Cobalt® Digital, designer and manufacturer of award-winning edge devices for live video production and master control, and a founding partner in the openGear® initiative, has announced that the Company was one of the technology partners in NBCUniversal’s “Groundbreaking Ultra HD at the Tokyo Olympic Games”, recipient of IBC’s Special Award.
The award, presented by IBC at a virtual ceremony, honored NBCU for its technical proficiency that brought the Tokyo Olympic Games to its audience, offering them the opportunity to enjoy live action in Ultra HD: 4K resolution, High Dynamic Range (HDR) color, and Dolby Atmos sound. While production processes for recorded, scripted content in Ultra HD are now well established, NBCU has led the way in developing the necessary technology for single-stream production workflows in sport.
NBCU covered the whole content pipeline, from the acquisition in HLG and distribution in PQ to a new version of its Skypath distribution system, ensuring the Ultra HD versions were made available to more than 50 local TV stations across the USA. This guaranteed that the full HDR Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos Ultra HD experience was available to 70% of the country.
NBCU used the 3D LUT processing feature on Cobalt Digital’s 9904-UDX audio/video processor cards as the engine for its very own NBCU’s LUTS which fed their UHD playout system. Incorporating the Cobalt cards into its workflow allowed NBCU to achieve quality conversion of either SDR to HDR, or HDR to SDR, and cross-conversion from HLG to PQ providing the broadcaster with the enhanced agility to deliver the finest possible video quality to its audience.
Suzana Brady, Cobalt Digital’s SVP of Worldwide Sales and Marketing added, “We congratulate NBCUniversal and are very proud to be considered a recipient partner of this prestigious IBC Special Award.
