Scene-light conversions: the key to enabling live HDR production

Andrew Cotton, Simon Thompson

Live HDR television production has been slow to gain acceptance because it has often been found to compromise the quality of a standard dynamic range (SDR) BT.709 signal derived from the HDR. Whilst parallel SDR/HDR production workflows are possible, they greatly increase the expense and complexity of a production. This paper describes how “scene-light” format conversions, as opposed to the more usual “display-light” conversions, allow SDR and HDR cameras to be intermixed in an HDR production, and an SDR BT.709 output to be derived from an Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) HDR production workflow without compromising the quality of the SDR BT.709 signal. — The paper illustrates how these technologies have been deployed in four major international events over the summer of 2018; thereby proving their suitability for live HDR production and paving the way for simpler live HDR production workflows in the future.

Published
2018-10
Content type
Original Research
Keywords
HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE, HDR, ITU-R BT.2100, HYBRID LOG-GAMMA, HLG, ITU-R BT.709, CONVERSION, SCENE REFERRED, ICTCP
DOI
10.5594/M001822
ISBN
978-1-61482-960-7