A New Method for the Simultaneous Creation of Live HDR and SDR Video

Deploying separate high dynamic range (HDR) and standard dynamic range (SDR) production facilities to cover the same event simultaneously can be economically prohibitive. In this case study, we present a new method for creating both ultrahigh-definition (UHD) HDR and HD SDR streams from a single UHD HDR production workflow, developed through a series of real-world UHD HDR production trials in 2018 and 2019, concluding with the 2019 Football Association Challenge Cup (FA Cup), a major U.K. sporting event. We describe the findings from those trials and the lessons learned and include descriptions of what worked well and what worked less well. The workflow solution presented allows for the integration of both HDR camera sources and SDR camera sources (e.g., super slow-motion and specialist cameras), prerecorded or archive SDR content and SDR graphics into a single HDR production environment. It can exploit the backward-compatible nature of the hybrid log-gamma (HLG) HDR solution and recent advances in color volume management. We show how a production’s two outputs, HDR and SDR, can be made using current SDR shading/racking monitoring, with only a single HDR vision guarantee monitor
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