AMSTERDAM—Dolby says it has successfully completed an HDR broadcast trial using SMPTE ST 2094-10, the company’s proposal for dynamic metadata within ATSC 3.0.
The trial was conducted at the ATSC 3.0 test station in Cleveland with partners Triveni Digital, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and Tribune Broadcasting.
SMPTE ST 2094-10, which is currently reviewed as an ATSC Candidate Standard, “defines content dependent metadata creation for dynamic metadata that maximizes the experience delivered by the display of broadcast content,” according to Dolby.
The HDR broadcast metadata test comes as Dolby has turned out to display its advances with AC-4, which has been selected as an audio standard within ATSC 3.0, and Dolby Vision, the company’s HDR standard.
One of the new use cases for Dolby Vision that the company is testing is live HDR broadcast, for which companies typically look toward HLG. But Dolby is arguing that Dolby Vision can be used for live broadcast.
For that purpose, Dolby now has developed an engine capable of generating Dolby Vision dynamic metadata in real-time, and the company working with its partners on integrating it. Dolby has been taking live broadcast truck workflows and adding a 10-bit PQ signal at the output, which then has the dynamic metadata generating for it and is encoded as Dolby Vision into a bitstream which is sent either through an IP network, satellite and terrestrial. The signal is then sent to a set-top box which can then receive and output on a Dolby Vision TV.
The playback solution, VS10, can be integrated directly into set-top boxes, making the box capable of receiving Dolby Vision broadcasts. VS10 allows for smoother switching between other broadcast formats like HDR10 and SDR. Dolby has also been working on simultaneously sending HDR10 signals that can be received by the numerous HDR10 TVs on the market.