PORTLAND, ORE.—At a special event in London this week, Elemental Technologies demonstrated full-frame 4K Ultra HD high-efficiency video coding (HEVC) for display in real time. The demonstration was designed to show the capabilities of an end-to-end workflow for processing HEVC content at 60 frames per second, a format that will take full advantage of the display capabilities of UHDTV.
Elemental first announced support for HEVC/H.265 a year ago and introduced real-time HEVC video processing at the NAB Show; at IBC in September it demonstrated 10-bit 4K HEVC video processing at IBC. The company claimed a world’s first in real-time video processing of live 4K@30p HEVC at the Osaka Marathon in October.
In the demo, an Elemental Live video processing system received high bitrate 4Kp60 AVC video in an MPEG-2 transport stream featuring professional sports content. The system was used to encode and deliver a 4Kp60 HEVC output to a PC-based decoder with final rendering on an 84-inch Planar 4K TV.
Elemental executives believe that sports will drive the adoption of UHDTV/4K and will need to be viewed higher frame rates than current formats allow. “Unlike cinema, live sports are best viewed at higher frame rates,” said Aslam Khadar, chief product officer for Elemental. In 2014, we expect live sports to drive 4K Ultra HD adoption by those programmers and pay TV operators seeking to deliver a more compelling sports entertainment experience.”
Elemental will demonstrate its 4K/HEVC transcoding system at CES in January.
