Rancho Mirage, Calif. (Palm Springs vicinity)
Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2007, 14h00-18h00

Wide Colour Gamut for Cinema and Broadcast

Instructor: Charles Poynton
Duration: 1/2–day

In association with HPA's 2007 Tech Retreat

Synopsis:

Cinema has had wide range of colours (“wide gamut”) for many decades, owing to the properties of colour film. The “P3” gamut of today's digital cinema does not quite encompass the gamut of film, but DCI adopted the “XYZ” colour coding scheme for d-cinema image encoding, and XYZ's gamut is unlimited. Will digital cinema evolve to encompass a wider gamut than today's systems? How will the transition be made? What are the constraints on forward and backward compatibility?

Several emergent display technologies are poised to enable wide-gamut colour in consumer devices – in particular, LED-backlit LCDs, and laser- and LED-illuminated DLPs. An IEC standard called xvYCC has been adopted that could enable wide-gamut television broadcasting, using an extension of YCBCR coding. Consumer electronics manufacturers seem eager to embrace the standard. But does it meet the needs of the creative community? Will xvYCC be deployed in a manner that enables creative intent to be maintained throughout the distribution chain?

In this seminar, Charles Poynton will outline the technological developments in capture, processing, and display technology that are leading to wide gamut colour. He will detail the P3, XYZ, and xvYCC encoding systems. In his view, content creators won't embrace wide gamut colour unless creative intent is maintained - that is, unless the creators can be assured that their colours will be delivered to the consumers fairly accurately. He will discuss his views concerning how xvYCC can be deployed in that manner.

Audience: This seminar is appropriate for technical professionals who are experienced in creating and manipulating color imagery for SDTV, HDTV, or digital cinema. It is also suitable for programmers and engineers. WARNING: Many graphs, equations, and diagrams will be shown.

Materials provided: Course handouts will be provided. Portions of the seminar will be based upon Charles Poynton's book Digital Video and HDTV Algorithms and Interfaces.

Fee: USD 225. Register at the HPA site.

Charles Poynton - Courses & seminars
2006-12-26