430 companies from around the world represented at the 4K HDR Summit in Seville

• The UHD World Association, the UHD Alliance, the UltraHD Forum and the 8K Association will participate in this annual event “Where technology and content have time to talk”
• It is the only event in the world that brings together the international Ultra High Definition associations
• Seville hosts the 10th edition of the 4K HDR Summit, to be held at the Cartuja Auditorium from November 11 to 14 in hybrid format, coinciding with the 21st edition of the Seville European Film Festival.

The 4K HDR Summit will once again be attended by the most relevant Ultra High Definition associations on the international scene: Ultra HD Forum, UHD Alliance, 8K Association and, for the first time, the UHD World Association (UWA), of Asian origin, will also be present. The four major UHD associations, representing a total of 430 companies and organizations, will discuss the present and future of 4K and 8K technology worldwide at the tenth edition of the 4K HDR Summit, from November 11 to 14, in Seville.

Interoperability to ensure a premium experience, sustainability, development of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and distribution of content through OTT to improve the viewer experience are some of the major challenges that the major international Ultra High Definition (UHD) associations are facing in the near future.

UHD Alliance, Ultra HD Forum, 8K Association and UHD World Association, the four major associations of the UHD worldwide, which bring together the leading companies in the audiovisual industry with a total, will not miss this annual event “Where technology and content have time to talk” to be held in hybrid format with two face-to-face sessions (Monday 11 and Tuesday 12 November) in the Cartuja Auditorium and two virtual ones (13 and 14), coinciding with the 21st edition of the European Film Festival of Seville.

UHD Alliance and its fight for a premium experience

One of the great attractions of the tenth edition of the 4K HDR Summit will be the presence of the UHD Alliance, with 30 members, which will be represented by Bill Baggelaar, current president and one of the main responsible for its creation in 2015. Nine years of progress in which the UHD Alliance has worked tirelessly on one of its greatest challenges: the Filmmaker Mode, with the goal of consumers getting an “authentic and elevated experience with UHD and HDR, as well as being able to see the content as the filmmakers intended it to be seen”.

For this association, the consumer being able to enjoy an image as it was shot has been a challenge in addition to many other challenges that have emerged over the years, such as the more recent implementation of “an ambient light compensation methodology that could give consumers a better overall experience” of HDR content or the development of “a new mastering environment specification that can actually handle this increased dynamic range”.

Within the intense work carried out by the UHD Alliance, sustainability and interoperability to achieve a “premium consumer experience” are extremely important aspects, as is the viability of OTT for content distribution or the huge impact that Generative Artificial Intelligence is expected to have on the industry. “We’ll figure out how to use generative AI in a way that really allows us to tell stories that we might not be able to tell otherwise, or get more stories or better stories that might not otherwise reach the same kind of audience,” advances Bill Baggelaar.

UltraHD Forum, focused on effective service delivery

The Ultra HD Forum, with 27 members, could not miss a new appointment of the 4K HDR Summit in which Ian Nock, chairman of the Interoperability Working Group at the UltraHD Forum and CEO and managing consultant of Fairmile West, will participate, as well as Tonio di Stefano, director of networks and platforms at RAI and president of the UltraHD Forum Italy. Among other topics, Ian Nock will discuss interoperability for a connected world as the set of issues arising from the interconnection of products from different manufacturers, from technology, content and production to the end of the process.

For many years, “the UltraHD Forum has been working on making things work together to increase the effectiveness,” says Ian Nock, who ventures that for the remainder of 2024 and 2025 this international association will move “beyond the technological aspects” to focus on “the effective delivery of services and the improvement of content creation, production and distribution” to improve transmission in terms of networks, transport, encoding, decoding and rendering of content on television screens.

According to Ian Nock, among the many challenges that are addressed from the UltraHD Forum for the not too distant future are the conversion of formats and sustainability as major challenges. Similarly, it advances that “the 4K HDR content will be deployed in the first term in systems based on Internet Protocol (IP)” and will become the main method of content delivery.

8K Association: 8K, one of the major trends of the year

The 8K Association, with 22 members from various areas of the ecosystem that comprise it, will be represented by Juan Reyes, its chief operating officer. Reyes will talk about the super-realism of 8K and how the technology is redefining the consumer experience. Many are asking what the current state of the 8K market is and Juan Reyes will unpack the advantages and challenges ahead for this cutting-edge format that the 8K Association is trying to promote around the globe with its 22 members.

Although 8K has to contend with a lack of a unified message about what it really is, falling selling prices, a slowdown in global sales of 4K and 8K displays, and a lack of native 8K content, Juan Reyes points to “8K as one of the top five technology trends of 2024.“ The COO of the 8K Association is optimistic in the development of this technology in which there has been “a significant increase in native 8K content capture and an expansion in 8K-compatible products” in recent times.

These circumstances invite further progress in the 8K ecosystem, with more companies and devices supporting the capture, editing, encoding and distribution of 8K content. In addition, advanced AI scaling capabilities will allow “8K displays with these capabilities to visually enhance 4K or even HD content“. According to Juan Reyes, 8K is not a utopia, but a reality that has been recently confirmed with the broadcasting of the Olympic Games in 8K, 60p and HDR from Paris to different parts of the world.

UHD World Association, in pursuit of 4K and 8K standardization.

Liqiang Zhao, Global Content Partnership at HUAWEI and representative of the UHD World Association (UWA), an international association dedicated to promoting the development, adoption and standardization of technologies related to Ultra High Definition and 8K video, which already has a total of 360 members, will attend the 4K HDR Summit from the Asian giant. The association, based in China, seeks to create a global ecosystem that enables the media and entertainment industries to take full advantage of the capabilities of UHD video, as well as other emerging technologies linked to the improvement of the audiovisual experience.

The UHD World Association is a key player in the global growth and adoption of Ultra High Definition (UHD) technology. Its focus on standardization, consumer education, technology development and promotion of UHD content drives the industry towards a future where images and video at 4K and 8K resolutions are the norm, providing a much more immersive and detailed viewing experience for users worldwide.

The Sichuan UHD Video Alliance (SUVA), which will be represented by Cao Ju, senior project & media planner of the association, will also be present in Seville, from one of the largest regions in China, Sichuan.

The conferences of the 4K HDR Summit 2024 can be followed on Medina Media Events’ ‘The Observatory’ and will be available 24/365. On this platform, attendees can also schedule video meetings with other participants and speakers, in addition to exclusive virtual demonstrations.

The tenth edition of the 4K HDR Summit is organized by Medina Media Events and has the support of the Digital Agency of Andalusia (ADA), Dolby, MOME, Vicomtech, Canal Sur Radio and Television, EVS, Synamedia, Fraunhofer IIS, Axion, Mediakind, Ateme, AJA, Hispasat, Quantum, Cellnex, Eutelsat, Rohde & Schwarz, Canon, Sapec, AEQ, Gsertel, Hurí and UHD Spain, among others.