ATEM: why just 1080i?

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Jon Hart

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ATEM: why just 1080i?

PostMon Feb 11, 2013 7:37 pm

Working with a partner to start live sports streaming. He just found out the tvs doesn't do 1080p. He's upset

I work for a high-end broadcasting organization and I notice we broadcast in 1080i 60 fps.

Is that the industry standard? Should i be worried that it doesn't do 1080p?
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Benjamin Higginbotham

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Re: ATEM: why just 1080i?

PostMon Feb 11, 2013 8:02 pm

prcoug wrote:Is that the industry standard? Should i be worried that it doesn't do 1080p?


The two broadcastable formats today (in the US at least) are 720p/60 and 1080i/60. Stations like ESPN have opted for 720p/60 as they want the progressive image and the extra frames (1080i/60 is 60 fields or 30 frames per second).

1080p/30 is pretty close to 1080i/60 and it is my hope that one day we get to see ATEM switchers support that. However at 30fps you'll be 1/2 the frame rate of 720p/60 which would more more ideal for action based sports. While 60 fields is only 30 frames, you do still get more motion (albeit interlaced) at 60 interlaced than you do at 30 progressive.

1080p/60 is the best of all worlds. This is the highest quality HD format is not not generally supported by many systems. That is changing, but today it is still considered pretty high end. Most broadcast switchers will do 720p or 1080i but not 1080p. Of couse that is changing pretty quickly, but it is what the landscape looks like today.

Personally I wouldn't be worried. You still have some time before 1080p becomes standard across the board, and getting a 16-input 1080p switcher for $5k is right out at this time. For your client it may be worth pointing them to this older document by ESPN outlining why they went with 720p - http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tvlist ... id=1614556 and remember that your ATEM can in fact do 720p/60 just like ESPN does.

By the way, most users can't tell the difference between 480p and 1080p. Simply adjusting the brightness of a monitor will fool them. Most of the broadcast pros here can tell the difference, but 720p vs 1080p is an even smaller gap and will yield really great results. For sports I would suggest staying away from 1080i as that will be a nightmare with the interface artifacting.

Hope that helps some,

Benjamin
Benjamin Higginbotham
TMRO - Making Space Commonplace

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