DBS 2014 – Broadcasters seek solutions to technical challenges

Three-quarters of complaints from television viewers are about sound quality, surveys have found. 

Audiences mainly complain about “loudness jumps”, according to Jean-Paul Moerman, International Projects and Application Manager for Salzbrenner Stagetec Mediagroup.

He told the ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium in Malaysia that if viewers pick up their remote control to change the sound they can also change the channel and that is not what broadcasters want.

He said a case study found the average listening level of people watching television at home was about 73 decibels, but the big question for broadcasters was how to calibrate this real home listening to the reference monitoring level in studios when mixing sound.

The study was one of several discussed at the Hotel Istana in Kuala Lumpur during the Digital Broadcasting Symposium, the leading event of its kind in the Asia-Pacific.

Delegates were also introduced to the functions in Sony’s latest 4K camera that supports live coverage of sporting events. In a case study of sports coverage using five 4K outside broadcast cameras, Mr Takeshi Shibagaki of Sony gave tips for their use that included not using the zoom but using three lenses to obtain the best quality 4K images to create a “dramatic impact like cinema-style shooting”.

Mr Masakazu Iwaki, Senior Manager in the Planning and Coordination Division of the Science and Technology Research Laboratories at NHK-Japan reported that 8K TV has 16 times the resolution of current HD TV.

“The technology evolved much faster than we expected,” he told delegates.

He expects 8K test broadcasting will start during 2016 in Japan, as 8K TV was “a more natural way” of giving viewers resolution close to 3D quality.

In another workshop session, Mr Matthias Bendull, Senior Director, Broadcast Consumer Audio at Dolby, said Dolby Atmos was now in 250 theatres since its launch just two years ago.

He said it worked to fill the theatre with sound to each surround speaker “with pin point accuracy”, and added that Protools could be used to create audio in the Dolby Atmos format.