dock10 Simultaneously Produces Live SDR And HDR Content Remotely

As the UK's leading television facility, dock10 brings some of the country's most beloved content to life.

Its work spans prime time episodic series, commercials, corporate films, and live sports. While each dock10 production is unique, a robust technology pipeline sits at the core of every project and includes AJA FS-HDR real-time HDR/WCG converter/frame synchronizers to prepare UltraHD HDR and HD SDR content for live transmission. This past summer, the devices helped facilitate simultaneous live HDR and SDR coverage for some of the most notable sporting tournaments held across Europe.

To facilitate remote production for each live sporting event, dock10 took live UltraHD HDR feeds of each match and integrated it with 3G-SDI SDR content created in its virtual studio to produce both UltraHD HDR and HD SDR live programs for transmission. The dock10 team first received live sports match feeds in-studio, and then used FS-HDR to synchronize and color space convert the signal to UltraHD SDR for monitoring and to feed the background of dock10’s virtual studio system. The devices were also used for MADI audio embedding, and for UltraHD HDR to HD SDR down-conversion for transmission. FS-HDR’s video delay feature was used to match lip sync, as the venue audio feeds came via different routes to the picture feeds, while FS-HDR’s LUT conversion features were also heavily used.

"We initially looked at the FS-HDRs for their LUT processing capabilities, but quickly started using so many other features that the devices offer – from frame synchronization to audio processing. FS-HDR is truly a swiss army knife for HDR production, and saved us from purchasing or renting other equipment," said Michael Lodmore, Duty Technology Manager at dock10. "We relied heavily on our client’s R&D department, who had extensive experience with LUT conversions, to produce the best possible conversions whilst preserving the color rendition of camera pictures and graphics."

dock10 used three of its own FS-HDRs for its production work, and rented additional units as needed. The company’s experience preparing for and executing these sports projects, as well as client demand prompted for content by the pandemic, have inspired dock10 to make remote editing and production now part of its standard offerings. Along with FS-HDR, dock10 also uses AJA Corvid 88 video I/O cards for render engines in its virtual studio.

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