EBU: 12 months left to lay out UHDTV ‘roadmap’

The Forum of Advanced Media In Europe (FAME), co-chaired by the EBU, says the broadcasting industry only has around 12 months left to come up with technical requirements and implementation scenarios for phase 2 of UHD-1.

The call for action came at the first FAME UHDTV (Ultra High Definition Television) Roadmap workshop held in Lucca, Italy last week, attended by professional and consumer industries, network operators, and private and public broadcasters. 

According to the EBU, the aim of this second phase of UHDTV development is to offer a comprehensive set of advanced parameters: Higher Frame Rate (HFR), Higher Dynamic Range (HDR), higher resolution (3840×2160 pixels) and an extended colour space.

The Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) project has already started gathering commercial requirements for UHD-1 phase 2.

Presentations from broadcasters NHK from Japan (who are focussed on the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo) and Kobeta from South Korea highlighted the possibility that Europe could lag behind in introducing UHD TV if significant progress is not made soon.

Hans Hoffmann from EBU Technology and Innovation, who co-chaired the FAME workshop, said: “We need a closer collaboration with, and support from, the European Commission, to prevent European industries becoming disadvantaged compared to their Asian counterparts.”

Hoffmann added, “we also need to get creative producers involved quickly too, to avoid a content gap, and must work together with the industry on a strategy to clearly inform European consumers about UHDTV.”