How we see HDR
Are you seeing what I'm seeing?
In this month's blog we unpack the miracle of colour, and explain how we're bringing incredible HDR colour to everybody, regardless of their studio setup and equipment
We're all familiar with the idea that the colours we see might not be the colours that others see. Indeed, it's frequently this realization about colour that is the catalyst for teenagers everywhere suddenly understanding the concept of solipsism - the idea that the only thing we can be truly sure of in this world is the existence of a self'. Which inevitably leads to them suddenly deciding to wear only black and carry a beaten-up copy of Bertram Russel's History of Western Philosophy' with them everywhere.
But the idea that I don't see the same kind' of green as you do goes even further than the inability for us to compare the experience of our eyes - questioning whether our sensors work in the same way. Because in reality, there are some colours that we literally aren't seeing: we don't have the colour cones to pick them up. Instead, they are our brain's best guess at what is happening. It's effectively the ol' grey sponge filling in the gaps where information is missing.
This happens with quite a few colours - you can see in the helpful chart below. Green s - yep, the brain knows what's going on there. Everything in-between is just your brain shrugging and saying meh, this'll do'.
Think Pink
The extent to which the brain is making up things becomes particularly pronounced with magenta. See, we're often used to seeing colours in a wheel, but in reality they exist on a spectrum based on wavelength - and as you probably know, if you extend the sides of that spectrum you don't get more colours, you get other exciting things like microwaves or gamma waves. So magenta is our brain's best attempt to circle the square and bridge the gap between the furthest edges of red and violet. It's a truly theoretical colour. This differs from - say - yellow, which does exist on the light spectrum, but which we don't have the cones to see. So our brains just made something up. But speak to a Goldfish, and they really are seeing' yellow, because they've got the right kind of cones for it.
And even if we could see' any of these colours, our poor old brain is just doing best guess work anyway, because it can't be bothered to work with the sheer volume of data hitting it every second (2*10 photons per seconds, which for those that don't like maths, is really quite a lot). So it just grabs a sample of that and averages things out. It might be lazy, but it certainly seems pretty effective (which Bill Gates would certainly approve of, declaring famously: Ask a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.
Why this sudden colour obsession? HDR, of course
All of this is to say that given that our eyes are actually kind of primitive when it comes to dealing with concepts of colour, it's quite remarkable that we experience such a vibrant, colour-rich world.
And of course technology has had a hard time trying to play catch up with the remarkable things that our brains have been doing in large part because they are limited to dealing with the reality' of electromagnetic waves, rather than having the luxury of making things up like our brain does.
But the progress has been significant. The last black and white broadcast was in 1967. 50 years later and we now have HDR; a technology that has significantly extended the range of luminosity in which differentiation can be achieved - in essence meaning that areas which once would have been marked only by washed-out bright light or dark shadow now display greater detail. The net result is a deeper, richer and more vibrant image. Something that far better replicates our own experience of the world.
With technological progress comes empty pockets
Of course it's great that we've made this progress within the broadcast industry, and audiences are benefitting hugely. But as with any technological progression, there's a constant concern for implementers relating to the cost of implementation - particularly in an industry where change and progress can be fast-paced. Just as you've kitted out the studio to deal with one thing, the next big thing has rolled around and you're stuck with legacy systems and no more money in the upgrade account to keep up.
It's this concern that has always been at the root of our IP evangelism. One of the most significant benefits of IP-based broadcast and production systems is their immense amount of flexibility and their future-proof nature: they're ready to tackle and accommodate pretty much any new developing standard or technology. And our VB440 aims to sit at the heart of all this - facilitating the highest levels of production, whether in a fixed studio, a remote OB van, or a distributed network of individual operators, whilst constantly evolving to accommodate new standards; JPEG XS, immersive audio, and now HDR.
HDR - anywhere, anytime, anyhow
Indeed, in the field of HDR, we've managed to pull off a pretty clever trick that means that studios can work with HDR outputs without needing the immense investment associated with upgrading their monitors and hardware to accommodate its specific demands.
In essence, what we've managed to do is create a visual preview of HDR outputs that can be displayed on any browser and monitor - even, or perhaps especially - those which are not specifically HDR compatible. This is achieved by converting the specific coding of the HDR image into the sRGB colourspace of the browser, thus effectively mimicking' a localised preview of what the HDR output will be like for audiences.
T
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
06/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
06/04/2026
From high school sports all the way up to the major leagues, building high-quali...
06/04/2026
Quickplay, an AI company for the media and entertainment industry, has been accepted into the Advanced tier of the TwelveLabs Ecosystem Partner Program. Quickpl...
06/04/2026
Grass Valley has announced the Future Playmakers Program, a global initiative to...
06/04/2026
El l der de operaciones impulsa la producci n en estudio mientras encuentra insp...
06/04/2026
The ops leader helps lead the charge in studio for the Spanish-language broadcas...
06/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
06/04/2026
The National Hockey League (NHL), in partnership with Verizon and the New Jersey Devils, today announced the opening of the NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizo...
06/04/2026
Rock League, a new professional curling league, has announced that ESPN+ will stream its inaugural 2026 season for fans in the United States. The first Rock Lea...
06/04/2026
Advanced Systems Group has announced the appointment of Andrea (Andy) Cummis as Vice President of Systems Design and Engineering. In this role, she will lead de...
06/04/2026
Backed by Bolt Ventures, the venture brings Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat, and...
06/04/2026
With this environment we can start that collaboration even earlier because we ca...
06/04/2026
Like the immortal lives of vampires, some stories never really end. That's t...
06/04/2026
As podcasting continues to evolve, growth increasingly means building beyond aud...
06/04/2026
Multiband dynamics plug-in enhanced
California-based developer FSK Audio have released a significant update for their innovative multiband dynamics processo...
06/04/2026
Share official & user-created full-rig presets
IK Multimedia's latest TONEX update makes it possible for users of the popular amp and effects modelling ...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Dalet Showcases Dalia Agentic AI and End-to-End Media Workflows at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Dalet, a leading technology and...
06/04/2026
OpenDrives Shows Off Sports Expertise in Sports Business Hub located in NAB Show...
06/04/2026
Proton to Demonstrate 3D Application at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Yet further creative potential unleashed through innovation in ...
06/04/2026
Autoscript Highlights Voice-Driven Prompting and PTZ Solutions at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Experience Autoscript Voice, PTZ prom...
06/04/2026
Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Sho...
06/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Kids Entertainment Lineup With Playground App ...
05/04/2026
Tackles all reported bugs!
SoundBridge have just announced the launch of a new update that introduces a couple of minor changes to their remote collaboratio...
04/04/2026
The University of Arizona's Men's Basketball team has only loss twice th...
04/04/2026
1080p HDR arrives, a new generation of storytelling tools takes center stage, an...
04/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
04/04/2026
Faster, cleaner and more intuitive than ever
The control software for Flock Audio's digitally controlled patchbay systems has just been treated to an up...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
DHD Introduces AI-Based Audio Noise Reduction to XD3 IP Core
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
The accompanying image shows the rear panel of the ...
04/04/2026
Macnica Redefines ST 2110 Flexibility with Two Speeds on One Card
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
New for NAB Show 2026, MEP100 SmartNIC now sup...
04/04/2026
Unified Media Workflows for Story-Centric Production
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
Framelight X unifies field capture, editing and publishing ...
03/04/2026
Michigan's Fab Five will reunite for an alternate presentation of the Mich...
03/04/2026
Avid will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (April 18-22, Booth N2226, Las Vegas Convention Center), demonstrating its Content Core platform and new AI-driven workflow c...
03/04/2026
Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has announced the appointment of Nick Barthee as Chief Operating Officer.
The announcement follows MRMC's transition fro...
03/04/2026
Interra Systems has announced that Elite Media Technologies has selected its BATON file-based QC solution for media workflows. Elite Media Technologies speciali...
03/04/2026
Ateme has announced that Moldtelecom has deployed Ateme technologies across its streaming workflow, covering encoding, delivery, operations, and analytics.
Mol...
03/04/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate Framelight X, its content management platform, at NAB Show 2026. The platform connects capture, ingest, editing, and publishing in...
03/04/2026
Encompass Digital Media and Techex have announced a cloud-native Master Control ...
03/04/2026
Live Vertical Video automatically track the action on the court via AI technology and delivers a fully optimized, 9 16 live feed for viewers...
03/04/2026
As the Illini make their first trip to college basketball's biggest stage si...
How we see HDR
