Yesterday I had the pleasure of seeing another technological innovation at Bradford’s increasingly exciting National Media Museum, a place that sits proudly in Bradford with its fantastic free exhibits, video game area and IMAX screen that compares excellently in price to the over-priced screens available elsewhere in the city and delivery a picture many times the size for a not dissimilar price.
One thing they are showing now – in conjunction with the BBC and only one of three places in the country to do so – is a new technology known as ‘Super Hi-Vision’. Though it does sound like something that would have been proudly promoted in front of a screening of ‘Thunderbirds’ it is actually a genuine technology, delivering a hi-def picture sixteen times more hi-def than hi-def with a 22.2 channel sound, which is like a beefed up 5.1 sound system except with twenty-two speakers and two bass channels.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. If you’ve just upgraded to a 42’’ plasma with full 1080p HD and a 7.1 surround sound speaker systems and feel miffed about the emergence of 3D television systems that will overtake it, you don’t need to feel short-changed by yet another new system. As the set-up, based in the small Cubby Broccoli cinema within the NMM, requires a 300 inch screen (this one set-up to receive images from a hefty projector) with sixteen speakers around the main screen and the other six elsewhere, it’s not going to be a system that will fit in the average living room, even if you could afford it.
At this point I’m going to be controversial. I’ve never really been that taken aback by standard HD. It’s only benefit I can see is that, as television’s get bigger the flaws in standard definition have become more obvious, and that’s its main benefit. I honestly don’t feel, in watching a HD broadcast, that I feel any more like I’m in the sporting stadium or up close with a panda. It’s just clearer and crisper. The only time I’ve really felt there is in the IMAX showings of the Dark Knight four years ago where, as the camera panned over shots of skyscrapers, I felt like I was up there. And, let’s face it. Who could house an IMAX screen in their living room?
But I still wanted to see this Super Hi-Vision to see what it was like. And, though the marketing speak of it being like a window into the room is not entirely spot-on – it still feels like you are watching the action on a screen – it is by far the crispest and clearest picture I’ve ever seen, the images on the screen bright and vibrant.
The set-up in the museum is not quite how I had it in my head. I’d imagined – and this is purely what I’d made up not what I’d read – that the hour would be that moment’s Olympics delivered in Super Hi-Vision but it’s in fact a forty-minute taster of the system. It starts with a five money explanation of its history and how it compares to Hi-def and it was this, combined with the specially generated sound, that showed off the increase in detail and improved sound.
What we got after this was a selection of material. Firstly there was elements from the Olympics opening ceremony, namely the forging of the rings section, the James Bond video and abseiling and the walk on of Team GB in the procession; then the 400m women’s swimming race where Rebecca Adlington won bronze (Sunday 29th July); and then chosen highlights from the basketball match where the USA beat Nigeria by, well, a “few” points.
Graphically, the Opening Ceremony looking brilliant in Super Hi-Vision and you could see everything in the stadium from the action in the centre to what people were wearing on the back row, even to the emergency exit signs right at the back top. Though a lot of the detail was due to the huge screen, it’s hard to deny that the new system makes more detail much clearer, but it’s still just a television image to me. Sorry to be a downer but it’s not quite the looking through a window feeling advertised, but this is most likely down to the lack of the atmosphere associated with the picture which is impossible to transfer. The people behind me in the cinema, before the showing, actually had an interesting conversation about smell and other aspects that make a thing feel real and whether that could ever be conveyed realistically. Also, it’s the ability to look around and change your viewing angle that makes “being there” realistically so perhaps the future will be combining Super Hi-Vision with Kinect style technology and some sort of modern smell-o-vision?
But, as far as new technology goes, being able to get a wide angle viewing of the opening ceremony where you could make out each individual participant and each one of the individual lights by people’s seats that lit up to form images was impressive to see.
The second element of the opening ceremony was a little bit of a missed opportunity. It spent most of the time pointed at one of the large screens showing the James Bond pre-video section which, one assumes, wasn’t filmed in Super Hi-Vision, so aside from the static shot of the stadium in the format it was like someone demonstrating High Definition by showing you a film of it on their mobile phone.
The athlete walk on was the most impressive part with the small elements of ticker tape fired onto Team GB being very crisp and life-like and the huge shot of all the athletes in the stadium visually very impressive.
Onto the swimming and the sound was impressive but not as good as the pre-generated sounds in the opening titles. It didn’t quite feel like we were there but it was immersive. The water as the swimmers did their bits was clear and you could make out all the ripples and I spent much of my time looking far at the back to the crowds, which were all crisp, emphasising the detail. I also noted that there were very few empty seats, you’ll be glad to know.
Oh, and how many people there are wandering around with steadi-cams getting in the faces of swimmers, something you obviously don’t see on ordinary television broadcasts.
Oh, and how they need two people to present the winners, one with a medal then another with a small bunch of flowers. Weird.
Sound wise the basketball one was the most impressive with the individual noises of each player on the court audible. But it never felt like I was in the crowd. The impression of people sitting behind me and noise from all around wasn’t really captured and the sound seemed very front facing, certainly not as impressive as the audio demo at the start comparing the music of a live orchestra on a 2, 5.1 and 22.2 sound system. But, again, all the detail of the crowd was visible and it was a very detailed picture.
After a forty-minute showing the film came to an end and I could reflect on what I’d seen. Detail wise the images are impressive and the sound involving, but as we’ve had these sort of images thrust at us over the last few years the immediate wow factor isn’t present. If it was physically possible for the average house to have a 300-inch screen in their home then this technology would be fantastic, as showing HD on that screen would be as low-quality as watching standard definition on a 40’’+ television is now. But, whereas HD and 3D have found their way into homes I don’t see this finding it anytime soon due to the lack of difference on a living-room sized set. And, for all the extra speakers, the sound system wasn’t any more startling than in your average cinema screen I’m afraid, and I wouldn’t have known it was 22.2 if I hadn’t been told. Whether that is down to the lack of microphones picking up the sound in the Olympic stadium compared to the purposeful set-up in the orchestral demo, I don’t know.
Where I do see it working will be in cinemas and theatres embracing the special showings like they have of the Olympics and the Wimbledon final, the latter in 3D, where people go to the cinema to get an experience, like IMAX, that it’s impossible to get at home. That’s where I see Super Hi-Vision coming into its own, not at consumer level.
That is, of course, if cinemas have the funds to upgrade their screens and sound systems after investing heavily in digital and 3D screens.
So though I wasn’t blown away by Hi-Vision, just impressed by the detail, I am happy that the National Media Museum has, once more, secured a technology on display, for free, in Bradford, the only other city outside of London and Glasgow. That is certainly something to celebrate alongside our increasing gold medal tally.
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