The Hong Kong Section’s 23rd Anniversary event was a two-day symposium themed “Developments in Broadcast Media Over IP and Immersive Technologies,” held at the Kowloon Bay International Trade & Exhibition Centre and Hong Kong Design Institute on 2–3 November. The seminar featured creative minds along with industry experts for a series of presentations and discourses with the aim to cover the development and applications of the latest technologies in motion imaging.
 
​The symposium, organized by SMI at The Metroplex, Kowloon, opened with the “HBO Camera Assessment Screening 2017” on 2 November, to a full house of 400 invited professionals. During the screening, HBO conducted a Camera Assessment screening, covering six significant cameras in professional cinematography in 2017. They included ARRI Alexa 65, Panavision Millennium DXL, Red EPIC-W 8K S35, Canon C700 Raw, Panasonic Varicam PURE, and Black Magic URSA Mini.
 
During the 60-min documentary, the machines were evaluated with fair, yet ultimate, testing environments focused on dynamic range, mixed color lighting, motion, wardrobe color and patterns, skin tone, and available light, providing insights into the imaging capabilities of each camera together with professional, extensive commentaries from directors of photography, producers, and HBO executives on each of their performances.
 
​The second day of the symposium featured a series of presentations, discussions, and demonstrations covering two major themes titled “SDI Transition to IP Network” and “AR/VR.” This two-track approach attracted 200 broadcasting and technology practitioners.
 
In the session on “SDI Transitions to IP Network,” various speakers from sophisticated technical backgrounds shared the latest progressions and applications with a specific focus on realtime audio and video transmission. The speakers included Henry Goodman, director of product development at Calrec Audio Ltd.; David Smith, technology manager at Rohde & Schwarz; Michael Proulx, media technologist; Addison Chi, and Raymond Lai, solution architects from Arista Networks; Mark Moore, vice president of international sales from Dejero, and Denis Pare, vice president of sales from Embrionix Design Inc.
 
​During the session, it was suggested that transmission over internet protocol (IP) is now being considered as a replacement for serial digital interface (SDI) in various contexts, e.g., broadcasting facilities, for its flexibility and agility in production planning and execution with the reduction of wiring. Additionally, software-based media processing on virtual machines with utilization of high-volume media servers could be executed more organically, in terms of virtualization. It was concluded that utilization of the IP network could set the new benchmark in media transition, taking over conventional SDI transition in the near future.
 
The “AR/VR” session included speakers Bernt Kåre Johannessen, vice president of production management from Vizrt; Nicolas Hatch, chief operating officer at Ncam Technologies; Fintan Mc Kiernan, chief executive officer of Ideal Systems Singapore; Percy Fung, production director, and Alex Cheng, IT Manager of Digital Magic; and Chen Dan, CEO of Kandao Technology. The speakers were invited to share their thoughts and showcase the cutting-edge insights in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). The discourse started with a discussion of the significance of applying AR technologies as strategies for audience engagement. Realtime applications in the AR and VR contexts were also demonstrated, suggesting the possibilities in future productions and live broadcasting implementations of blending reality with virtuality. Also, under the trend of popularization of VR technology, masterminds of the industry had demonstrated promising VR applications, such as 360 VR and panoramic stitching to 6 DoF reconstruction.
 
All in all, the two-day event was a success, pushing forward the standard and understanding of the frontline of media transmission and VFX applications, as well as facilitating the connections among the industry’s minds and creative talents. For more information about the symposium and SMPTE-Hong Kong, visit https://www.smpte-hk.org/
 
​Source:
Published in, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 127, Issue: 2, March 2018 )