High Dynamics
Digital Trends just released an awesome video showing the behind the scenes of a 4K, HDR broadcast for the Pebble Creek Pro AM. It’s insane how much goes into the production of an event to get it on your TV, but how much goes into it, when you’re trying to deliver thousands of homes a 4k, HDR, signal?
We all know what 4K resolution is. It’s about 4x more pixels than a standard 1080p image. This calls for much more powerful sensors, processors, and production rigs, but also more powerful TV. Luckily, in 2018 it seems more and more productions are focusing on 4K to drive their images. But what exactly is HDR? High Dynamic Range basically allows your TV to display a much larger range of colors and contrasts. This can give you true-to-life colors, and it mimics the way the human eye sees brightness. Looking at an HDR image next to a standard one might just seem like HDR is washed out, but when you view it on a capable monitor or TV, then you can see the difference.
All in all, when you put the two together you have an image that is extremely close to what your eye can actually see. We already see it in some Netflix shows and movies, but we don’t see that combo much in production. But that’s starting to change and I can’t wait to view some of my favorite sporting events with this kind of image quality.