In the emerging high dynamic range (HDR) technology market, just a handful of players are dictating which standards are being used and how HDR will be delivered to consumers.
Technicolor is among those companies. And while the Paris-based media and entertainment technology firm let loose a bevy of HDR news at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the April NAB Show may be an even bigger stage for a technology that both content owners and CE companies are latching on to.
Mark Turner, VP of partnership relations and business development for Technicolor, checked in with B&C to offer the latest on standards for the technology, and the hurdles facing pay TV operators when it comes to delivering HDR.
It's been a few months since Technicolor shared a slew of HDR news at CES. Before NAB next month, is there anything in the way of an update on Technicolor's HDR work?
The next big news beat is NAB. At CES we crammed in a lot in a short amount of time, with movement on the silicon side, with a bunch of different partners for our HDR delivery system. We also announced that we're an upscaler, a real-time standard dynamic range to HDR upscaling solution for silicon, which we showed before at IBC in broadcast workflows, as well as NAB last year as a plug-in for color grading equipment and creating shows. The CES announcement was about putting that all together in the set-top box or the TV itself. We also had an announcement with LG around HDR displays across the chain, from post-production through to delivery.
At NAB we're going to go back and tell the proof points, when the technology will be available.
One thing you didn't mention there was the partnership with Philips, where your two companies are pooling your resources on HDR. How's that going so far, and what have you guys taken away from it?
We announced we were going to start working together at CES, and NAB will be the next drumbeat, where we'll talk about what it means, what features and delivery systems we'll have.
One of the trends and complications is right now there is a whole heap of different standards going in slightly different directions, with the broadcasting world going one way, and the studios going their own with implementing and creating content. If you're a pay TV operator, you're going to have to be able to deliver all of this content, and you can't have a different network for each one. A lot of what we're working on now is how to have one network capable of delivering all this HDR content, whether it's a live event or a show from the BBC created with HDR.
Bringing simplicity to real-world situations is what we're striving to achieve here.
Along those lines, on the standards front we last heard Technicolor was working with the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) to make some HDR standards headway. What's the latest there?
MPEG is a complicated, political game, and I don't expect we'll see a new HDR standard out of them any time soon. They have a compression scheme, HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) that can push HDR content through, but it may not be optimized, and doesn't have things like backwards compatibility, which the pay TV world needs. But you can compress it and shove it through, and I think that's good enough for MPEG now.
We always assume standardizing it would be good for the industry, but if there's no standard, we'll carry on doing what we're doing right now, deploy the hardware solution on devices, providing the encoding solution, and push on without a standard.
Standards aside, we're seeing pretty good uptake on HDR from both hardware and content companies. Is this headed in the direction showing that HDR is something consumers want?
What I'm most pleased with is the content industry embracing it. The CE industry is always going to embrace it, because it's something new. And the good thing about HDR is it's incremental. What we never saw on the 4K side was the creative part of the business getting really fired up and excited about it. HDR is a new creative medium, and we're seeing people excited about it, with the larger shows with bigger budgets creating in HDR, putting it in the vault that way, even if the networks aren't prepared for it.
We've moved on from just the big budget movies and broadcast shows and now we're working on the smaller shows. We want HDR on everything, a comedy program, reality shows, the news, and especially live sports, something that really drives uptake.
The real-time HDR delivery is a lot harder than creating shows in a color-grading suite when you have time and budget. You'll see at NAB, we'll be focusing our energy on that being the next big thing to fix.
So what hurdles are standing between pay TV operators and HDR delivery?
Pay TV operators right now are challenged by OTT, and that's their big competition. OTT providers are nimble, largely software based, without dedicated hardware like set-top boxes to roll out, they don't have big legacy networks. They've put HDR out in a matter of months. We have a huge customer base with cable and satellite operators around the world for our connected home division, who buy set tops from us.
We're working with them on how to take a network that's fractional - with just some HDR content for the big shows - and deliver that to customers who just bought an HDR TV, who tend to be more affluent, buying the big sports and movie packages, the ones you want to keep the most satisfied. That's what we're talking now, how to deploy it. And I think this year we'll see HDR services in either closed testing or consumer betas that are full on pay TV in HDR. And that's way ahead of where we are with 4K.
For more on Technicolor's HDR push, check out Broadcasting
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
21/10/2025
Indigenous storytelling has been at the heart of the work of the Sundance Instit...
21/10/2025
Top L-R: Mysterious Skin, American Dream Second Row L-R: Little Miss Sunshine, D...
21/10/2025
Last week, Spotify and Columbia Records transformed Pier 4 at the Brooklyn Army ...
21/10/2025
SBS Learn's Dharug Ngurra resource empowers classrooms to meaningfully celeb...
21/10/2025
As global operators simplify and evolve their digital platforms, NPS improvement...
21/10/2025
Critical Design Review completion is a key milestone on the path toward Wideband Global Satellite Communications certification for the network in 2026, opening ...
21/10/2025
New Australian undersea training range to implement and improve warfighting tactics, proficiency and safety; enable joint/allied training that contributes to pr...
21/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
21/10/2025
September, the beginning of autumn, brought an expected revival to the TV market, largely due to the new fall TV schedules. The time spent in front of the TV sc...
21/10/2025
Broadcast Booms with 20% Uptick vs. August, Achieving Largest Monthly
Increase ...
21/10/2025
During September, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.5%, a marginal shift of -0.5 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YU...
21/10/2025
RENNES, France BBright and GlobalM have conducted a technical trial validating Ultra HD interoperability across the entire contribution chain in the cloud, achi...
21/10/2025
Kokusai Denki Electric America will mark the U.S. debut of a new 4K camera at the 2025 NAB New York, Oct. 22-23. Now available, the Z-HD6500-S1 UHD/HD productio...
21/10/2025
Triveni Digital, a trusted leader in ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 service delivery, data broadcasting, and quality assurance solutions, will showcase its entire NEXTGEN TV ...
21/10/2025
Radio Azzurra FM, longest-running radio station in the province of Novara, northwest Italy, has invested in an DHD SX2 audio routing and mixing console for inte...
21/10/2025
Globecast, the leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, has announced the appointment of G Morgan as Executive Vice President of...
21/10/2025
Visual Data announces the appointment of Maz Al-Jumaili as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Localization, to advance client engagement, strategic partnerships, ...
In the emerging high dynamic range (HDR) technology market, just a handful of players are dictating which standards are being used and how HDR will be delivered to consumers.
