Cobalt Digital's Jesse Foster Discusses HDR's 2018 Outlook and Development Plans With Technicolor
The goal for broadcasting in the foreseeable future is to deliver one stream for both SDR and HDR, and to deliver a great HDR experience. To that end, Cobalt is aggressively marketing its new integration with Technicolor's ITM, and participating in field tests and other industry events.
Jesse Foster, Cobalt Digital
2018 is shaping up to be a big year for high dynamic range (HDR), and to be ready, Cobalt Digital is working with Technicolor to upgrade and develop new products that give the broadcast television industry what they need to create and deliver HDR content and entertainment, says Jesse Foster, director of products and business development at Cobalt Digital, in a podcast interview for journalists.
Cobalt makes audio-visual equipment for the broadcast industry. In November 2017, Cobalt announced it is licensing Technicolor's HDR Intelligent Tone Management (ITM) technology to make the Technicolor HDR ITM feature optionally available on its new series of 12G/6G/3G/HD/SD-SDI 4K cards for its openGear platform, its BBG-1000 series of stand-alone units, and for certain versions of the 9902-UDX card, adds the potential to remonetize content for HDR distribution using existing hardware.
According to Foster, much of the HDR development for content is focused around live events, like concerts and sports.
"Generally, those consumers are technically savvy, and if they can't go to the concert or the game, they want to really have the best experience they can at their house. We're seeing the most excitement and actual tests and field work going on around those types of venues," he says.
The broadcast industry's interest in HDR is rapidly evolving as the technology matures and the industry begins to implement ATSC 3.0, which now includes support for HDR. Cobalt plans to incorporate HDR processing at multiple points within the broadcast delivery chain.
"The goal for broadcasting in the foreseeable future is to deliver one stream for both SDR and HDR, and to deliver a great HDR experience," says Foster.
To that end, Cobalt is aggressively marketing its new integration with Technicolor's ITM, and participating in field tests and other industry events.
"The next step is to fully leverage the Advanced HDR solution from Technicolor so that it finds its way onto our hardware offerings."
Cobalt supports open standards, and whenever possible uses standards as a reference point. The company then adds features and functions to differentiate its products from others on the market. The partnership with Technicolor also gives Cobalt first-to-market advantage.
"We definitely feel we have a leg up on the competition right now, based on the fact that we've embraced Technicolor's HDR ITM processing."
To listen in on the entire interview with Cobalt's Jesse Foster, visit:
