Gearing Up for 4K Production, Part 1: Connectivity, Codecs, and Capture

When you?re making the transition to 4K production, choosing a 4K-capable camera or camcorder is only the beginning; you need to look at the entire workflow and assemble a toolkit of products that will work well together. You need to look at each piece of gear and locate your bottlenecks, identifying what works well and what doesn't. From SD to HD to 4K to 8K and beyond, the entire chain of gear for live video production remains roughly the same, and the weakest link in that chain will always be your limiting factor.

In this three-part series, we?ll explore discuss all the factors you need to consider as you gear up for 4K production. We?ll begin with a look at the two 4K formats and a discussion of why you?d want to shoot in 4K today even though most viewers and potential clients aren?t demanding it, and start to examine the links in the 4K live production chain with an eye to connectivity, codecs, and capture.

Introducing the 4K Formats

Today we find ourselves in an era of unprecedented change when it comes to video technology. The NTSC standard was introduced in 1941 in countries that had 60-hertz electricity, and except for some minor tweaks and improvements and the introduction of color in 1953, the standard changed very little over the next 60 years. read more...