it is how we approach the challenges, and especially and the opportunities, presented by IP, HDR, and 4K. 3

IP ChyronHego is no stranger to IP-based live production solutions and workflows. In fact, it was back in 2012 that ChyronHego and NewTek teamed-up to combine the industry-standard Lyric graphics creation and playout software with NewTek s TriCaster system, using an early version of NewTek s Network Device Interface, better known by its acronym, NDI. Now of course NDI is not the only IP standard vying for the attention of an increasingly IP-interested industry. ChyronHego is also a member of AIMS, a community of leading broadcasters and equipment manufacturers who support the development of a protocol to meet the real world requirements of an IP-centric broadcast facility. ChyronHego is taking an agnostic approach and will support all IP protocols as they become mainstreamed. The very fact that these standards bodies exist is evidence to an evolving interoperability, one that only further accelerates the digital transformation from SDI to IP. Challenges remain, however. One of the issues with IP is the emerging variety of specifications, or more precisely, the sub-standards. ChyronHego works hard to stay up-to-date on the latest standards and all that is within them the complete suite, such as the SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards. To protect our customer s investment and ensure IP interconnectivity, we participate in numerous IP interoperability events to ensure that we re able to integrate with other manufacturers hardware. Moreover, from time to time, we ll partner with other vendors on joint solutions that meet the requirements of common customers, such as the NewTek partnership previously referenced. From ChyronHego s perspective, there are many benefits to migrating to an all-ip live production workflow. IP-based production and distribution promises workflow efficiencies and cost savings when commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components are factored in, and this includes hardware, software and services. IP-based products and workflows also offer a scalable path to HDR and 4K productions. But, just as the transition to digital and HD broadcasting was a gradual process, and is still ongoing in many parts of the world, the migration to IP won t happen overnight. Broadcasters with a large capital investment in legacy equipment 4

will need to take a phased approach that offers the opportunity to maximize their traditional hardware, while reaping at least some of the benefits of IP. Ultimately, IP should be viewed as much more than a mere upgrade to your transport mechanism. ChyronHego is a strong believer in IP as an enabler for new business models, such as virtualization. We see the use of virtualized server technologies, instead of dedicated servers for each individual production task, to be of tremendous benefit to our customers. Through targeted partnerships, including those with IT leaders Cisco and Dell-EMC, we re actively developing and bringing to market the next phase in IP-based broadcast operations. Our VPX virtual production server, for example, is enabling broadcast news operations to run critical content creation and playout applications in a virtualized environment. ChyronHego s stated goal is to create highly efficient, cost-effective, and easy-to-manage production workflows for news, sports, and other programs, all from virtual instances, running on a single server, over IP. 5

HDR HDR was created to enhance the viewing experience by making content appear more color-realistic to the viewer. It follows then that the same strategy must apply to graphics. Indeed, the exceptional visual acuity provided by HDR demands that your graphics content, from full screens to bugs, tickers, lower-thirds, and other layouts, must look as good as your primary video content. There are three versions of HDR being promoted: Dolby Vision This version of HDR provides the best quality based on a Dolby chipset. However, implementation can be more cumbersome and expensive to deploy. While there is some support from broadcasters for distribution, it is not the standard for production. HDR10+ Promoted by the largest television set manufacturers, Sony and Samsung, HDR10+ is an open and free standard. HLG This is the primary focus for ChyronHego. While broadcasters, most notably the BBC and NHK, are promoting it and conducting highprofile trials, it still must be judged on its own merits regardless of the source and support. Why did ChyronHego select HLG? Primarily because of its backwards compatibility with SDR and no specific equipment requirements, other than it needs to be 10-bit, which most of today s equipment is. Our thought process is akin to the transition from SD to HD. The first HD equipment was HD only, but what broadcast facility at the time was 100-percent HD? Today HLG has a well defined, although somewhat limited, footprint. ChyronHego supports HDR in our graphics creation and playout workflows, and HLG is already found within a number of our products and it is planned for new products. Of course, there are no absolutes when navigating the conduits of advanced technologies. ChyronHego has for example, given their rather large installed base, partnered with Sony in implementing support for Slog3 in selected ChyronHego products as part of the SR Live initiative. In fact, we are putting the final touches to our first implementation of HLG Live as this is being written. As part of an SR Live Showcase we will demonstrate how ChyronHego graphics have been integrated into a comprehensive HDR workflow on the Sony booth at NAB 2018. What ChyronHego does look for in the longer term is an HDR standard that s designed in an open fashion, and one that is able to adapt to any technical changes as they arise. Outside of the SR Live domain, we believe HLG2100 is an interesting step in that direction. As such, ChyronHego is continuing to work with our customers to determine which HDR standard best fits the broad requirements of the industry as a whole. 6

4K Yes, 4K is just more pixels at 3840 2160 four times as many pixels as 1920x1080. And yes, there s some debate about 4K HDR vs. 1080p HDR, but if you look at television set sales, then you will see that 4K is here to stay...with adoption growing fast among consumers. From a live production standpoint 4K brings with a number of issues, including the fact that 4K has an agnostic transport mechanism. Quad-link was first quick to market and with a path of least resistance, but it is not very efficient; then came 2SI and compression over 10G and TICO 4:1 single wire compression. So you have choices. As with HDR you want your graphics to complement your primary 4K content, so they should be 4K as well, especially in full screen. What 4K means in the graphics world is simple: creative people need the right authoring tools to create quality content. For example, Lyric is ChyronHego s graphics creation and playout solution. Lyric is resolution independent. LyricX, the latest 64-bit version of Lyric, is optimized for 4K workflows and content creators and broadcasters are actively producing 4K graphics, particularly in sports, on a routine basis. ChyronHego has taken great pains to leverage these advantages with the result being vast improvements in application speed, performance, and customer adoption. When it came to a new technology like 4K, there really was no defined standard for transport. Wellengineered products are designed to implement what is fashionable at the time, but with the ability to swap to new standards when applicable. Remember, not all 4K content is created equally. In some respects, it is very easy to create bad looking 4K content and as such, special attention should be paid to creative 4K workflows and how they integrate within your traditional HD workflow. 4K UHD Lyric Graphic Courtesy of MOOV (http://www.moov.tv/) 7

THE PATH FORWARD IP, HDR, and 4K can be leveraged together or separately. At ChyronHego, our current portfolio consists of different products that support different advanced technologies, but nothing is set in stone. We move with the industry s needs remaining hardware agnostic and software-based so as technologies evolve, we adapt and you can move forward confidently. As content creators and distributors, you ll have to implement some form of these advanced technologies, as viewers will expect it and then eventually demand it. Don t look at these new technologies with regard to transport or resolution or imagery. Look at them with regard to your workflow monitoring signals, creating content, and managing dissimilar content formats. Always remember that if you implement advanced technologies just for the sake of maintaining the same viewership, your business will remain stagnant. While IP benefits the efficiency of your infrastructure and workflow, HDR and 4K benefits your content, which in turn will attract more viewers especially as manufacturers develop and market 4K-HDR televisions at an increasingly rapid pace. And, just as the rapid pace of advancing technologies ignited the imagination of our company founders more than 50-years ago, it s the evolving possibilities and promise of opportunities afforded by IP, HDR, and 4K that have taken hold of us today, and continue to drive ChyronHego s continued pursuit of live production solutions which advance your business. 8

ABOUT CHYRONHEGO ChyronHego, a portfolio company of Vector Capital, is a global leader in products, services, and solutions for the broadcast and sports industries. Specializing in live television, news, and sports production, ChyronHego offers some of the industry's most widely deployed solutions including Lyric, the world's most popular broadcast graphics creation and playout offering; the all-new CAMIO Universe newsroom workflow; and TRACAB Optical Tracking, the global leader in optical sports tracking systems as well as Click Effects, the most proven and versatile stadium broadcast family of graphics products. Headquartered in Melville, New York, ChyronHego also has offices in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. CONTACT SALES AND SCHEDULE A DEMO @ NORTH AMERICA +1.631.845.2000 EMEA +46 8 534 88 300 LATIN AMERICA +1.305.972.1396 ASIA/PACIFIC +65.64071330 JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE WITH CHYRONHEGO @ For more information on ChyronHego, visit www.chyronhego.com. www.chyronhego.com Copyright 2018 ChyronHego Corporation. All rights reserved. ChyronHego is a trademark of ChyronHego Corporation. All other tradenames referenced are service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Specifications subject to change without notice.