CES: Philips and Technicolor join forces for HDR Delivery LG adopts this HDR

[donaldk]

Technicolor and Philips announced today at CES that they are joining forces on HDR delivery and grading technology that is compatible with todays SDR delivery infratsructure and displays. Technicolor will also be working with HDR TV set maker LG to develop HDR displays according to the UHD Alliance's new specification to assure quality standards for UHD and HDR display. “Ultra HD Premium” devices. The LG displays will incorporate the new Technicolor HDR delivery technology.

Early elements of the expanded Technicolor-LG collaboration are on display for the first time this week at CES 2016. For example, the two companies will screen never-before-seen HDR-graded content from iconic and multi-Oscar award winning writer/director/producer Francis Ford Coppola.

“Since the invention of color film Technicolor has stood for lustrous, clear, beautiful images. A partnership between Technicolor and LG’s OLED technology will bring the magic of my movies to the home as they were meant to be experienced” <\q> said Coppola in a prepared statement.

The Philips and Technicolor joining of efforts makes sense as at least one major HDR display maker told me at IBC last September that after initially having worked with the BBC Hybrid-Log Gamma (now NHK-BBC Hybrid-Log Gamma) it temporaly abandonned all support for any backward compatible HDR system, only implementing HDR10, the HDR system based on SMPTE standards that does not take in account display of the material on standard displays. It is also included as mandatory element of the UHD Blu-ray standard. This will strengthen its position towards Dolby Vision the other backward compatible (HDR over SDR networks and to both types of displays, SDR and HDR) delivery system.

The first success of said strategic collaboration and the resulting improved clarity of the HDR Delivery Technology market is the alliance with LG also announced today that sees Techicolor and LG working together to develop and deliver new content experiences to the home that meet the new UHD Alliance content and display specifications and push the boundaries of video imaging.

“This is a powerful joint initiative. Technicolor brings a thorough expertise in imaging acquired since its inception with the creation of color for cinema, extensive Hollywood relationships and production facilities around the world. This complements LG’s leadership in bringing innovative technologies – like OLED 4K TVs optimized for displaying HDR – to homes and to premium content creators,”<\q> said Dr. Nandhu Nandhakumar, senior vice president, LG Technology Center of America.

The Combined HDR roadmap of Philips and Technicolor will accelerate HDR deployment with full backwards compatibility to Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) displays, Technicolor announced today. As the announcement states here there was also some pressure from standard bodies to combine efforts into a single end-to-end delivery system to be rapidly standardised; "Technicolor will take the lead in developing a combined solution that is compliant with emerging standards for next generation video entertainment".

The agreement to merge the technicolor and Philips ongoing delivery roadmaps for HDR solutions, including content creation tools, encoding and decoding software and implementation support will offer a unique, best-in-class proposition to the market that allows HDR delivery, with full backwards compatibility to Standard Dynamic Range displays, according to the vendors.

This will simplify HDR deployments for distributors who will be able to send one signal to all of their customers, regardless of which TV they have. Their networks will be future proof as consumers upgrade to HDR displays over the next few years.

Technicolor and Philips will continue to support their respective HDR products and solutions already deployed to the market and merge the best part of these into the combined solution.  This announcement will strengthen their position by adding additional innovative features. Partners who have already implemented Technicolor and Philips HDR delivery technologies will benefit from best-in-class solutions that interoperate with content already created and built on their existing investments in HDR.

Early results of the combined solution will be shown at NAB 2016 followed by commercial deployments on silicon in late 2016.

Technicolor will take the lead in developing a combined solution that is compliant with emerging standards for next generation video entertainment.

Technicolor will also lead sales and licensing activities associated with the combined HDR offerings.  The solution will become an important offering in Technicolor’s branded product portfolio for consumer electronic devices.

“Combining the HDR research from two of the most prominent and trusted names in imaging is a significant step in the maturity of HDR technologies,” said Manuele Wahl, Senior Vice President of Technology and Trademark Licensing at Technicolor. “Philips is bringing years of experience in consumer electronics and silicon partnerships. This combined with Technicolor’s heritage in content creation and technology licensing will provide a compelling backwards compatible solution which will accelerate HDR adoption.”<\q>

“This move is a reflection of how fast the market for HDR is developing, and how important it is to partner and scale up to effectively serve industry demand for high-quality video delivery,”<\q> said Jako Eleveld, Head of IP Licensing for Philips.

Both companies will continue to work independently on other solutions for enhancing video and audio technologies.

Announcement with Philips
Announcement with LG

[donaldk]

TECHNICOLOR HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE DELIVERY SOLUTION RECEIVES SUPPORT FROM LEADING SYSTEM-ON-CHIP MANUFACTURERS

HDR Intelligent Tone Management Solution for Silicon Now Available to CE Manufacturers

Technicolor (Euronext Paris: TCH, OTCQX: TCLRY) today announced that a growing number of leading TV and Set Top Box (STB) System-on-Chip (SoC) manufacturers are integrating Technicolor’s High Dynamic Range (HDR) Delivery Solution into their offerings, including: Marvell, MSTAR, Sigma and STMicroelectronics.

The news paves the way for consumer electronics manufacturers to integrate Technicolor’s suite of HDR enhancement technologies into their 2016 offerings. As a result, new consumer devices will be able to access the wave of next-generation of HDR content that will become available this year.
Technicolor also announced the availability of the “Technicolor HDR Intelligent Tone Management (ITM)” solution for silicon. Consumer equipment (CE) devices that feature SoCs containing Technicolor HDR ITM capabilities will be able to automatically up-convert all legacy SDR content to powerful HDR imagery.

Technicolor HDR ITM enhances millions of hours of movies, TV shows, video games, home videos and photos by adding the contrast, wide color palette, realistic highlights and deep shadow details of native HDR content. The solution is based on the Technicolor Hollywood production technology that was honored with the 2015 Lumière Award from the Advanced Imaging Society for “outstanding technologies that advance the entertainment industry.”

“ITM on devices will allow consumers to revisit and enjoy their libraries of video content, gaming and even personal media – quite literally, in a brand new light – as existing content is reintroduced in vivid and vibrant HDR,” said Mark Turner, Technicolor’s vice president of business development and strategic partnerships.  “In so doing, manufacturers of TVs, STBs, tablets, laptops and PCs will be able to offer a premium viewing experience that will differentiate their products from competitors, and allow consumers to make full use of their new HDR displays.”

The integration of HDR up-conversion capabilities into the SoC environment offers major advantages to CE, chipset and STB manufacturers, as well as to retailers and consumers. It circumvents the dilemma of introducing new HDR display capabilities before native HDR content is broadly available.

Technicolor’s Connected Home division has already committed to rolling out Technicolor’s HDR decoder technology to its global community of Pay-TV partners.  The division is also now offering Technicolor’s HDR ITM technology in reference HDR set-top boxes. It is making the technology available for extensive testing so that providers can see how HDR ITM upscaling integrates with STBs to offer every show on every network in an up-converted HDR format to consumers. The launch of Technicolor’s HDR ITM solution adds to the technology licensing options available to CE companies.

The rollout and acceptance of Technicolor’s HDR Delivery Solution, along with the launch of Technicolor’s HDR ITM solution, are the most recent examples of how Technicolor is collaborating with partners to deliver the best possible content experiences to consumers on any device.

Executives from SoC manufacturers offered the following perspectives on the Technicolor HDR solutions:
"Enabling high performance, immersive experience solutions at affordable price points has always been the key focus for Marvell. Implementing Technicolor’s HDR ITM technology in our SOCs allows us to enable an additional dimension to our offerings for our Digital Entertainment platform solutions.” -- Philip Poulidis, Vice President and General Manager, IoT, Automotive and Multimedia Business Units at Marvell

“HDR is the next big milestone toward UHD phase 2. Mstar have been working with the entire ecosystem for years to bring solutions to the market and their customers through HDR compatible DTV and STB chipsets. Technicolor HDR Intelligent Tone Management (ITM) technology extends the HDR user experience to non HDR legacy contents and enable those users to take full advantage of their latest CE equipment.” -- Stanley Chen, Marketing Director DTV Division.

“Sigma Designs is happy to collaborate with Technicolor on ITM to further expand its business in HDR by also offering HDR solutions for native SDR content.” -- Alfred Chan, Vice President, product marketing, Sigma Designs Multimedia Business Unit.

[donaldk]

TECHNICOLOR ACCELERATES DELIVERY OF HDR AND OTHER NEXT GEN ENTERTAINMENT EXPERIENCES TO CONSUMERS WITH PARTNERSHIPS AND JOINT GO-TO-MARKET INITIATIVES AT CES 2016
January 05, 2016
Technicolor announces a series of initiatives that accelerate next generation entertainment experiences.
Paris, France, Jan. 5, 2016 -- Technicolor (Euronext Paris: TCH, OTCQX: TCLRY) announced at the CES 2016 conference being held this week in Las Vegas a series of initiatives that accelerate the broad availability of high dynamic range (HDR) and other next generation entertainment experiences.  Technicolor’s presence in the show illustrates the importance of harnessing open innovation and industry-wide collaboration to bring the most exciting and immersive experiences to market, while protecting existing investments consumers have made in devices and customer premises equipment.

Technicolor unveiled a strategic initiative with LG Electronics to collaborate on delivering new content experiences to the home that meet the new UHD Alliance content and display specifications and push the boundaries of video imaging. Early elements of the expanded Technicolor-LG collaboration are on display for the first time this week at CES® 2016. The two companies will screen never-before-seen HDR-graded content from iconic and multi-Oscar award winning writer/director/producer Francis Ford Coppola.

Technicolor also announced an agreement with Royal Philips to merge their ongoing delivery roadmaps for HDR solutions, including content creation tools, encoding and decoding software and implementation support.  As a result of this collaboration, Technicolor and Philips will offer a unique, best-in-class proposition to the market that allows HDR delivery, with full backwards compatibility to Standard Dynamic Range displays. This will simplify HDR deployments for distributors who will be able to send one signal to all of their customers, regardless of which TV they have. Their networks will be future proof as consumers upgrade to HDR displays over the next few years.

Technicolor revealed that leading TV and Set-Top Box (STB) System-on-Chip (SoC) manufacturers are integrating Technicolor’s HDR Decoder technology into their offerings. The SoC companies include: Marvell, MSTAR, Sigma and STMicroelectronics. The adoption of Technicolor’s technology by SoC makers, who represent the lion’s share of the market, paves the way for consumer electronics manufacturers to integrate Technicolor’s suite of HDR enhancement technologies, into their 2016 devices.  It will allow consumers to access the wave of next-generation content that will become available starting this year.

Technicolor also announced the availability of the “Technicolor HDR Intelligent Tone Management (ITM)” solution for silicon. Consumer equipment (CE) devices that feature SoCs containing “Technicolor HDR ITM” capabilities will be able to automatically up-convert all legacy SDR content to powerful High Dynamic Range images on their new HDR devices.  Technicolor HDR ITM unlocks millions of hours of movies, TV shows, video games, home videos and photos by adding contrast, wide color palette, realistic highlights and deep shadow details of native HDR content. The solution is based on the Technicolor Hollywood production technology that was honored with the 2015 Lumière Award from the Advanced Imaging Society for “outstanding technologies that advance the entertainment industry.”

Beyond these major news announcements, Technicolor’s CES 2016 show floor presence -- Las Vegas Convention Center Booth #8632, Tech East, Central Hall – offers attendees a window into how Technicolor is advancing the experiences that have ushered in a new era of awe in the media and entertainment sector. Visitors will have an opportunity to learn how:
Makers of major motion pictures like Spectre, Iron Man, Gravity, Birdman, The Revenant, and Disney’s upcoming film: The Jungle Book – count on collaboration with Technicolor colorists, sound mixers, visual effects (VFX) artists, animators and others to tell amazing stories.

·      The group is developing and producing immersive content across industries -- for applications in Advertising, Feature films, Gaming and Architectural Visualization -- to create original and unique VR/AR experiences that are transforming storytelling, next generation entertainment and digital life experiences.
Owners of archived content work with Technicolor scientists and engineers to breathe new life into libraries of existing stories to meet the expectations of an increasingly demanding and discerning global audience of consumers.

Technologies like 4K UHD, high dynamic range, wide color gamut and high frame rates are being developed by Technicolor to create opportunities for artists to connect with audiences in new and exciting ways.

Technicolor is working on every platform – including smartphones, tablets, laptops, PCs and TVs – to bring consumer an optimum and enhanced experiences at home and on-the-go.

New innovations in “home gateway” and “set-top box” technologies from Technicolor integrate connected home and digital life environments in an intuitive manner.

Technicolor is creating the ultimate future-proofed storage format by harnessing the power and efficiency of deoxyribonucleic acid – better known as: DNA.