The 4K/UHD Revolution Is Here

By Tom Harmon, president and CEO of Utah Scientific. If you've been around long enough in the television industry, the current "4K revolution" might seem like déjà vu.

Remember when the migration from SD to HD was the hottest topic at every trade show? Consumers wanted to be the first on their block with a genuine HDTV in their living rooms, and manufacturers were scrambling to offer the equipment and technologies that broadcasters needed to convert to full-on HD operations.

As the next logical evolution of high-definition television, 4K resolution and UHDTV are maturing in a similar fashion along with consumer demand. Step into almost any home electronics store and you'll see the evidence in the rows of next-generation 4K-ready TVs.

Good news, broadcasters: once again, the technology industry has your back. Standard off-the-shelf IT technologies and IP networks offer tremendous promise for shortening time to air, reducing costs, and smoothing the path to 4K/UHDTV operations. The potential for reducing OPEX and streamlining operations is too compelling to ignore, and we do see the day when all broadcasting operations will migrate away from baseband SDI signals and to an all IP-based infrastructure.

Although software solutions running on commercial-off-the-shelf hardware are already being deployed for file-based tasks such as video editing, I'd argue that IP technologies are still years away from being able to handle the requirements of real-time, full-bandwidth video signals. To meet consumer demand, content providers need to deliver 4K UHDTV services now, but the solution lies right under their noses – in their existing SDI signal transport infrastructure. The SDI continuum has evolved from SD to HD, from 3G 1080p to 6G, and now to the rapidly maturing 12G single-link standard.

While migrating to IP systems for full-bandwidth video would require a total rebuild of the entire facility infrastructure and a significant capital outlay in new IP equipment, 12G uses the same coax cabling infrastructure that our customers have always relied on for SMPTE-defined signal transport.

For now, the 12G standard is a better choice for the deterministic requirements of live video; for instance, a commercial that has to air in a frame-accurate fashion at precisely the contracted time. Meanwhile, 12G technologies for delivering eye-popping 4K signals are here today, and new solutions are emerging rapidly.

One example is Utah Scientific's new UHD-12G digital routing switcher. Previously, our customers were using traditional 3G routers to process 4K signals through multiple paths, but the UHD-12G is able to receive, route, and distribute SDI signals up to the latest 4K/60 standards on a single cable.

As our customers sort through the confusion around these new and emerging standards and technologies, it's important that they understand the distinction between IP and 12G. Whereas IP is really just a convenient means of moving multiple high-bit-rate (SMPTE 2022) media signals around in a facility, 12G is inherently about signal quality – a standard built to support higher-resolution, 4K signals and deliver the dazzlingly beautiful pictures that consumers expect when they see that "UHD" label on their brand-new TVs.

Given this, we aim to help our customers make future-proof decisions by offering them products today that will support a transition to the IP infrastructure of tomorrow. One example is the UTAH-400 IP Gateway, a new family of IP gateway I/O cards that we've introduced for our routers.

By providing two-way conversion of SDI video signals and SMPTE-2022 signals over a 10G Ethernet connection, these new gateways bridge the gap between traditional and IP signal processing. They're just one more example of our commitment to support customers as they make a gradual yet inevitable transition to an IP-based infrastructure.

www.utahscientific.com

(JP/MH)