Creation and Distribution of 4 K Content

Until recently, electronics-based video (whether analog or digital) could not achieve the same high-quality motion pictures at comparable cost, as could a 35 mm analog film. But rapid advances in key digital technologies over the past decade have brought digital cinema to effective parity with film-based cinema in terms of image quality. The advent of 4 K digital motion pictures, high-end format of new digital cinema distribution specifications, offers four times the resolution of 2 K digital cinema or broadcast HDTV. But 4 K poses unique technical challenges related to specialized imaging devices like cinema-grade digital cameras and displays capable of this high resolution. Creation and distribution of 4 K in a productive manner also requires access to advanced cyber-infrastructure such as high-speed digital networks, high performance digital storage and powerful computing resources. Creative techniques of cinematography and sound recording, design of performance spaces, and psycho-perceptual optimization of audience viewing/listening environments are also impacted. This also has an effect on the whole notion of what can be done with media remotely via network as opposed to what can only be done locally, in person. These are issues not only for the entertainment industry, but also for scientists, educators, medical researchers and government agencies who are adopting digital media and digital networking for their own demanding applications. There is thus a growing need for professionals with interdisciplinary experience covering media arts/technology, computing/storage systems and digital networking. The members of CineGrid, a non-profit international research consortium, are building advanced media-capable nodes connected by high-speed networks to create a global-scale test bed that can be used by an international community of collaborators working on a variety of projects exploring the future of content creation and distribution in bandwidth-abundant environments while “learning by doing” to train next generation media professionals through hands-on experiments.