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In the continuity of the experiments already conducted in Ultra-HD at Roland Garros 2018, France Télévisions sets up this year an event channel, available on-air via TNT, satellite and IPTV throughout the two weeks of the tournament.
The offer
The channel france•tv sport 4K Ultra HD will be available free of charge 24 hours a day. From May 26 to June 9, it will offer live coverage of the court Philippe Chatrier and replays of the best matches at the end of each day.
Several ways to access the programs in France:
Channel 81 of the TNT, provided to own a TV equipped with a tuner DVB-T2 and to be located in the coverage area (Paris, Nantes and Toulouse)Channel 444 on the Fransat satellite offer.Channel 995 on the Orange box, for subscribers of a 4K fiber offer.
As last year, the Ultra HD image is offered on the TNT and Fransat in 4K resolution, in high dynamic range (HDR) and extended colorimetry associated with immersive and interactive audio using MPEG-H Audio, which offers the possibility to the user to adjust the level of the commentary and enjoy the atmosphere of the court in 3 dimensions. This is called Next Generation Audio. Today there are multiple MPEG-H devices available on the market ranging from 3D sound bars, Set-top-boxes to TV sets. Existing MPEG-H enabled TV sets are offering a simple stereo rendering over the TV speakers, and the first Next Generation Audio user interfaces integrated into the TVs are announced on 2019/2020 models.
On the Orange fiber network,for compatibility requirements with the installed based of 4K decoders, the video signal is identical but converted into standard dynamic range (SDR) and colorimetry. As for the audio, it is available in the form of 3 stereo presets: the French version, a French version with enhanced commentator level for the hearing impaired or for people listening in a noisy environment, as well as a version proposing the 3D Audio atmosphere of the Philippe Chatrier court in binaural for headphone playback.
The Setup
On site, the production truck of France Télévisions (La Fabrique – Toulouse) produces in parallel the international HD signal in addition to the Ultra HD video signal whose characteristics are as follows:
Resolution 3840 x 2160 pixels,50 frames per second,SDR / HDR HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma)extended colorimetry BT.2020
This production is made possible thanks to 14 Ultra HD cameras. Two cameras placed at the tennis net, slow motion cameras and graphic dressing being produced in HD, then upconverted.
The sound from the Philippe Chatrier court is captured as last year by means of ultra-directional microphones which cover the field, the players and the referee, associated with several microphones placed in the stands, including an ORTF-3D mic from Schoeps which serves as main sound capture for the ambiance. To generate the metadata necessary for the adaptation and interactivity of the Next Generation Audio MPEG-H signal, the production tools from Jünger and Fraunhofer IIS are used in the OB van.
The Ultra HD signal and the associated audio are then transmitted over IP by a single-mode optical fiber from the venue to France Télévisions headquarter.
It is the final control room of France Télévisions, the CDE (Center of Diffusion and Exchange) which recovers the signal in order to realize the dressing of the chain: switch of live and replays, trailers, advertisements, insertion of logos , scrolling texts, etc. then adapt the characteristics of this chain to the different distribution networks.
At the output of the final control room, the Ultra HD channel, whose high dynamic range is in HLG format, is converted for distribution in another high dynamic format: HDR10. Equipment from Cobalt and Technicolor are in charge of this conversion, which is accompanied by dynamic metadata in the SL-HDR2 format. This metadata is interpreted by compatible HDR TVs in order to adapt the visual rendering to the TV’s dynamic and colorimetric capabilities. In parallel, as explained above, the high dynamic HLG is also converted into standard dynamics to feed the Orange IPTV network.
Finally, these different versions of the chain are each encoded by a dedicated ATEME equipment.
