Why 4K streaming is the future of TV broadcasting
It may be the next big thing in displays, but the uptake of 4K in Australasia requires more than acceptance by CE device makers.
Most integrators will remember the early 2000s, when the world was introduced to plasma and liquid crystal display TVs.
It was exciting new technology destined to revolutionise the way we viewed television. But there were problems – some that people called the death knell of high-definition TV, before it even began.
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The biggest problem was, of course, content. Put simply, there was none.
Now the industry is facing a similar challenge, brought about by the introduction of 4K Ultra HD displays and consumers’ propensity to download or stream content direct to their display.
The chief executive of US service provider Comcast, Brian L. Roberts, recently said: “I believe television will change more in the next five years than in the last 50.”
NanoTech Entertainment executive vice-president of sales and marketing Aaron Taylor agrees.
“There are a number of significant and related trends emerging that will shape the media industry in the immediate future and beyond,” he says.
“Distribution channels are merging and devices are defining the consumer’s media consumption. Much of that content will be viewed in the home on a large screen, but it will be shared with second or even third screens. But for the most part this is interactive augmentation, not replacement of the home set.”
Aaron says that for the market to evolve into a real-time world it cannot remain in a ‘silo’, with a precise program schedule, and deliver sub-segments at the convenience of providers.
Two driving forces in the market are pushing the adoption and use of connected TV devices: streaming media players and the TV itself.
According to market analyst NPD Connected Intelligence, there will be 202 million internet-capable TV devices in US homes in 2015, a 44% increase from the 140 million at the start of 2013. And it is likely that demand will drive the number of installed and connected media players to 31 million by 2015.
Strategy Analytics predicts a five-year compound average growth rate for these devices of 20% from 2012 to 2017. The research firm reported that in the US about five million people ended their cable and broadband subscriptions from the beginning of 2010 to the end of 2013, and that trend is pretty similar around the globe.
It isn’t that many of the people don’t want TV, they simply prefer internet streaming.
We’re at the beginning of a historical shift from watching TV to watching video – including TV shows and movies — on the internet.
“More than 50% of US broadband households have at least one consumer electronics home entertainment device that streams video and is connected to the internet,” Aaron says.
“Among consumers, the prevalence of connected devices varies by age, with the majority (70%) of consumers aged 18 to 24 being connected. But even one-fourth of consumers 65 or older have at least one connected CE device.
“Over-the-top (OTT) streaming continues to grow in popularity and in consumer awareness. For the first time, consumers are watching more than twice as much internet video on a TV set each week than pay TV video-on-demand. Also for the first time, consumers are watching more online video on a TV set than video provided by DVDs and Blu-ray discs.”
The percentage of consumers who view only streamed OTT content is small but growing steadily.
According to Cisco, internet traffic will continue to grow – upwards of 40% by 2016 – with online video accounting for more than 50% of the traffic. By 2017, almost 200 million consumers will watch online movies and TV shows.
The company recently reported:
• it would take an individual more than five million years to watch the amount of video that will cross global IP networks each month in 2017;
• globally, IP video traffic will be 73% of all IP traffic (business and consumer) by 2017, up from 60% in 2012;
• internet video to TV doubled in 2012;
• video-on-demand traffic will nearly treble by 2017; and
• content delivery network traffic, such as from Ultraflix, will make up almost two-thirds of all internet video traffic by 2017.
In other words, the market is only beginning to gain momentum. In less than five years you will probably think that selection of specific content for consumer entertainment or education is just the way things are supposed to be.
The 4K conundrum
Undoubtedly, one of the most significant changes on the horizon is the introduction and adoption of 4K Ultra HD video.
NPD Connected Intelligence claims that, thanks to continuing price drops, an increasing number of 4K TV sets are being sold. By 2015, it says, about 23 million will be installed and connected.
But with more people watching TV from streaming services, how will the increased bandwidth demands of Ultra HD video streaming and Australian ISPs’ preference towards data caps reconcile?
“The 4K label is not just a flat-panel TV specification, it is becoming an indicator of differences among regional markets,” Aaron says.
“Chinese consumers are buying 4K TVs at relatively low prices – without content, broadcasting or other elements of an ecosystem.
“The 4K sets are expensive compared with a typical family’s annual income. However, consumers are finding that the cost is well worth the overall opportunities available from a growing group of ISP-based gaming and viewing channels.
“Over the past year, industry analysts have revised upwards their projections for shipment of 4K Ultra HD TVs. This is based not only on heightened consumer interest but also the fact that screen production is much easier, and output is higher than originally projected.
“This increased yield enables manufacturers to deliver more sets for less money.”
Led by Innolux, panel makers plan to ship more than 30 million 4K TV panels in 2014. If they achieve their target, 4K will quickly become the most adopted TV feature.
The 4K market is supply driven, so price will the key. Panel makers are putting great effort into reducing panel costs, including:
• lower driving frequency to reduce the electronics cost;
• integration of panel electronics, such as timing controllers;
• revised backlight and LED structure to improve luminous efficiency;
• use of subpixel designs like RGBW for higher brightness and yield rate; and
• increased production scale to reduce depreciation cost and enhance yield rate.
The solution to the streaming problem could come in the form of 4K media players, such as NanoTech’s Nuvola NP-1.
Aaron says the Nuvola NP-1 was designed to deliver flawless 4K Ultra HD content. It is powered by a NVIDIA Tegra 4 quad-core mobile processor with 2GB DDR3 RAM and incorporates 72 custom NVIDIA GeForce GPU cores to provide enormous processing power and realistic graphics.
“The Nuvola is more than a 4K streaming media player. It will work with any brand, any resolution of television and isn’t limited to playing downloaded 4K content – it also streams 4K Ultra HD content.”
The NP-1 can stream content from a variety of sources, including the bundled UltraFlix UHD channel, which serves 4K content for streaming, and other services such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, XBMC, Amazon Instant and YouTube, which are pre-installed.
“The Tegra 4 is perhaps one of the most powerful processors available and features an outstanding built-in scaler.
“If you are receiving streams from any of today’s widely viewed sources – Amazon, M-GO, Vudu, Netflix, YouTube – which is only 2K (1080p) at best, it will look significantly better on your 4K TV when handled by the Nuvola NP-1.
“This is primarily because all of the ‘heavy workload’ – decoding, scaling, output – to the set is done by the NP-1 rather than being simply up-scaled by the TV.”
In addition to being able to decode 4K Ultra HD content, it can decode HD, SD and 3D movies, as well as 3D video games.
“The big difference between the Nuvola device and today’s video game boxes that also allow you to watch content, is that processing and streaming high-quality video content is more difficult and demanding than supporting video game play.
“So we attacked the most difficult job first, then added video game play.
“The 4K trends we’re seeing are a clear, significant push for 4K from the TV manufacturers – but we need content for them and everyone else in the 4K industry,
“Natively shot 4K movies and videos will find their way onto these 4K sets first, soon to be followed by the scanned and remastered videos from NanoTech’s 4K Studios and others.
“Also, more and more consumers will be producing their own 4K content with the advent of low-cost 4K cameras from the likes of Blackmagic, Sony and JVC. Then there will be the massively adopted 4K cameras from GoPro and forthcoming smart phones from Sony, HTC, LG and Samsung with their embedded 4K cameras.
“The challenges here will include robust and efficient 4K editing, sharing and distribution. More powerful PCs and GPUs along with enhanced encoding processes and ‘show me the beef’ bandwidth increases will help alleviate these challenges.”
However, the truth is that if ISPs don’t change their business policies then 4K streaming may not be viable here.
Netflix and M-GO have both stated that their Ultra HD streams will require no more than a 15Mbps connection. Amazon has said that it would not require more than 20Mbps. This will chew through existing data plans quickly, leading to exorbitant excess-use charges or widespread internet speed shaping.
At 15Mbps, one hour of streaming would consume roughly 16GB of data.
On top of that, 4K will never find a place in the industry if content providers don’t come to the party.
Subscription services such as M-GO, Netflix and Amazon have announced plans to launch 4K support in the US.
Amazon Instant Video says it is working with consumer electronics companies, Hollywood studios and TV programmers – including Samsung, Warner Bros, Lionsgate, 20th Century Fox, Discovery – to offer customers a premium 4K Ultra HD experience.
YouTube has also announced Ultra HD streaming capabilities. Its spokesman says: “Starting this year, you’ll see more and more products from major mobile, PC and TV partners using a new, more efficient video format called VP9.
“VP9 helps us bring HD to every screen at half the bandwidth, letting you watch videos in the quality they were filmed at without buffering or dragging down your network. We think this can have huge impact in emerging markets where internet speeds aren’t as fast, as well as bringing 4K quality to more screens.”
For Australia and New Zealand, access to content will remain the biggest challenge. For example, a director of Netflix contacted for this article said because Netflix was not available in Australia, it seemed that the topic of 4K streaming was not relevant here.
That doesn’t bode well.
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