Sony HDRC-4000 HDR Production Converter Unit

The HDRC-4000 offers multiple signal conversion capabilities to accommodate various distribution standards – spatial conversion, HDR/SDR conversion, colour space conversion, and OETF (opto-electronic transfer function) conversion. The unit supports HD 1920 x 1080 / 1280 x 720 (input only) and 4K (3840 x 2160) signal formats.

AIR (Artistic Intent Rendering) Matching function enables conversion of the intermediate production master (Sony recommends using 4K UHD resolution, S-Log3 OETF and BT.2020 colour space for HDR production) to any desired distribution format, such as HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma), PQ (Perceptual Quantizer), or SDR on an “as-seen” basis. With this feature turned on, the HDRC-4000 faithfully retains the producer’s creative/artistic intent – in other words, the final look and feel of the picture – onto the master monitor in the OB truck/master control room in the process of converting the intermediate production master to any desired distribution master format for broadcast. In addition to SR (Scene Refereed) conversion, DR(Display Referred) conversion is also available such as for CG or archiving materials.

The compact 1.5RU chassis provides 12G-SDI/6G-SDI/3G-SDI/1.5G-SDI, inputs/outputs, switchable either to 4K or HD, as well as supporting 16-channel embedded audio.

The simul-setting feature has been added to an MSU (Master Setup Unit) for simple setup and reducing mistakes for entire HDR production. The MSU distributes single settings to each device in the system at once. Sony cameras, CCUs, BPUs and HDRC-4000 converters can be identically configured from a single control panel.

The “SR Live metadata” packet reacts in real time.* It captures changes of parameter values as camera adjustments are made, under the creative control of the camera shader. The packet is embedded within the SDI signal and is ultimately recorded in files, making both signal feeds and files self-explanatory at every stage of the production chain. SR Live metadata from the selected production camera, can be read by the HDRC-4000 converter to indicate the exact conditions of the camera during shooting. This provides the information required by the converter for exact duplication of the SDR program from the HDR layer. It also allows each metadata parameter to be visually checked, both live and during post-production.

* With a few frame delay

For flexible and creative control of the HDR images, Sony has added “HDR Look” and “HDR Black Compression” that are highly sophisticated signal processing tools for SR Live.. The setting of the “HDR look” is used to adjust the picture appearance throughout the full range of the video signal. The adjustment for “HDR Black Compression”, on the other hand, affects the look in the dark regions of an image. The Introduction of this new feature is intended to clarify the signal settings of the video camera and HDRC-4000 HDR converter by clearly separating the selection of the OETF from the setting of the image looks.