4K Takes Off

Jay Stuart reports on the advantages and challenges of filming factual TV in 4K.

There’s a strong element of déjà vu about the transition to the 4K Ultra-HD (UHD) standard in production. The resolution may be sharper, but the moving picture is quite similar to the market’s shift to traditional HD during the past decade.

“4K is to HD what HD was to SD,” says Chris Knight, the president and CEO of Canada’s Gusto TV, whose company produced some 80 hours of food-focused programming in 4K in 2015. “We are a broadcaster as well as a producer and distributor. Our channel is HD, but we decided to produce all content in 4K for international distribution. There is a big demand [for 4K] internationally, which will only grow.”

In the U.S., the proportion of TV households with 4K—which delivers four times as many pixels as HD—will reach 34 percent in 2019, according to research firm IHS. Penetration in European Union countries will hit 25 percent by then. More than half of Western European shoppers planning to buy a flat-screen TV this year are open to buying a 4K set, according to Parks Associates. The same research firm predicted that 330 million 4K TV sets will be sold globally by the end of 2019, up from just 2 million sold by the end of 2013. Penetration of 4K will get a limited push from the Olympic Games in Rio this summer. Olympic Broadcasting Services has said that about 130 hours will be covered in 8K Super Hi-Vision for Japan, and 4K versions will be created.

The area in which 4K is most quickly establishing itself as a production norm is factual TV. High-end documentary production leads the way. While the 4K format greatly improves the image quality of all content, nature and wildlife programs showcase its benefits in breathtaking detail.

WILD THINGS
“Given headlong technical change in general, the adoption of 4K is essential to being on top of the latest developments and also being visible in the market,” says Andrew Solomon, the head of natural history at Austrian broadcaster ORF, where 4K is now the norm for about 10 hours of nature programming per year. “Natural-history [filmmaking] has been vastly affected by technology, including drones, extreme low-light cameras, time-lapse, as well as 4K. And audience expectations are advancing just as quickly as the technology. New technology is [aiding] science too; filmmakers are discovering behavior that had been invisible to the top specialists, so it’s in everyone’s interest to move with the technology. The appeal of an even more detailed image was obvious in wildlife production. It satisfies audience expectations for stunning images with more detailed behavior. It also future-proofs library material, and allows post-production reframing to HD quality.”

The very first UHD production for Universum, ORF’s wildlife slot, was done five years ago, when Vienna’s Kubefilm decided on their own account to shoot the prizewinning Return of the Hoopoe in 4K. Post-production was in HD. ORF first invested in 4K three years ago with epo-film’s Wild Venice, by Klaus Steindl, for ORF, ARTE and NDR. Wild Istanbul is now in production. “These city-set projects are ideal for 4K,” Solomon says. “The sharp edges of the buildings contrast with the more flowing lines of wildlife and water.”

FUTURE-PROOFING
The shift to 4K is about the dual attractions of being able to deliver the highest available quality to the market while future-proofing content.

“We’re always paying close attention to changing technology, and we see 4K as an opportunity to offer consumers the best picture quality for our natural-history slate,” says Vanessa Case, the executive VP of content at Blue Ant Media, which produces and distributes more 4K content than any other company. The group’s recent joint venture with Smithsonian Networks has positioned its Love Nature library of 4K as the largest in the world, with series such as Land of Gremlins and Undiscovered Vistas. Love Nature rolled out as a direct-to-consumer content platform in February in a host of international markets.

“We’re producing this evergreen content with an eye to viewers enjoying it for years to come as technology rapidly evolves, and even [years from now], it will look stunning,” Case adds.

“We’ve moved into 4K to future-proof the masters of our films for UHD TV for when 4K broadcasting becomes the norm,” states Anthony Geffen, the CEO and creative director of Atlantic Productions. “It also gives us the ability to protect our archive of rushes for future productions.”

Future-proofing is especially relevant for documentary companies because their programs can remain saleable for many years. “Most documentary programs of the sort that we do have a long shelf life, so using 4K is a form of future-proofing,” observes Sabine Holzer, the head of TV at Vienna-based Terra Mater Factual Studios, which started using 4K about two years ago with natural history and now makes everything (about 20 hours per year) in 4K. “Our history programs are mostly about ancient history, so they have potentially long lives too.”

Japan’s NHK, which produced about 60 hours in 4K during the past year, aims to increase 4K production by 50 to 100 percent this year in drama, nature, travel, science, space, culture, performing arts, history, concerts, musicals and stop-motion animation. NHK even uses 4K to shoot news events.

While Japanese TV manufacturers have been driving 4K, penetration in Japan is expected to reach just 14 percent by 2019, IHS reports, even though UHD broadcasts are slated to begin in the run-up to the Tokyo Olympic Games the following year. This may be because Japanese families prefer smaller TV screens and the unique selling point of 4K is a better big-screen picture.

DEMANDING TIMES
Conventional wisdom has it that 4K on big screens could be a differentiator for traditional broadcasters in fending off Netflix, Amazon and other OTT major players. However, sports rights aside, the distinction might not hold, as the disruptors show a willingness to invest in 4K content, too. Netflix has commissioned Silverback Films to produce one of the most ambitious nature series ever done in 4K. The eight episodes of Our Planet, being made in cooperation with the World Wildlife Fund, won’t be ready until 2019.

Most broadcasters have digested the 100 percent transfer to HD—including multi-camera operations and workflows—too recently to contemplate a complete retooling in 4K, at least until worldwide standards have been established.

And the transition to 4K has its own challenges. “It’s more demanding to produce,” says Gusto’s Knight. “It takes a lot of time and effort, but the results are worth it.”

Keisuke Tsutsumi, the deputy head of NHK’s programming department, reports that “4K requires much more in terms of people, facilities and money. There are still not many camera operators, directors or other production personnel who are skilled in 4K. It’s vital to increase the number of people who have experience with it and to build up a base of production know-how. There’s a pressing need to get more 4K equipment such as cameras and monitors and to build more 4K-capable post-production facilities.”

Some companies use external facilities for their 4K edits. Many have 4K-capable cameras, but 4K-specific lenses are usually hired and remain a high cost factor.

In the early days of the format, the lack of portable 4K monitors for use in the field was a hurdle, ORF’s Solomon says. A year ago Austrian filmmaker Erich Pröll bought his first underwater 4K monitor for Universum’s Giants of the Atlantic: The Azores. The monitor provides a red outline around the part of the picture that is in focus, clearly visible even in low light.

Atlantic’s Geffen mentions larger file sizes, which mean more storage, higher costs and longer transfer time for backing up media. “4K requires increasing digital library RAID 5 storage, investing in faster editing suites and using faster servers to handle the bandwidth of the media,” Geffen says.

Blue Ant, a big early adopter of 4K, took things one step at a time. “Before we started production on our first 4K series, we met with post-production studios and camera manufacturers to learn about 4K,” Case says. “We inspected the technical specs for processing 4K, but there was limited detailed information in the market. We continue to learn and develop our process and technical standards and will never stop evolving as the equipment continues to evolve.”

There are of course cost implications, beginning with an initial investment in cameras and lenses, which are very expensive. Companies tend to rent lenses, and that costs more. Investing in 4K editing is also very expensive, but that cost is coming down as computers become more powerful and reduce the difficulty of handling the additional data.

“Many Japanese companies are rapidly developing 4K-capable post-production facilities,” says NHK’s Tsutsumi. “This is reducing the cost of 4K production. Nevertheless, it is still much more expensive and time-consuming. The exact difference [in cost] depends on each program, but broadly speaking, 4K production costs at least 50 percent more than 2K production.”

The producer of Wild Venice, epo-film, references a 10-percent budget hike needed for 4K over HD, depending on the length of production. The biggest cost in 4K production is in post-production and media storage.

“I would say there is a 20-percent increase in the cost of post-production and 10-percent increase in production,” Gusto’s Knight says. “For a show costing $3.5 million, that kind of increase is not just walking-around money.”

“There are higher costs along the [production] chain,” Terra Mater’s Holzer notes. “For example, mastering takes more time. At present, distributors are able to charge a premium for 4K as they pass along the added costs. In two or three years, buyers are not going to pay more. But by then technical costs will have come down. It was the same with HD.”

BUYING TIME
From a distributor’s viewpoint, the international market for 4K is taking off.

“4K channels are joining both the linear and OTT landscape at a rapid rate,” says Case at Blue Ant. To get started, “these channels need content in bulk and we can offer that. As sales of 4K TV sets continue to increase year after year, we will see this demand for native 4K content and services increase significantly. There is greatest interest for 4K content across North America, Europe and Asia. Brazil and India are up-and-coming territories in the 4K market.”

The fact that most buyers are not currently delivering 4K is no obstacle to delivering a ready-to-use product. A distributor can still supply a version in HD.

Meanwhile, 4K is now included in the initial dialogue in co-production discussions.

“Not all of our co-producers are using 4K already,” says Holzer of Terra Mater. “Some are still HD, so we make the program in HD for them. They know that we will have the 4K version when they need it. Blue-chip natural-history and science programs are expensive, so that’s an added measure of value. In a way, it’s even better for us because we are able to forge partnerships.”

Terra Mater’s biggest launch at MIPTV will be David Attenborough’s Light on Earth. The company also has a big, new three-part natural-history series being done in Southeast Asia.

“We are starting co-production conversations and will be pursuing those at MIPTV,” Gusto’s Knight says. “Thanks to the Canadian incentives, when you consider that we can get 50 percent in benefits, if you’re splitting the cost two ways, we can create content for twenty-five cents on the dollar. A show costing $3 million comes in at more like $700,000, so the added cost of 4K is offset nicely.”

PROCEED WITH CAUTION
When Atlantic began to experiment with 4K production, Geffen expressed caution. Two years ago he was saying, “It’s a bit like 3D. We have got to be careful that 4K doesn’t get a bad reputation because there isn’t any content.” While he sees the 4K market “growing day by day, mainly in Asian territories,” his realism remains. “Use of 4K is building all the time, but it won’t reach a critical mass for several years yet.”

“I don’t know whether 4K will replace HD everywhere in the world,” NHK’s Tsutsumi says. “In Japan, trial 4K/8K broadcasts will begin on broadcast-satellite TV channels this year, with regular 4K/8K broadcasts to follow in 2018. Japanese households will eventually switch to monitors that are 4K or better, and 4K will completely replace HD.”

But once 4K truly arrives, it will only be a step toward the even higher standard of 8K.

“If people who have only seen 2K are amazed when they see 4K for the first time, people who have only seen 4K will be lost for words when they see 8K,” Tsutsumi says.

It’s a safe bet documentary producers will be among the first in the as-yet uncharted 8K space too.

Pictured: ORF-Enterprise’s The Canary Islands.