Ultra HD Forum releases industry guidelines
September 6, 2016
After extensive consultations, the Ultra HD Forum – the global organisation responsible for promoting market adoption of Ultra HD by defining industry best practices – has made the latest version of its industry Guidelines public prior to IBC.
Along with thorough internal reviews of the Guidelines, the following bodies were also consulted for comment: ATSC, CableLabs, CTA, DASH Industry Forum, DECE, DVB, EBU, HDMI Forum, MovieLabs, SCTE/ISBE, SMPTE, UHD Alliance and the Video Services Forum (VSF). The now public version of the Guidelines incorporates all these groups’ input.
The Ultra HD Forum Guidelines Working Group is currently working on future versions of the document, which will include more details on security (such as forensic watermarking), describe support for technologies currently emerging in the marketplace (such as object-based and personalized audio, HFR, and others), and investigate advanced backward compatibility techniques.
“Making our UHD Guidelines public just before IBC 2016 was an important milestone. There are already several products displayed at the show that implement our recommendations,” said Sony’s Don Eklund, Co-Chair of the Ultra HD Forum’s Guidelines Working Group.
The Forum’s Plugfest #2 will be held immediately after IBC, and will be hosted by KPN in Hilversum. The focus will be on HDR including HLG on STBs and TVs. “As a new Forum member, KPN is excited to be hosting Plugfest #2 to get to grips with HDR interoperability,” said Arian Koster, head of new TV Ideas at KPN.
“The Forum has reached 55 members, with newest members such as Brightcove, TNO, KPN and SCTE/ISBE, continuing to show our relevance to all parts of the ecosystem,” said Ericsson’s David Price, Chair of the Forum’s Communications Working Group.
Harmonic’s Thierry Fautier, the Forum’s president, said: “The Forum is proud to host a Masterclass on UHD focused on HDR deployment as part of the IBC conference programme on Monday, September 12, in the RAI’s Emerald Room. We’ll give the first detailed presentation of our Guidelines that are now public.”