Development of Full-featured 8K Recorder

摘要

NHK has been researching a full-featured 8K UHDTV system with the high frame-rate of 120-Hz (8K/120-Hz) for future broadcasting. — We have developed 8K encoder and decoder boards that support a popular video codec widely used in non-linear editing (NLE). Installing these boards into our prototype 8K recorder realizes real-time 8K/120-Hz compression and decompression. The recorder can store 60 minutes of a compressed stream in a single removable memory with solid-state drives (SSDs). We constructed an 8K post-production system and performed an 8K/120-Hz editing experiment with recorded content. In the system, an NLE machine was connected to RAID devices through a high-speed interface appropriate for transferring a compressed 8K/120-Hz source. Common NLE software was used that works with 4K/60-Hz video reproduced from original 8K files by applying the resolution scalable decoding function of the codec, and edited scenes were finally rendered at 8K/120-Hz. With the 8K/120-Hz NLE system, approximately 350 minutes of footage were handled, and more than 100 minutes of content were mastered. — To perform an 8K full-frame preview at editing sites, we also developed a peripheral play-out module that incorporates a decoder for the recording codec and 8K/60-Hz output interface (quad-link 12G-SDI) in a single PCIe card. By driving two modules in parallel, we achieved real-time 8K/120-Hz play-out in a workstation. Furthermore, a compact removable memory with a non-volatile memory express (NVMe) interface for offering good connectivity with editing systems was prototyped. — These achievements can provide cost-efficient editing and play-out, which makes 8K/120-Hz post-production more convenient than ever before.