4K is redefining how we see and utilize video – Interview

4K is set to redefine how we see and utilize video. What does this have to do with Huawei? It’s going to take pipes as broad as the Pacific Ocean to move all those pixels. This is what brought Sony, 4K’s most prominent champion, to our Ultra-broadband Forum (UBBF), where its Head of AV Media for Sony Professional Europe, Olivier Bovis, spared some time for WinWin.

 

Interview by Jason Patterson & Linda Xu. Video interview available on the Huawei website

 

4K is set to redefine how we see and utilize video. What does this have to do with Huawei? It’s going to take pipes as broad as the Pacific Ocean to move all those pixels. This is what brought Sony, 4K’s most prominent champion, to our Ultra-broadband Forum (UBBF), where its Head of AV Media for Sony Professional Europe, Olivier Bovis, spared some time for WinWin.

 

WinWin: How is Sony driving ultra-broadband to facilitate 4K development?

 

Olivier Bovis: Well the contribution of Sony probably starts ahead of the game, focusing on the content creation aspect. Before there’s 4K, you need to have acquired 4K content. In this there are probably three areas. The first is more at a core technology level. We’ve been developing specific codecs, for example, for production and capture of 4K, making it easy to edit. The second part is the products, and it started quite some time ago with us introducing 4K projectors, for example, in cinemas, in the first place. There are about 17,000 of them deployed worldwide now for people who want to see a 4K cinema experience. And after that we focused on the acquisition aspects, primarily camera development aimed first at cinema production. And then live production for sports applications. And nowadays we’re now covering pretty much every aspect of production of any genre. The third part is supporting the production of 4K at the beginning stage. And you’ve heard all about, I’m sure, the FIFA World Cup where three matches were recorded in 4K. But these are only some of the examples. We did the first 4K rugby transmission trial a few years ago now. We then shot music concerts with Muse or Peter Gabriel, fashion shoots, operas. So there’s quite a lot of production work that has been carried out, with our support, in order to learn more about 4K and really help the industry embrace it, if you will, and see the value behind it.

 

And finally, the fourth element goes back into the aspect of transmitting 4K. And I think the first action came from our colleagues at Sony Pictures Entertainment where they have the largest 4K catalog available to date, which they are providing through Video Unlimited in the United States, Wasu in China, or Netflix in the countries where this is applicable. So, we focus primarily on contributing core technology, product development, sponsoring of and support of production work, and now all the way to helping the distribution of content itself.

 

WinWin: Sony has been 4K’s most prominent champion. What’s driving this need to raise the resolution stakes?

 

Bovis: I think it’s not a resolution issue. But it’s a very good question to ask because everyone believes that 4K is simply more resolution. For 4K, it’s not a resolution quest. Actually, it’s about how, in a world dominated by content, which you can get anywhere nowadays, how do you make the content more valuable for the people who create the content and for the audience? You can get high-definition on a mobile phone these days, so, how to you get the experience and the “wow” factor when somebody goes back home and switches on their 55- or 65-inch TV, or even bigger in some instances in the near future. It’s part of that quest. And it’s about making sure that the audience can really enjoy the entertainment that 4K can bring.

 

On the other side, for the people who create the content, it’s about monetizing their assets in the best possible way. Some people, in our current customer base, do shoot 4K to transmit 4K right now. And some people shoot 4K simply to have it in their back pocket, because they know that it is actually a valuable asset for the future. That it can resell and maximise monetization for it.

 

WinWin: What can 4K do that regular high-definition TV can’t? What problems does it solve?

 

Bovis: First of all, as I said, I think the first that it can do that high-definition can partially do, but it could go deeper, is creating more of a “wow” factor. Again I try to relate this to something people will have experienced. When the first flat panels came along, the average size was close to 40 inches. Nowadays the average size of screen that people purchase is 55. Probably in five years time it will be 65. And one day the limit will be the size of the wall in the house, yes? But, every single time it’s about trying to enjoy the experience, so it goes back to my earlier point. But, the second thing that 4K does is something that some people do not see because they, again, and I completely understand that, they just perceive resolution improvement, is that you can actually use 4K for high-definition production. One, as I said, to give a second life for your content for future, as I discussed earlier. But the second point is that you can use, technology-wise, the fact that the resolution is much higher. So, you can crop a portion of the picture with high-definition in the middle and it allows you to create content either cheaper for HD output, or utilize a different type of mechanism for the workflow for creating this content. A simple example of that, we have a system called “stitching” which allows us to put two 4K cameras, completely fixed, on a plate. These cameras will create an extended double-4K image. And then there is a computer system behind it that allows you to navigate within this picture virtually to create a virtual high-definition camera. And not just one but several at the same time. And we use this technology, for instance, in stadium application. So, you go into a big stadium and you put two cameras completely flat and you shoot the entire stadium and you record with those two cameras if you want to do anything later with it. You can imagine that you can actually navigate through those pictures without having the need for numerous cameras around the stadium that you would normally have. So you have saved some of the cost elements. And for the production, you can imagine that one day in the future where the end user on his tablet will be able to navigate what he wants to see where the camera usually points in the direction of the content. That one of the values of 4K as well.

 

WinWin: Sony has already created a 4K download service where the speeds can reach up to 100Mbps. How long will it take to download a TV show or feature film at this speed?

 

Bovis: It will depend obviously on the connection that you’ve got at home. Initially when they launched the service they really wanted to give a top-quality experience because 4K was just about the wow factor. That was the premise of 4K. Content was growing but it was still quite immature at that stage. So they really wanted to give the absolute best quality services, so we needed about 100Mbps.

 

To answer your question technically, if you have a 10Mbps bandwidth, it will give you about nine hours of download time for a two-hour movie. However, to try and anticipate this, they created some kind of clever mechanism where a server was going to download the data as soon as it was available, only in the background without you even asking so if you want to watch this content it’s already there. That’s quite interesting. On a more macro level, I think you know the evolution of connected technology with HEVC or also 4K becoming more generally prominent overall, there will of course be opportunities to reduce the bandwidth and optimize the output. And with ultra-broadband becoming more and more prominent as well, everything will balance out. The speed of download will increase drastically and the time required for it will decrease. Again, if you maintain this kind of intelligence around the devices which allows them to download the things that you like also in advance you probably won’t even notice that it has been downloaded. So, I think it’s a combination of everything.

 

WinWin: How was the feedback for your FIFA World Cup 2014 coverage? Are there other success stories you can share with us in terms of your 4K applications?

 

Bovis: The feedback for the World Cup has been fantastic. It’s been broadcast into cinemas in some countries. As I said earlier, we started the journey with cinema and we focus on sports applications because these are really the areas where there’s a lot of attention from the audience who like seeing football and so on in really great quality. So, it’s a really “wow” experience. But then we moved into, let’s say, other areas of entertainment such as concerts, including those for Peter Gabriel, for example, some of those. We went to work in an opera environment. We worked with the Vatican, for example, to show the Papal Sanctification. So it goes really in every place. Fashion shooting, I think I mentioned. So, we’ve done a lot of these. So we cover a very large range of applications and every single time, it gives you the opportunity to one bring that content in other platforms than just the TV, like the cinema for example. And, once again, try to give it a second life in terms of monetization. You know, the Papal Sanctification is an interesting one. It was broadcast in 4K and people could see and enjoy the quality of the emotional response attached. I remember seeing a picture of this where the Pope was grabbing a kid’s face who was actually crying. The emotion you get out of it at that resolution… I don’t know, it creates something really special. But actually for the Vatican TV it’s about creating an asset of something that is of an historical nature and keep it to the best of its quality. So once again, for future generations to come they will have something here that can be really utilized as needed and yet not compromising on it.

 

WinWin: Right now, consumer demand for 4K video is still modest. What do you think will be the killer application that will drive demand and what are the bottlenecks that we need to address to encourage development?

 

Bovis: I think, to be fair, it’s not new. We had the same situation when high-definition came along on the market now many years ago. It always takes some time, and it’s simply a matter of having enough content so that people feel like they have a lot of choice when paying for the service. That’s why we focus so much on the content creation aspect of it. Once the content is available, people start to see the value of this content and then they are probably ready to accelerate. The price of the device, these days, I don’t think is such an issue. And we can see that actually in TV sales. And China is probably one of the leading examples of how 4K TV is growing. But if I relate to Europe, in the second quarter of this year, we sold more 4K TVs than in 2013 alone. So, we’re really starting to see ramping up of acceleration. The thing that will really help it is ultimately the availability of 4K service in the home by means of broadband delivery, as we discussed. The Video Unlimited service for us was available in the United States first. Netflix has just launched in France, last week. Once the content becomes reachable in your house and you have the pipe to bring it along to the TV, it will come up. But, it’s a natural evolution. It’s no different to HD, apart from I would say probably now if you compare that cycle it’s actually going faster now than it was going for high definition, which is interesting to notice. So if we meet again in one year, I will tell you that it’s continuing to takeoff faster than high definition hopefully.

 

WinWin: Ten years from now, when 4K video will be ubiquitous, how will the visual experience be fundamentally different today?

 

Bovis: That’s a good question. You’ve asked me to read into the crystal ball. One thing for sure is that there will always be requirements for more “wow” factor for the audience. God knows what the TV of tomorrow will be. Maybe it will be the entire wall broadcasting the image. Maybe you will just have to scroll down a rolling device to get the entire wall feeding in beautiful images. So I think it’s difficult to predict, but one thing for sure is that more content will come up and this content will have to fight to find space in front of the eyes of the audience. You know, because that is one of the key challenges today. There is content everywhere. How much of your time do you dedicate? Therefore, what do you want to watch? So, consumers will continue to search for more content with more wow factor out of what is produced. And, maybe 8K, maybe again more resolution. Maybe further immersive technologies will come into place. But one thing for sure, if I’m looking into the context of ultra-broadband, you certainly need more pipe to bring more of this data into the home. That is for sure.