We have been talking about HDR for several years now as the next big advancement in cinema production. It was four years ago that we started to see HDR evolve from a buzzword into a reality, but I’ll admit that I never saw much HDR content outside of a trade show or showroom floor, and I’m guessing that is true for most of us.

It’s always a ton of fun to hear Atomos CEO Jeromy Young talk about his company’s new products. Our NAB 2019 discussion, beginning with the new display technologies Atomos has integrated into their just announced Shogun 7 monitor/recorder, was no exception.

The SUMO19 (Monitor/Recorder), and SUMO19M (Monitor), represent a new form factor in the growing line of recording and monitoring solutions from ATOMOS. With the need for more accurate monitoring and recording solutions for today's digital cinema cameras (that are capable of capturing and outputting HDR imagery), the SUMO19 and SUMO19M help content producers more accurately work with their camera systems.

At NAB, Sony announced a free firmware update for their popular PXW-FS5 camera that will provide Hybrid Log-Gamma and REC2020 color space recording via an additional picture profile, PP10. Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) is a clever implementation of High Dynamic Range (HDR) recording and playback that is backwards compatible with standard dynamic range displays.

Our booth presentations were a big hit at this year’s NAB show. Featuring a range of topics from HDR and cinematography tools, to livestreaming and branded content, panelists included working cinematographers, technology specialists, industry experts, and more.

I visited the SmallHD booth today to speak with CEO Wes Phillips about the new SmallHDR monitors, which they announced right before NAB. As Andy mentioned in his previous blog, the monitors come in three sizes: 17", 24", and 32".

Today SmallHD introduced their new line of SmallHDR monitors, which aren't that small at all. They have introduced three new HDR-capable monitors in sizes of 17, 24, and 32 inches. Each features a 1920x1080 10-bit LCD panel, dual SDI inputs and outputs, and HDMI in and out.

Canon has been capturing high dynamic range imagery for many years now with their Cinema EOS camera lineup. For instance, their new C300 Mark II camera captures images with over 14 stops of dynamic range with an extremely wide color gamut.

For years we have been hearing about the next great innovation in television displays. 3D, 4K, curved, you name it, there is always a new buzzword that is used to push consumers to buy new TVs. These display trends certainly mirror the trends in camera technology, both the good and the bad. The latest buzzword that you may have heard is HDR or High Dynamic Range displays.