With Samsung and LG joining Sony, Panasonic, HiSense, TCL and Sharp in announcing High Dynamic Range (HDR) TVs it is fairly clear that there is strong momentum behind this, the next major upgrade to screen technology. No surprise then that BrightSign, the global market leader in digital signage players, created quite a stir when the company announced that all existing 4K players in the field can be upgraded to support HDR10, and new players will ship with native 4K HDR support once the firmware is officially released.
HDR vastly increases the color gamut to 1024 shades of each color, enabling the display of colors that couldn’t be reproduced on screen before. Together, the higher resolution of 4K and the increased luminosity and richer colors of HDR will transform the viewing experience. BrightSign 4K players already deliver 10-bit per channel (YCbCr) color, so only a firmware update is required to ensure compatibility with emerging HDR screens. HDR support will be available for all BrightSign 4K players with release 6.1 of the firmware, which will include HDMI 2.0a support.
“Invest in one major advance in display technology and BrightSign is giving you the next one free,” said Jeff Hastings, CEO of BrightSign. “HDR vastly increases the color gamut to 1024 shades of each color, enabling the display of colors that couldn’t be reproduced on screen before. Together, the higher resolution of 4K and the increased luminosity and richer colors of HDR will transform the viewing experience. Once you’ve seen HDR on a 4K screen, you won’t be satisfied with anything else. The experience is as good as high quality print.”
Jeff Hastings added, “HDR is an ecosystem, like 4K and the entire chain from the source to the screen needs to support the standard to realize the benefit. Again, I believe that adoption in the digital signage industry will be fast, since we have control of the content from creation to screen.”
The hardware requirements for a transition to HDR are two-fold. HDR requires 10-bit as opposed to 8-bit per channel color, and needs an enhanced HDMI interface known as HDMI 2.0a. BrightSign 4K players already deliver 10-bit color, and a platform software update is all that’s needed to support the full HDR ecosystem. HDR content should cost no more to produce, so the only investment is the price of a new screen.
