Las Vegas -- The UHD Alliance, an industry organization that includes DirecTV and Rogers Communications among its backers, has launched a consumer-facing logo and brand that identifies services, content and devices that adhere to technical specs that deliver a “premium” Ultra HD experience.
The group will use and license “Ultra HD Premium” logo to identify those products and services that deliver agreed-upon metrics spanning resolution, high dynamic range, peak luminance, audio, black levels and wide color gamut, among others.
“The diverse group of UHDA companies agreed that to realize the full potential of Ultra HD the specs need to go beyond resolution and address enhancements like HDR, expanded color and ultimately even immersive audio. Consumer testing confirmed this,” said UHD Alliance President Hanno Basse, in a statement.
The specs cover TVs (and other devices that are “under consideration,” distribution and content.
On the device side, products must meet or exceed metrics in areas such as image resolution (3840x2160), 10-bit color bit depth, and BT.2020 color representation, and support HDR, for example. Distributors must also support that same image resolution and color bit depth, as will UHD content masters.
UHDA was founded in January 2015. Board members companies include DirecTV, Dolby Laboratories, Netflix, Panasonic, The Walt Disney Studios, Twentieth Century Fox, and Universal Pictures, among others. Example contributor members include Amazon, Dreamworks, Intel, Rogers Communications, and Sharp.
Speaking here at a CES press event, Julie Bauer, president of Panasonic consumer electronics and chief marketing officer, said the TV maker’s DX900 series are the first sets to be certified with the UHD Premium label.
