Commercial Integrator February 2023 - 21

'All the Way Through'
" All the way through " is worth focusing on
because, if we're talking about true ultra-HD
applications, we're talking about not only
the displays but also the content, which
must be transmitted faithfully to them.
" [Transmission has] been the limiting
factor, " Mechdyne's Peterson states, adding
that we might see more plentiful ultra-HD
content as barriers to transmission are lowered.
Right now, he says, it's often a game
of making compromises between resolution
and refresh rate. Expounding on bandwidth-related
challenges, Taub concurs that
they're the main limiting factor for ultra-HD
content and that they often necessitate
escalating compression ratios. " It's certainly
possible to compress an ultra-HD stream
down to transmit over smaller network
connections, " she explains. " You just have
to increase the compression ratio. That said,
you may not be happy with the output quality....
Excessive compression may introduce
artifacts in the output, which can include
blocking, ringing, blurring, solarization,
posterization and mosquito noise. "
This is where network-infrastructure
considerations come to the fore. Although
plenty of network implementations still run
quite successfully on 1Gb infrastructure,
Taub observes that price points for 10Gb
switches are continuing to drop. " Many
large companies already have a 10Gb
backplane in place, " she notes, adding
that 20Gb and 40Gb backplanes aren't far
behind. Nevertheless, she states, outside
of specialized broadcast facilities running
40Gb-plus backplanes that are dedicated
to AV, nearly all network-distributed ultra-HD
content is going to be compressed.
" Many of today's compression algorithms
are visually lossless and can run on 1Gb
infrastructure without great detriment to
video quality, " Taub remarks. She adds
that, apart from lowering resolution, it's
possible to change frame rate, color space,
chroma subsampling and color bit depth to
decrease requisite bandwidth.
Further complications arise when AV
signals ride on the same corporate network
that core data does. " Video streaming
must be managed carefully in order to be
included on a converged network, " Taub
advises, noting that some IT managers
prefer to keep AV traffic segregated onto a
separate network or VLAN to avoid problems
like oversubscription or port flooding.
" Proper configuration of Quality of Service
(QoS) and multicast management settings
on the switches is critical to a healthy, stable
network, " she adds.
Is Ultra-HD Content Even Available?
But are we getting ahead of ourselves here?
For years, AV professionals have noted the
dearth of ultra-HD content to populate all
these dazzling displays. It's worth considering
whether that situation has changed. On
that question, our experts differ.
Iowa State's Pedersen doesn't mince
words, saying, " No, I have not seen a substantial
rise in available ultra-HD content.
The demand simply isn't there. " Offering
a similar view, DeWitt says, " Probably the
greatest limiting factor is obtaining source
material greater than 1080p. It is only in
the specialty areas where you tend to see
resources devoted to being able to store
and play back 4K or higher material. " And
even if ultra-HD content is more available,
DeWitt, who's situated in higher education,
just hasn't seen it used outside those specialty
areas. " Most teachers are displaying
or streaming things off their laptops and
These days, it's hard to avoid displays in out-of-home environments, ranging from offices and meeting rooms to more experiential
entertainment spaces like esports arenas. These eye-catching displays run the gamut from DVLED, to LCD monitors, to projection
systems.
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FEBRUARY 2023 Commercial Integrator
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Commercial Integrator February 2023

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