The final TIM Cup 2015 Juventus-Lazio, was the first sporting event filmed in 4K HDR mode.
This is the new frontier of digital TV towards Ultra High Definition.
Exactly like the human eye can capture a wide dynamic image, distinguishing elements of the image in high and low light, discriminating contents even in high contrast areas, HDR mode television aims to gather all the information and return it to an evolved vision, more involving and reflecting the reality.
The innovation is in the development of advanced optical/electrical sensors capable of capturing the images even beyond the spectrum of the human eye.
They also can process signals with a very high number of samples in order to reproduce every single level of brightness and color information.
On May 20th this breakthrough technology was used in a production test at the final between Juventus and Lazio TIM Cup 2015, the first football game shot in full High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode.
The production was entitled to Infront Sports & Media with technical and technological support by DBW Communication.
For the filming the equipment included 6 Sony F55 cameras, an MVS-7000X 4K switcher, a 4K server, PWS-4400, and two 4K monitors PVM-X300.
Stefano Rebechi, CEO of DBW Communication, declared: "In agreement with Infront we decided to conduct this very challenging test which opens the new frontier of TV sports.
The choice of Sony F55 cameras in 'live production' mode, proved to be -even more- a 'futureproof' investment.
Actually Sony made available a new set-up called 'S-log3' to update the PMW-F55 already used for shooting 4K HDR."
DWB placed on field six F55 cameras configured with the QFHD 3840 × 2160 format, frame rate of 50fps and a large color space, with S-Gamut3 / S-log3 profile.
The content was then recorded on the multi-port server PWS-4400 in XAVC format, 300Mbs 10Bit.
This configuration allowed to take really exciting pictures, as seen from the following comparison test with the shooting in SDR.
Besides Infront is always looking for updates to provide new visual experiences to enhance the sporting events and 4K is already on their agenda.
The HDR is now a new technological step to be explored to offer more and more exciting contents.
Benito Manlio Mari, of Sony Professional Europe commented: "HDR is a new step in the evolution of TV production that enables broadcasters and content producers to raise the visual experience.
In terms of production, the advantages of this mode give content producers access to a broader range of creative and much higher expressive levels."
