EBU moves forwards with UHDTV discussions

The EBU plans to hold a series of meetings and workshops through to the end of this year to further the cause of ultra-high definition TV, following a conference held at Dolby’s offices in London last week.

The EBU will organize a meeting of national HD Forums in Geneva on July 2 under the aegis of the Forum for Advanced media in Europe (FAME). A further EBU workshop has been provisionally scheduled for November 26-28 to examine new findings and provide an opportunity to align the needs of industry, service providers and broadcasters.

Issues still outstanding include the trade-off between the choice of a frame rate that will deliver a more realistic picture and the additional cost of TV receivers that a very high frame-rate would entail.

“We knew we couldn’t resolve all the issues in one conference, but we now have a much better understanding of what needs to be done and the time it will take,” said EBU head of media fundamentals and production technologies Hans Hoffmann. “Most broadcasters have not yet made firm plans for broadcasting UHDTV; many are still investing in the transition to HD. But they can rest assured that when the time comes the system will have been carefully chosen through this week’s meeting and the development work of the EBU, with partners such as DVB, the International Telecommunication Union and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.”