Warner Bros. Discovery has confirmed that the 2024 UEFA Champions League Final, taking place between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund at Wembley tomorrow (1st June), will be available in UHD HDR, scaled up from its HDR feed.
IBC365 recently reported that the Champions League Final and this summer’s European Championship would both be captured in 1080p HD HDR, rather than 4K/UHD.
Commenting at the time, Thierry Fautier, Media Technology Consultant and former VP of Video Strategy at Harmonic, said: “We see similar discussions in the US, where Amazon Prime is on 1080p HDR track for Thursday Night Football, while WBD is on 2160p60 HDR for the Champion’s league, and the same WBD/TNT decides to put the UEFA final in 1080pSDR.”
Alongside increased costs, another possible reason behind such decisions could be technical. For example, if UHD cameras were used as source routing in a standard (non-IP) outside broadcast truck they would typically be distributed as four links using 3G-SDI (Serial Digital Interface). This Quad Link 4K/UHD signal needed careful monitoring to ensure sync when combined on output and made the work of the OB technically more challenging.
However, the BBC and several other broadcasters have successfully demonstrated that it is possible to produce a single workflow and output both UHD HDR and HD SDR.
It is also now common practice for UHD to be produced through upscaling, although the enhanced imagery would miss some of the finer details that might be captured using 4K/UHD.
Jellyfish Pictures files for administration
London-based animation and VFX studio Jellyfish Pictures has gone into administration.
Pact voices concern about the future health of the production sector
UK producers’ alliance Pact has voiced concern about the future health of the production sector in a new report.
Warner Bros Discovery takes stake in Middle East’s OSN Streaming
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has taken a minority stake in Dubai-based OSN Streaming, the streaming subsidiary of Middle East pay-TV firm OSN Group.
ITN promotes Jon Roberts to Chief Technology Officer
Jon Roberts has been promoted to Chief Technology Officer at ITN.
BFI to honour Tom Cruise with Fellowship award
The British Film Institute (BFI) is to celebrate actor and producer Tom Cruise with its highest honour, a BFI Fellowship.
