In Broadcast - March 2014 - 64

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

N E W S

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 29 - MARCH 2014

InFOCUS

War Horse Gets 4K Screening
In the next chapter of the War Horse story, National Theatre Live in collaboration with Sony,
pushed the technological boundaries of live entertainment to a new level...

F

64

or the ﬁrst time worldwide, the
multi-award winning stage
production was broadcast live in 4K.
On February 27, National Theatre
Live (NT Live) broadcast War Horse
live from the New London Theatre
to cinemas across the world. The
broadcast was shown in Sony 4K
at the Curzon Cinema in Chelsea,
with the theatre production
projected using a Sony projector,
ensuring cinemagoers enjoy the best
possible 4K viewing experience. The
recording was available as a 4K DCP
allowing many 4K enabled cinemas
to also show encore screenings at
a later date.
Emma Keith, Producer, NT Live,
said: "NT Live is delighted to be at
the forefront of this new technology
and to continue being at the cutting
edge of live broadcast, particularly
with our production of War Horse,
which at its heart is a show which
involves some spectacular puppetry
- an art form which is thought to have
originated over 5000 years ago."
Creative Broadcast Solutions
(CBS), Technical Producer for NT
Live, with NEP Visions, NT Live's
long-term OB partner worked with
Sony, using Sony's F55 Super
CineAlta cameras equipped with
Fujinon Cabrio lenses to capture
the performance. NEP Visions
provided the technical infrastructure
and expertise to take the 4K content
from camera to satellite, as well
as recording and broadcasting a
simultaneous HD version.
The cameras fed 4K content
into Sony BPU4000 ﬁbre adapters
which generated 4K and HD signals
simultaneously, the feeds were then
sent to a 4K capable vision mixer to
create a live mix from the six camera
feeds, adding graphics and subtitles

(for the HD
version only).
Pre-recorded
supplementary
programme
materials
were ingested
onto a Sony
media server
to play in. The
live mix was
passed to the
satellite service
provider Links
Broadcast.
The mix feed
was recorded
on a Sony
MasterDeck,
both
for
archive and the
creation of a 4K
War Horse was recently broadcast in 4K for the ﬁrst time
DCP master
that was sent
satellite uplink and downlink facilities
to theatres around the world. NEP
to enable the delivery of the War
Visions also recorded 4K ISOs onto
Horse 4K signal from the New London
two additional Sony MasterDecks
Theatre to the Curzon Cinema in
for later use. As well as the groundChelsea. The Links Broadcast 4K
breaking 4K presentation, NEP
uplink operated alongside Links' HD
Visions provided a simultaneous live
uplink facility enabling the encoding
HD feed for distribution by Links
of the incoming 4K content. Using
Broadcast to over 1000 cinemas
four synchronous Adtec EN-100
worldwide in line with NT Live's
encoders the incoming signal was
existing programme of broadcasts.
combined into a single transport
David Bush, Head of Marketing
stream via an Adtec DTA3050
at Sony Professional, Sony Europe
multiplexor for onward transmission
said: "At the heart of Sony DNA
via a 1.5m antenna on Links
is the will to push technological
Broadcast's 4K uplink vehicle.
boundaries always further. Being
Rob Wickings, Managing Director,
able to demonstrate, with the help
Links Broadcast said: "This is a most
of partners, a worldwide ﬁrst live 4K
exciting development in broadcast
workﬂow from stage to screen, on a
technology and in live satellite
project as well loved and renowned
transmission in particular, and Links
as War Horse, represents a true
Broadcast are proud to be working
with the National Theatre and its
milestone in the development of
4K technology."
other technical partners on this
Links Broadcast provided the
revolutionary project which builds
upon our existing experience in
delivering major live events".
The 4K signal was uplinked on
to SES Astra's 3B satellite using
36Mhz of capacity in order
to achieve the maximum
possible video data rate
within the modulated
4K transport stream.
The incoming signal
was downlinked at
the Curzon cinema
in Chelsea via a 1.8M
L i n k s B ro a d c a s t
receive antenna
which was fed into
Adtec RD70 receiver
decoders
and
delivered to Sony's
4K cinema facility for
the projection.
Decoded 4K pictures were fed
War Horse gets the Sony 4K treatment at the New London Theatre

directly to Curzon Chelsea's Sony
projector with four times the
detail of 2K or conventional HD
television pictures. Sony 4K brought
unmatched levels of immersive
detail and realism to the audience.
Chris Bretnall from Creative
Broadcast Solutions said: "We are
proud to have been integral with the
NT Live broadcasts from the outset,
CBS are tremendously excited to
continue to exploit the latest in
emerging technologies to achieve
the best possible experience for the
cinema audiences."
Brian Clark, Commercial &
Technical Projects Director, NEP
Visions added: "NEP Visions is
delighted to be involved in the
ground-breaking event that is the
National Theatre's hugely prestigious
project, War Horse, being broadcast
live in 4K. This project is part of
NEP Visions' continuing push for
innovation in developing areas
of technology, to support our
production partners and remain at
the cutting
edge of TV."

Sony's F55 Super CineAlta camera 4K

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/?first=Phillip&last=Izzard&search=Go https://twitter.com/inbroadcast http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpzEatLsHdE&feature=youtube_gdata_player https://www.facebook.com/InBroadcast http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/inbroadcast/id468652679?mt=8 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.branded.inbroadcast&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5icmFuZGVkLmluYnJvYWRjYXN0Il0 http://WWW.INBROADCAST.COM http://ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/9460-war-horse http://ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/9460-war-horse http://pro.sony.com/bbsccms/assets/files/show/highend/pdf/Sony_Cinealta_Family_Brochure.pdf

In Broadcast - March 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of In Broadcast - March 2014