JVC NAB-2007 User Manual

JVC Professional APRIL 2007 NAB-2007 The ProHD Report

THE

REPORT

The future of HD ENG … … delivered today.

Live Remotes

First-to-Ai

High HD Quality

Operational

Flexibility

News Archive

http://pro.jvc.com

Very Affordable

This Report, promoting JVC’s highly cost effective ProHD ENG acquisition format, is directed towards:

 TV Station General Managers  News Directors  Engineering Directors  Group Station Executives  TV Network O&O Executives

This Report informs the TV broadcast community of the emerging operational and technical issues facing local TV news in transitioning to HD ENG, and how JVC’s ProHD format and products are delivering highly economical and professional HD solutions to TV stations in 2007.

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JVC Professional APRIL 2007 NAB-2007 The ProHD Report

Table of Content

Page

The Future of HD ENG …………………....……… 3

The New Economy of Local News ……….…... 4

The Demographics of HD Audiences …….….. 6

Value of demographic segments ………………..….... 6

News Delivery in SD & HD ……………….…..… 7

The NTSC Transmitter Chain vs. ATSC ………........ 7

Home Presentation vs. Audience Share …………….. 7

The Reality of the Wide Screen …………………........ 9

The Reality of the 6x Image Resolution …………… 10

HDTV for the masses ………………………………….... 11

The EBU and BBC testing …………………………….... 13

Your most cost effective HD investments …………..13 The TV Station-to-home Delivery Chain …………... 13

When is the right time for HD news …….............. 14

Winning more viewers with ProHD …..……… 15

High Quality = Full Bandwidth HD ……………….......15

Live HD Remotes = 2GHz BAS Relocation ……….…16 First-to-Air = Easy Microwave ………………………... 18 Operational Flexibility = Direct-to-Edit ……………...21 ProHD NLE Workstations ……………………….………..24

News Archive = Fast Retrieval …………................ 25

Remote POV applications …………………………….... 26

WiMAX & Fiber IP …………………….….….…… 27

WiMAX wireless broadband is (almost) here ….…..27 Fiber-wired IP backhaul ……………………………….… 28 Microwave, WiMax or Fiber IP? ………………….…… 30

Legacy vs. new HD CODECs ……………….…... 31

Legacy HD CODECs are 10+ years old …………… 31 The new HD CODECs ………………………………...… 32 Native Acquisition Pixels presented to Home .….. 34

Lenses for HD ENG ……………………….…….. 38

Professional ENG requires interchangeable lenses.38

SD lenses on HD camcorders? …………………….....39

The GY-HD250U HD ENG Camcorder ….….. 41

Professional Features – Advanced Technology .. 42 GY-HD250U Camcorder System Options ………... 43

IMPORTANT: This ProHD Report has been authored by nordahl.tv LLC on behalf of JVC

Professional America for publication at the NAB-2007. Competitive specifications stated herein are believed to be accurate at time of writing. Readers of this Report are encouraged to contact other sources including other manufacturers to obtain the latest specifications, as well as points of view and analysis other than those presented and concluded in this Report. Trademarks: trademarks found in this Report are the sole property of their respective owners.

All company, product and systems names and

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JVC Professional APRIL 2007 NAB-2007 The ProHD Report

The Future of HD ENG … is now

Local, national, and worldwide television news must have the capability to go live on the air with the late-breaking news, with live pictures from the remote site, and, when appropriate, live interviews between the news anchors and the field reporters. Whether from ENG helicopter, ENG van, handheld or shoulder-carried, instant wired or wireless delivery of news to the TV station with HD quality is an absolute necessity for local TV news success.

Although more and more television news will be accessed on portable devices with limited resolution, TV stations’ primary outlet will remain the millions of home viewers who demand HD quality content to be displayed on their HDTV sets. Content is king, but the audience ratings victor will be the TV station with the best live news images day after day, as we can assume that, in the news business, the TV stations in the same market deliver more or less the same news stories. Differentiate

your station from the others, be the first with HD news in your market, and do it economically, before the other stations do.

Strength of local news is critical to generating local time sales. HD news and HD ENG obviously make your local market position stronger.

The competition for eyeballs is fierce, and expected

to get even more competitive over the next several years, as cable, web-based and mobile video news services develop, causing local TV advertising

dollars to consider moving to newer electronic media. As a TV station having done news for years, you already have the necessary base infra-structure from which you can launch your HD market attack, to increase your audience share for news and, indirectly, for day-time and prime-time programs.

Let’s agree: Just as network programs lead-in and build your local news audience, great local news broadcasts will lead-in and build audience for network and syndicated programming, as your popular local news talent may promote your prime time and syndicated shows.

Are you offering video ads on your TV station website? Increase your local news

audience and your website visits increase, which in turn may get you a lot more website ad revenue. Local HD news is again the key to profitability. Extended coverage of community affairs, local events and public relations in HD support audience gains.

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JVC Professional APRIL 2007 NAB-2007 The ProHD Report

The objective of this Report is to give the reader, whether in engineering, news, production or executive management, a solid foundation upon which to make the best decisions in the transition from SD to HD ENG news.

You want higher audience share for your newscasts, because that is the way to higher profitability. And, similarly, you want lower cost of investment and operations. In simple terms, higher audience share for local newscasts is a competitive function of content, talent and presentation, let’s say, in equal measures.

The competitive advantages for the #1 TV station for news in a given market are usually small, supporting an attack (or defending an attack) using new cost effective HD technology must be considered to be part of any larger competitive strategy.

But HD audience is still small compared with SD audience. Why worry about HD News in 2007? This is exactly your dilemma. If you delay the HD news transition, you run the risk that your station will fall behind the other stations in your market, causing you to be on the defensive. Be assured that the other stations in your market are evaluating if not already planning or even implementing HD news right now. You really need to look at HD News in 2007, and make your decision to start on the HD track from a fully informed position.

The New Economy of Local News

In a Top-20 TV Market, it takes serious consideration and guts to justify investing in HD news and HD ENG equipment less than top of the line. But if you are not in the Top 20, should you not look at the possibility of using ProHD camcorders in a studio configuration, or should you as well just select from the traditional and very expensive HD studio camera offerings?

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JVC Professional APRIL 2007 NAB-2007 The ProHD Report

With the new economic realities in local news, where perhaps total audience has been declining and ad dollars are being shared with other forms of commercial delivery to the home, your station must explore all seemingly viable HD news technology options, where the immediate and long term goals are optimum ROI and profitability. And don’t forget flexibility: If your station spends $5 million on HD news transition in 2007, you probably have to live with that decision for many years before additional capital becomes available. However, as an example, if you spend “just” $2 million, you may “buy” flexibility to adjust and re-direct as you experience the new realities of the local news economics as your local market dynamics change over the next several years.

The promise of JVC’s ProHD is to allow any TV station to transition to HD ENG particularly (but also in other areas of HD news) quickly and highly cost effectively, while providing the professional performance and features expected by TV broadcasters. Here is a small example of the differences just in the HD camcorder pricing, between the leading manufacturers (lenses not included, approx. list price as of March 2007), with features supporting HD ENG including pool feed, HD-SDI

and (relatively) low compressed HD bitrate (excluding HD camcorders with legacy HD CODECs):

Compressed HD bit-rate

JVC GY-HD250U $ 9,995 20Mbps Grass Valley Infinity DMC $ 23,000 50 or 75Mbps Sony PDW-F350 $ 25,800 18 or 25 or 35Mbps Panasonic AJ-HPX2000 $ 27,000 50 or 100Mbps

Later in the Report, we will analyze in-depth the related cost issues, which will show a remarkable cost advantage for the ProHD ENG system, and show how ProHD can in fact outperform the competing systems overall, in microwave, ENG Van, ingest, editing and archival issues.

Once you decide to go HD news, then equipment selection is governed by the products available (and working in a system) at that time. With the ever advancing state of the consumer electronics technologies and the availability of consumer HD camcorders for less than $2,000, and semi-pro HD camcorders for less than $3,000, it is even more essential that your local news presentation to your home audience be HD, and very soon. But it is difficult to justify spending $40,000 or more each for professional HD ENG camcorders with lenses for the news department these days. This Report may clarify this and other choices for your management team, and, perhaps, be great news for your CFO.

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JVC Professional APRIL 2007 NAB-2007 The ProHD Report

The Demographics of HD Audiences

To the TV Station GM, pretty pictures are nice but does not necessarily drive audience share and commercial demand. Numbers are needed, to convince top management that HD news investments are an essential strategy for market growth. A number of surveys have been conducted in 2006, with some very powerful market data and desirable demographics for advertisers:

 In households with annual income less than $50,000, only about 8% currently own a HDTV.

 In households with annual income over $50,000, nearly 30% currently own one or more HDTV.

 HDTV households with higher education levels are in

higher income brackets, and generally watch news more

than others, largely prefer news in HD.

 About 60% of all HDTV owners are sports fans, thus, presumably, would be eager to watch the HD local news and the sports reports.

 HDTV households rate as important to view national and local news in HD.

 Younger HDTV owners are affluent, sports fans, and not afraid of spending their money.

 Older HDTV owners are affluent, obviously not afraid of spending on high tech and worth-while products and services.

Value of Demographic Segments

In a survey made in 2003, commissioned by a major TV network, time sales professionals rated the extremely valuable demographic segments in the following order (with our addition about the likely HDTV viewing and purchase ability):

1) Baby Boomers (current age 42 – 60) --- Want HDTV, can afford it

2) Generation X (current age 31 – 41) --- Want HDTV, can afford it

3) Seniors (age 55 – 64) --- Can afford it, thinking about it

4) Generation Y (current age 10 – 30) --- Want HDTV, but lower priority

5) Seniors (age 65+) --- #5 for a reason

Couple this with the fact that audiences watching local and national news are on average 45 to 50 years old (not generation Y), your TV station’s quick transition to HD news support an early improvement in local news audience ratings.

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JVC Professional APRIL 2007 NAB-2007 The ProHD Report

News Delivery in SD & HD

The NTSC Transmitter Chain vs. ATSC:

When we look at the direct over-the-air TV transmission from a TV station, we know that the analog NTSC transmission chain is the major limiting factor in the picture quality delivered to the home, all other quality factors of the (SD) viewing chain being of optimal (SD digital) quality.

H Resolution V Resolution

NTSC TX 331 TVL/PH 338 TVL/PH

ATSC TX of up-conv SD 535 TVL/PH 338 TVL/PH

ATSC TX of HD 873 TVL/PH 756 TVL/PH

Source: CBS Technology 1997

It is interesting to note that SD video of highest quality has the opportunity to be presented as a higher resolution image through the ATSC OTA (over-the-air) chain than the same video delivered through the NTSC OTA, whether SD or as upconverted HD ATSC encoded. Also, it is interesting to note that a high quality digital home (SD only) TV set has the opportunity to present the SD video at a higher resolution by using an ATSC set-top tuner box with the SD output than receiving the same SD signal over the NTSC OTA chain. A TV station must convert to a

complete HD chain in order to be picture quality competitive in the future.

Home Audience Presentation vs. Audience Share:

The most important potential difference between SD and HD is the large screen viewing experience of the home audience, where the HD image offers up to 6x the resolution of SD, with little or no change in the viewing distance. There can be no doubt that the HDTV household will migrate to watch real HD programming when available, assuming acceptable content and talent. (Many years ago during the color TV transition, some people refused to watch B&W programs on their new color TV, desirable content or not!)

What about the home audience transition to HD? Consumer market research firms estimate that about 90% of the 110+ million TV households in the US will be HDTV households, or about 100 million, by end 2010. By end 2006, there were approx. 30 million HDTV households.

Remember the DTV sets sales statistics? CEA counted DTV sets, which included 480p capable TV sets, instead of just real HD sets. But now, nearly all purchases of DTV sets are real HDTVs, so no need to worry about the breakdown.

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Let’s use some round numbers to illustrate the audience share opportunity: By end of 2007, approx. 45% of all TV households will have HDTV capability, growing to over 90% of all TV households at the end of 2010.

We use the following simplistic assumptions:

 Major local market offers 5 TV stations with major newscasts  All stations share audience equally, for 20% for each station (5x 20% = 100%

of the audience for all the newscasts)

 One station initiated full HDTV news operations, to be the only station with

HDTV news in 2007

 45% of the total audience will have real HDTV capability in 2007

If there is only one TV station in the market converting to full HDTV newscasts in 2007, that TV station has an opportunity to capture that part of the audience having HDTV viewing capability, to theoretically possibly increase its share by up to 45%, from 20% to 65%, if all viewers with HDTVs tuned in to the only HD newscast in town! This, of course, will never happen, but it certainly would be a significant audience increase, as surely a significant share of the 45% with HDTVs would tune in the only HD newscasts.

Early bird gets the worm. If you’re in local news, the time to transition to HD news is 2007 and protect your local competitive position.

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JVC Professional APRIL 2007 NAB-2007 The ProHD Report

The Reality of the Wide Screen

The SD (NTSC) standard aspect ratio is 4:3 (1.33:1) while the HD (ATSC) aspect ratio is 16:9 (1.78:1), presenting a formidable challenge to broadcasters as they must maintain delivery to viewers of 4:3 services while transitioning to HD providing 16:9 wide screen service. Screen Viewing Area comparison between SD 4:3 and HD 16:9 at equal Picture Height, indicating that 16:9 viewing area is 1.3x larger than 4:3 area. Of course, equal picture height is not the norm as the consumer will nearly always replace the SD TV set with a HD TV set with a much larger screen.

32”

56”

49”

4:3

100% area

27.5”

16:9

270% area

Fig. 1: Screen Viewing Area comparison between a 32”

SD 4:3 TV set and a 56” HD 16:9 TV set, indicating that 16:9 viewing area is nearly 3x larger than the 4:3 area. Viewing distance is the same.

If we expand the exercise of Fig. 1, considering the most popular sizes of larger SD direct view TV sets (from 25” to 36”) and the most popular of the new HD TV sets (from the 37” flat LCD to the 62”+ rear projection D-ILA/DLP), we’ll find that we can use a viewing area comparison factor of 3x for the living/family room environment with the assumption that the viewing distance has not materially changed. In other words, the average home audience screen viewing area

increases 3-fold when the SD set is replaced with a HD set. (The 25” 4:3 SD set may be replaced by a 50” 16:9 HD set/monitor; the 32” SD with a 56” HD, and so on as perhaps an average.)

An important observation is that high (broadcast) quality SD originated programming up-converted to HD is nothing more than high quality SD when displayed on a HDTV set, and as such is insufficient to create a real and total HD viewing experience. (Even when using a top quality up-converter.)

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JVC Professional APRIL 2007 NAB-2007 The ProHD Report

The Reality of 6x the Image Resolution

The SD digital video frame of 720x480 equals about 340,000 pixels, while the HD frame of 1920x1080 equals about 2,074,000 pixels, a multiple of about 6. We can introduce the old Kell factor for viewing of interlaced TV signals depending on program material (fast or slow motion, much or little detail, bright or dim scenes), Kell says that maximum perceived viewer resolution is only 50% to 70% of interlaced program/display resolution. Kell is applicable to both SD and HD interlaced video. 1280x720 is the progressive ATSC format with an HD frame of about 921,600 pixels, but occurring 60 times a second, and substantially unaffected by the Kell factor because it is progressive. The 1920x1080 raster happens only 30 times a second, really as 60 fields per second each field being 1920x540. Also, remember that all HD encoding intended for “last mile” consumer distribution (like ATSC OTA and cable QAM) is at 4:2:0 sampling or total effective delivered “live” pixels to the HDTV display is 1.5 times luminance pixels. Now, look at total number of effective/perceived maximum pixels per second being presented to the home viewer, based on the Kell/Interlaced factor of 70%:

1280x720p60 x 1.5 = 83 million “effective maximum presented” pixels/sec (no Kell reduction because progressive)

1920x1080i60 x 1.5 (x70%) = 65 million “effective maximum presented” pixels/sec (after Kell/Interlaced factor: 70% of 93 million)

720x480i60 x 1.5 (x70%) = 11 million “effective maximum presented” pixels/sec (after Kell/Interlaced factor: 70% of 16 million)

The above figures imply that the 1280x720p60 images appear to be 7.5 times the perceived temporal resolution of interlaced SD, while the 1920x1080i60 images are, as we stated above, 6 times the temporal resolution of interlaced SD.

We note that the ProHD native acquisition format is full bandwidth 1280x720 at 60 frames progressive in the GY-HD250U model.

Through the years, a number of surveys have concluded that the average TV viewing distance in the typical North American home is 9 feet. Assuming that the home viewer is experiencing optimum SD image quality and resolution (but not seeing lines or pixels) on his current SD TV set, the home viewer, when the SD set is replaced with a HDTV with 3x the viewing area placed in the same location, can potentially “experience only” twice the SD area resolution per measure of viewing angle with 1920x1080 interlaced (6 divided by 3 = 2) while 2.5 times with 1280x720 progressive (7.5 divided by 3 = 2.5). In other words, the viewer may then move closer to the HD set (reducing the viewing distance) to a distance just before lines or pixels are visible.

, where,

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The real selling point of HDTV is now obvious to all of us: It is the much larger TV screen and the ability to reduce the viewing distance, resulting in the home audience’ ability to immerse themselves in the TV viewing experience. And the optimum home display format for TV broadcast seems to be 1280x720p60.

The HDTV for the masses (Home Audience)

In 2006, the average screen size of all TV sets (SD and HD sets) purchased increased to 32”, from 27” in 2005 (and 2004). This was no doubt caused by the sudden increase in the purchase of true HD televisions, pulling up the average by the larger displays, particularly large increases in the flat LCD TV category, which in 2006 were largely in the range 32” to 37” screen sizes. We forecast that the average screen size in 2007 will again increase significantly, perhaps to 40”, as the larger screen sizes are reduced in price through the year, and the sales quantities of the 40” to 50” sizes increase proportionally more than the sales quantities of the under 40” types. However, a slowing of the increase in average screen size happens in 2009 and a possible slight decline in 2010 when the large portion of HDTVs purchased is again in the range of less than 40” driven by “middle-to-lowincome household purchases”.

The first question is: Is the average home viewer able to perceive a higher temporal resolution at the average screen size of 40” if the material supplied was 1920x1080i60 rather than 1280x720p60, even TV studio originated material? We believe not, not even at 50” screen size except for a very few “professional viewers” .

The second question is: What is the forecast unit sales breakdown between HDTVs having 1280x720 native pixel matrix (including the related 1366x768) and the 1920x1080 native pixel matrix?

It becomes a selling price issue. Right now (March 2007), the lowest price for a 42” flat LCD HDTV with native 1366x768p60 is about $1,400 for a major brand model, while the 1920x1080p60 sells for about $1,900. The off brand 1366x768 progressive models are now heading for less than $1,000.

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JVC Professional APRIL 2007 NAB-2007 The ProHD Report

Forecasters recently have projected that about 35% of all HDTVs sold worldwide in 2010 will be 1080p models, and implying that the percentages in the years leading up to 2010 obviously are less. Let’s project that, of an installed base of 100 million HDTVs in the US by 2010, about 25% will be native 1080p HDTVs and about 75% will be native 720p. It’s a HDTV selling price issue, where it’s likely that the 720p models will always be around 30% less expensive than the 1080p models.

What about native 1080i displays? Sorry, all new HD display technology is progressive, thus there will likely be next to zero (0) native 1080i HDTVs in US homes by 2010.

What will 1080p do for TV broadcast local news?

An ATSC OTA (over-the-air) 720p60 transmission will hit the built-in tuner, decode internally to uncompressed 720p and then “up-convert” to 1080p60, resulting in true reproduction of the 720p60 images, for stunning TV station news studio shots, as well as HD ENG shots with the ProHD format.

An ATSC OTA 1080i60 transmission (note interlaced, as there is no 1080p60 path available or contemplated in the ATSC OTA path) will hit the built-in tuner, decode internally to uncompressed 1080i, and then “de-interlace and cross-convert” to 1080p. It is very technically challenging to convert HD interlaced to HD progressive, and, although the resulting HD video displayed will generally be very good, there is the possibility that artifacts may be visible to a trained eye, particularly HD ENG shots in 1080i which has been through several stages of processing, editing and color-space conversion.

So, what is the purpose of 1080p displays, if broadcast 1080i will not look better than 720p to the majority of viewers?

Its for HD-DVD, Blue-ray Discs and Games, once these media are produced and encoded at 1080p24/p25/p50 or p60. The home audience may at that time experience a perceived temporal resolution higher than that of 720p and 1080i.

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JVC Professional APRIL 2007 NAB-2007 The ProHD Report

The EBU and BBC testing and considerations:

In 2004, EBU recommended the use of progressive scanning throughout the acquisition and delivery chain. There was one overriding logical fact driving this decision: CCD and CMOS imagers are progressive devices (although we can electrically operate them in interlaced mode) and all future consumer displays will be of native progressive design (rear projection, front projection, plasma, flat LCD etc.) Why throw away temporal resolution and compression efficiency by making the digital intermediate processes and distribution in an interlaced format.

The European desire: Let’s be progressive from glass to glass.

BBC tests concluded that the average home viewing distance in the typical UK home is also about 9 feet. At that viewing distance, with a 50” HD monitor, it was clear in these BBC tests that a 1280x720 image would saturate the human eye with details, thus to increase the acquisition, the delivery resolution and the monitor resolution to 1920x1080 would not increase the perceived resolution by the human eye. It was noted that if the monitor was significantly larger than 50” at the same viewing distance, or the same 50” monitor at a significantly lesser viewing distance, an entire acquisition delivery chain of 1920x1080p50 would indeed improve the perceived resolution by the human eye, or, to say it differently, prevent the viewer from seeing “lines or pixels” in a 720p chain. Although the European decision is progressive, there are now planned several 1080i services, including BBC. But in the question between 1080p or 720p, the added costs in all areas of acquisition, processing, delivery and display in 1080p are NOT justified at this time, the Europeans conclude.

Your most cost effective local HD news equipment investments will be in the 1280x720p60 format area.

It is clear: About 75% of the US HDTV audience will be watching on 50” displays or smaller, and with a native resolution of 1280x720 (or the related 1366x768), and be 9 feet from the screen as an average, from now through 2010. The long term cost effective HD format choice for HD ENG & news for a TV station is 1280x720p60, even if you are a “1080i TV station”. 720p converts beautifully to 1080i going into master control. The ProHD format is very well suited for great looking, economical HD news from the field.

The TV Station-to-Home Delivery Chain:

The shortest path between two points is a straight line! That says it all. The ATSC delivery over the air directly to the home ATSC receiver (whether STB or built-in) is the highest quality consumer level HD delivery available, bar none. Not even the emerging HD-DVD and Blue-ray may be as good, with all its multigenerational processing, when compared with a TV stations live HD studio camera shots sent over the air directly to the home viewer’s ATSC HD set.

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