Immersive Augmented Experience: a Technology and Industry Perspective - White Paper - The Future Trust

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Immersive Augmented ExperienceA Technology and Industry Perspective

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Immersive Augmented Experience A Technology and Industry Perspective

INTRODUCTION

Insatiable demand from consumers who are ready for the next level of entertainment experiences has triggered a flurry of innovation from the entire community of interest that makes up the media and entertainment technology sector. These technological innovations are significantly improving image fidelity and quality to provide consumers with a more immersive augmented experience in theaters, living rooms, mobile devices and beyond.

However, in order for the full potential of these new digital life experiences to be delivered in a timely manner, there will have to be more and better collaboration among all of the key players in the value-chain of content creation to consumption.

Today a series of largely stove-piped activities are progressing at different rates of speed through standards bodies and product development initiatives. The absence of go-to-market synchronization may place unnecessary limits on the opportunities that can be harvested – and perhaps more importantly – on the richness of experience that consumers expect…and deserve.

Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in the relationship between 4K/UHD technologies being brought to market in the next generation of high-end television-sets, and the current status of High Dynamic Range/Wide Color Gamut (HDR/WCG) standards and product offerings.

● Most industry participants and observers readily acknowledge that the deployment of 4K technology will markedly improve the entertainment experience.

● Those same experts recognize that 4K/UHD will be dependent on innovative technologies that will accelerate the deployment of high-quality UHD experiences for home or mobile environments.

When 4K/UHD is combined with High Dynamic Range/Wide Color Gamut the visual experience is eye-poppingly evident, even when viewed on the smaller form factors. The best way to understand 4K/UHD is as the foundational innovation for a more immersive augmented experience that will carry many of the other key technologies that are in development today.

Beyond the significant improvements in technological performance for delivering a visual experience, there are the issues of:

Towards a More Immersive Augmented Experience: Evolving Developments in Image Fidelity and Quality

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1. consumer convenience, and2. protection of existing assets across the entire value-chain.

While early adopters may expect to make some sacrifices associated with being pioneers, most consumers would like the security of knowing that content is available to them on the new generation of technologies, and that their new investments can enhance their existing inventory of purchased content.

A coordinated approach to market that respects a standards development process that moves forward with diligence and discipline – without unnecessary delay – can optimize and protect both the providers and consumers of new enhanced experiences.

In this overview, we outline some of the opportunities – as well as the challenges – that will affect different segments of the entertainment and media technology sectors.

COORDINATING DYNAMIC BUSINESS MODELS AND RELATIONSHIPS

Like all disruptive technological developments, rapidly unfolding trends that are driven by innovation not only change the way media is consumed, they challenge traditional perspectives on business models and relationships across the entire value chain of players from: Content Creators, Studios, Distributors and Broadcasters; to Aggregators, “Over-the-Top” (OTT) content providers, Network Service Providers (NSPs), and Consumer Equipment (CE) manufacturers. As executives in each of these sectors consider their strategic options for adopting and adapting to the new realities, they will need to take into account a broad range of migration challenges, including:

● Technical considerations – such as how to effectively absorb higher storage requirements and bandwidth demands of next-generation content;

● Artistic implications – to ensure that the intent of content creators is maintained across the myriad media consumption form factors; and

● Financial/Business justification – to establish dependable return on investments models based on new content creation technologies and processes, as well as new operational processes and business models.

Like all disruptive technological developments, rapidly unfolding trends that are driven by innovation not only change the way media is consumed, they challenge traditional perspectives on business models and relationships across the entire value chain.

Technicolor believes that coordinating a unified, multi-platform migration strategy will best serve the long-term interests of the industry as a whole.



TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS IN MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT

The pace at which technologies are unfolding in the media and entertainment industries is accelerating.

Key innovations include, but are not limited to:

● 4K or Ultra HD (UHD). UHD displays four times more pixels (3840×2160) than today’s HDTV (1920×1080). In addition to delivering higher resolution than traditional HD technologies, emerging of 4K/UHD offerings support higher frame rates and greater dynamic range (more on this below), to deliver a more immersive, augmented true-to-life experience to theaters and, to a lesser extent, to the home. Because 4K/UHD technologies significantly increase the resolution of the screens, it also increases the amount of data that must be transmitted over networks and processed by equipment (including set top boxes and television sets).

● High Dynamic Range/Wide Color Gamut (HDR/WCG). HDR boosts, manages and optimizes luminosity by combining several exposure levels to render visible details in the darkest and lightest portions of an image. While HDR standards are still in the process of being finalized, a consensus throughout the industry has already emerged that HDR will have an immense impact on the viewing experience. Moreover, it is estimated that HDR only adds between 20 to 30 percent to the payload of content that must be transmitted and processed (compared to as much as 300 percent increase in file sizes associated with 4K/UHD).

● Meanwhile, WCG increases the current 8-bit color palette by a factor of 64 (at 10-bit) or 4,096 (at 12-bit). WCG is a technique that enables more accurate display in the home of the exact colors intended by a content creator. By getting closer to what is actually seen by the human eye in real life, WCG dramatically improves image quality.

● While the current state of HDR/WCG has raised the possibility of elevated power consumption requirements to fuel the enhanced color luminosity capabilities, work is underway with organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technologies that will keep emerging consumer offerings affordable.

● High Frame Rate (HFR) raises the current frame rate of 24 frames-per-second (fps) to 48 fps and potentially 60 fps. Because the adoption of HFR allows film makers to record and play visuals at twice the rate or higher of the typical productions, viewers see less flicker, motion blur and stuttered movement. This elevates image quality and creates a more immersive augmented experience for theater-going customers, living-room consumption and perhaps, eventually, mobile users. Like 4K/UHD, the doubling or tripling of the number of frames per second increases the file size of entertainment programing that must be transmitted over networks and processed by end-point equipment.

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COORDINATING AN INDUSTRY-WIDE MIGRATION PATH

At Technicolor, we believe it is in combination – and through industry-wide collaboration / coordination – that these technologies can be harnessed to accelerate the evolution of immersive augmented experiences that will meet consumer expectations for excellence, ease-of-use and affordability. As a result, we are seeing key players within the content eco-system:

● Evaluate their technical alternatives;

● Assess which standards development initiatives in which to participate; and

● Incorporate new technological capabilities into specific business strategies and go-to-market relationships for the future.

These value-chain participants include:

● Content creators – who now have access to more striking visual-capture options that will allow them to work with a broader palette of colors and effects. However, they will have to consider more fragmented audiences who will not only use traditional consumption platforms (such as today’s movie theaters) but will also avail themselves to new entertainment form factors (such as increasingly sophisticated home theaters and rapidly evolving mobile and wearable technologies). Additionally, content creators must decide how to control the way existing catalogs of content are “up-converted” to new formats without distorting their original intent.

● Studios/Distributors – will need to weigh their potential revenue gains from marketing a more immersive augmented experience to their audiences against the costs of implementing new production processes based on new solution sets. New technological innovations will introduce new opportunities to monetize investments in intellectual property. They will also create un-anticipated exposure to risks and costs that must be quickly understood and mitigated.

● Aggregators/Broadcasters – will also need to understand the potential ROI from purchasing next-generation content against the demands of their specific audiences. Many will have to assimilate an increasingly diverse set of content sources using both new and legacy production methods.

● “Over-the-top” (OTT) content providers – will have to operate within a blended environment of new and legacy content sources. However, they are likely to seize next-generation encoding as an opportunity to further differentiate their offerings from traditional channels, and will need to

New technological innovations will introduce new opportunities to monetize investments in intellectual property. They will also create un-anticipated exposure to risks and costs that must be quickly understood and mitigated.



reconcile increased storage and bandwidth requirements for new content with new pricing structures and offering models. As major generators of traffic over satellite, cable and telecommunications resources, OTT players will also be challenged to ensure that the wide-area network (WAN) and last-mile infrastructure is ready, willing and able to deliver high-quality premium content.

● Network service providers (NSPs) – including cable, satellite, and telecommunications vendors – will bear the burden of transmitting higher-density content over their networks. Delivering 4K resolution, for example, requires a 200 to 300 percent increase in bitrates than current HDTV traffic, while HDR encoding adds 20 to 30 percent to file sizes compared to legacy LDR content. NSPs will favor encoding solutions that optimize marketability as well as deliverability and an optimized user experience.

● Consumer equipment (CE) manufacturers – especially TV makers, are leading the way in 4K/UHD. The availability of 4K standards technology offers TV makers an opportunity to market new high-end product lines. However, CE manufacturers – including decoder and chipset makers – seek encoding solutions that allow their products to not just showcase next-generation content, but support the ability to enhance legacy content as well. Successful competitive positioning will also be a function of how well and how quickly HDR/WCG and other technology are cost-effectively incorporated into the product mix available to the consumer market.

ADDRESSING DISPARATE CONSUMER ENVIRONMENTS

The entire industry will need to carefully plan future operations to support an extensive range of viewing conditions across the market. Major releases of theatrical content (not to mention major broadcast events) are just as likely today to be viewed in movie theaters, home entertainment centers, and mobile/wearable devices. Each of these form factors present consumers with many content consumption models – with devices defaulted to different configurations for content treatment. This contributes to a complexity in content consumption management that can potentially damage the entertainment experience.

Technicolor believes that the industry would be best served by an integrated approach to delivering a content experience that is open, flexible and portable enough to optimize audiences’ viewing experience across environments, including:

● Cinemas – traditionally the most technically advanced and immersive content outlets, which require the highest-end 12-bit encoding technologies.

Major releases of theatrical content (not to mention major broadcast events) are just as likely today to be viewed in movie theaters, home entertainment centers, and mobile/wearable devices.

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● Home entertainment centers – which today cover the broadest range of equipment and connectivity configurations – from premium home theaters, to the most rudimentary TV setups. At average levels, home equipment requires 10-bit encoding technologies.

● Mobile and wearable devices – which are increasingly used to consume entertainment over Wi-Fi and cellular networks. Mobile technology would be best served by 8-bit encoding solutions. The role of wireless networking is having huge ramifications in the entertainment industry because untethered high-bandwidth capabilities greatly enhance immersive augmented experiences at home, at work and on the go. For instance, entertainment that is optimized for Wi-Fi delivery will have an immense impact on in-flight entertainment, automotive/connected car capabilities, and hospitality industry applications, to name but a few use cases.

It is important to support the full spectrum of encoding capabilities because they will have overlapping applications across all consumption models. In the long run, the solutions that offer the best value – and expose key participants across the media and entertainment technology value-chain to the least risk – will also be the ones that optimize end-user experiences for all the available viewing platforms.

TECHNICOLOR’S TAKE

As with prior technical innovations – such as HDTV or 3-D cinema – different segments of the content industry will establish their own best uses to fit their diverse business conditions. But not all approaches will act like a tide that raises all ships. In the interest of bringing narrow solutions to market quickly, some in the industry may choose to invest in solutions that are customized for dedicated viewing environments – such as the cinema. The challenge that this approach to market presents to the overall value-chain is that content cannot easily be ported to other settings such as the home or mobile form factors.

This places a burden on important elements of the value-chain, because separate conversion and integration processes will have to be developed at significant cost and complexity to accommodate the diversity of viewing outlets.

Technicolor is leading an effort to embrace a more open and flexible approach to the market that features input from leaders throughout the entertainment and media community. This approach leads to a more consistent, predictable and high-quality experience across consumption platforms. The objective is not only to ensure that content can flow seamlessly to the consumer’s environment of choice, but also to lay the foundation for enhancing existing content so that previous investments can take advantage of new technological capabilities.

Technicolor is leading an effort to embrace a more open and flexible approach to the market that features input from leaders throughout the entertainment and media community.



That is why Technicolor’s solutions for image fidelity and quality are optimized for variable bit-depth (12/10/8) and variable bit-rate (3-25Mbps) with scaling of perceptual quality. This process helps reduce content creation costs as well as the expense of delivering high quality content to audiences on any platform.

Technicolor’s Pure Image solution set supports the next-generation of imaging technologies across platforms, allowing providers to deliver the highest quality viewing experience in Standard, HD or 4K/UHD resolution. Additionally, Technicolor’s support of the HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) standard addresses network challenges by carrying more data over a given bandwidth. This facilitates delivery of 4K/UHD traffic over a wide variety of network service provider infrastructure. Because HEVC targets up to 50 percent bandwidth gains, it enables a longer reach for HDTV services and bandwidth reduction over broadcast networks without compromising quality. By pursing an open, multi-platform strategy, Technicolor believes that the industry can benefit from having access to the most flexible and least risky migration path to next-generation content delivery technologies. It also provides consumers with broader access to the most immersive augmented experiences.

Technicolor promotes a standards-oriented approach that features broad input from all industry players in the ecosystem as the optimal way to collaboratively converge on key issues and solutions for the future. It is the best way to ensure that new solutions:

● Protect existing investments in technology by giving content owners the ability to manage their back catalogs as they choose; and

● Provide the rest of the value chain with access to a bigger and more integrated market.

It is an approach that reflects Technicolor’s vision for ensuring that the interests of the entire community are served and optimized to streamline the delivery of rich experiences “wherever content meets customers.” In order for this vision of cross-platform seamlessness to have its broadest impact across consumers that utilize a variety of entertainment consumption form factors, Technicolor is dedicated to working with all segments of the entertainment value-chain to deliver the most open and integrated immersive augmented experiences to market.

Technicolor is dedicated to working with all segments of the entertainment value-chain to deliver the most open and integrated immersive augmented experiences to market.

ABOUT TECHNICOLOR With more than 99 years of experience in entertainment innovation, Technicolor serves an international base of entertainment, software, and gaming customers. The company is a leading provider of production, postproduction, and distribution services to content creators and distributors. Technicolor is one of the world’s largest film processors; the largest independent manufacturer and distributor of DVDs (including Blu-ray Disc); and a leading global supplier of set-top boxes and gateways. The company also operates an Intellectual Property and Licensing business unit.

For more information: www.technicolor.com

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