Ultra HD Forum

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Logo from 2023

Ultra HD Forum is an organization whose goal is to help solve the real world hurdles in deploying Ultra HD video and thus to help promote UHD deployment.[1] The Ultra HD Forum will help navigate amongst the standards related to high dynamic range (HDR), high frame rate (HFR), next generation audio (NGA), and wide color gamut (WCG).[1] The Ultra HD Forum is an industry organisation that is complementary to the UHD Alliance (that maintains consumer-facing logos), covering different aspects of the UHD ecosystem.[2]

History

On July 21, 2015, the Ultra HD Forum announced that they had over 20 member companies after incorporating as a US-based non-profit a month earlier.[3]

On April 18, 2016, the Ultra HD Forum announced industry guidelines for UHD Phase A content.[4][5][6][7] The Ultra HD Forum also announced that it had increased to 46 member companies.[4]

On January 5, 2017, the Ultra HD Forum announced that their guidelines had been updated to version 1.2 (including things like immersive audio, BT.2100, etc.) and that additional companies have joined which includes Google.[8]

On September 14, 2017 the guidelines were updated to version 1.4 (including new definitions of PQ10 and HDR10, a matrix receiver/decoder capability combinations, the receiver/decoders combinations to render different formats, statistical methods of deriving CLL values, "graphics white" level for HLG as recommended by BBC and NHK, etc.) [7]

UHD Phase A

UHD Phase A covers broadcasting services to be launched by end of 2016 or early 2017. The guidelines for UHD Phase A are:[7]

UHD Phase A consumer devices should be able to decode the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) Main 10 profile Level 5.1 and process Hybrid log–gamma (HLG10) or Perceptual Quantizer (PQ10)/HDR10 content using Rec. 2020 color primaries. The guidelines consider Rec. 2100 1080p content with Wide Color Gamut (BT.2020) and High Dynamic Range as Ultra HD service.[7]

The guidelines also document live and pre-recorded production, as well as the combination of HDR and SDR video content and conversion between BT.709 and BT.2020 color spaces and different HDR metadata formats. Broadcasters are advised to provide backward compatibility by using HLG10 with BT.2020 color space, or simulcasting PQ10 or HDR10 streams (for example, using Scalable HEVC).[7]

UHD Phase B

An April 7, 2018 Ultra HD Forum published UHD Guidelines for phase B.[9] Technologies that have been included in UHD Phase B, which targets UHD services launching in 2018-2020, include:[6]

  • Next Generation audio codecs supporting multiple audio objects (Dolby AC-4, DTS:X, MPEG-H 3D Audio);
  • Scalable Video Coding to encode spatial (resolutions 1080p and 2160p), temporal (different frame rates), color gamut (BT.709 and BT.2020), and dynamic range (SDR and HDR) differences to provide backward-compatible video signal within a single program stream;
  • Up to 12 bit color depth;
  • High frame rates greater than 50/60 fps;
  • UHD 8K resolution;
  • Dynamic HDR metadata for per-scene coding (SMPTE ST 2094 Dynamic Metadata for Color Volume Transform):[10][11]
  • ICtCp color encoding;
  • Color Remapping Information (CRI).

Founding/charter members

Charter members

Contributor members

Associate members

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Ultra HD Forum Gains Momentum, Will Host MasterClass at IBC2015". Yahoo! Finance. 2015-07-21. Retrieved 2016-04-18.
  2. ^ "NAB 2016: UHD Forum: We're 'Complimentary' [sic] to UHD Alliance". Broadcasting & Cable. 2016-04-18. Retrieved 2016-04-18.
  3. ^ "Ultra HD Forum Gains Momentum, Will Host MasterClass at IBC2015". Ultra HD Forum. 2015-07-21. Retrieved 2016-04-18.
  4. ^ a b "Ultra HD Forum Releases First Industry Guidelines for Deploying End-to-End Live & Pre-Recorded UHD Services in 2016". Business Wire. 2016-04-18. Retrieved 2016-04-18.
  5. ^ Laura Hamilton (2016-04-19). "4K on the Move: UHD News from NAB in Las Vegas". Advantage Business Media. Retrieved 2016-04-20.
  6. ^ a b "Phase A guidelines, revision 1.2". Ultra HD Forum. 2016-12-06. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Guidelines Ultra HD Forum". Ultra HD Forum. 2018-04-06. Retrieved 2018-04-24.
  8. ^ "Building on successful 2016 UHD launches, Ultra HD Forum Releases updated deployment guidelines at CES 2017". Ultra HD Forum. 2017-01-05. Retrieved 2017-01-23.
  9. ^ "Ultra HD Forum Releases UHD Phase B Guidelines at NAB 2018". BusinessWire. 2018-04-07. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
  10. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-01-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. ^ "Philips HDR technology" (PDF). Philips. Retrieved 2017-01-10.

External links