IFA - Consumer Electronics Exhibition in Berlin

2018: Sensation at the IFA 2018 exhibition in Berlin and its "Russian roots"

From August 31 to September 5, 2018, the IFA international exhibition was held in Berlin - the largest exhibition of consumer electronics and household appliances in the world. IFA gathers more than 250,000 visitors each year. This platform gives companies the opportunity to present their latest products and developments. It is at it that the world's largest electronics manufacturers present their newest and most high-tech devices.

Main intrigue of IFA 2018

The most anticipated premiere at IFA 2018 was Samsung's presentation of its new Samsung Q900 TV, which was positioned as the world's first mass-produced television with a resolution of 8K. Earlier, presentations of prototypes of 8K TVs were carried out by different companies. Samsung promised to show a real commercial product, which in the near future can be bought in stores.

8K is a giant resolution. The matrix of this television has a size of 7680 × 4320 pixels. By analogy with photography, each frame shown contains 33 Megapixels. For example, photographs used to print glossy magazine covers have a resolution of about 10-15M pixels, i.e., 2-3 times less. If the 8K video technology is successful, the screen image of mass-produced TVs will bypass the quality of print products in terms of clarity. But resolution is not the only thing that was the pinnacle of technology in the expected Samsung Q900 TV. In Samsung specifications, support for the latest color space Rec.2020. The color space determines how colorful and realistic the image will be on the screen. To understand this, compare your sensations when you look at the real natural landscape, and when you see the same landscape on the screen of a regular TV. Until now, no screen could convey all the shades of color you can see in the autumn forest! In addition, Samsung licensed quantum dot technology (Quantum Dot) and based on this technology positioned the new Samsung Q900 as the first television created using QLED technology. All previous televisions used color filters to varying degrees to produce three primary colors: green, red, and blue. The problem is that color filters cannot give a "clean" color and there are always impurity tones in the main colors. It was this that was an unsolvable problem when creating images as colorful as reality. Using quantum dots as a light source for displays allows you to get perfectly clean base colors, and thereby get all the possible color shades on the screen. The simultaneous use of 8K resolution, the new Rec.2020 color space and quantum dot technology, no doubt, made the Samsung Q900 not only the most advanced television in the world, but also a device that opens the transition to a new level of technology. We can say that visitors to the exhibition were promised to demonstrate the future of the development of the entire television industry.

An additional intrigue in the upcoming presentation was also added by the fact that today there are no video cameras in the world that are able to shoot such a video. Already mentioned presentations of prototypes of 8K TVs used static photographs to demonstrate resolution, which even gave rise to discussions about the practical meaninglessness of creating televisions of such high resolution. Samsung also claimed to present a commercial product, and therefore it had to not only show a new TV, but also perform an unusual task - to create or find content that could fully demonstrate all its technical capabilities. The success of this presentation depended not only on future sales of the Samsung 8K TV line, but also on a more global task - the future of the new revolutionary technology 8K Super Ultra HD video.

Samsung Stand

At the huge Samsung stand, about ten of the latest TVs were placed. Their image truly stunned specialists, visitors and participants of the exhibition with its chroma, dynamic range and stunning detail. The choice of video for the worldwide TV presentation is interesting - it contains images from all over the world, including from Thailand, Hong Kong and the USA. As one of the main topics for demonstrating all the capabilities of their televisions, Samsung chose images of Thailand's historical parks. All stakeholders could examine in the slightest detail the world heritage of UNESCO, including the smallest architectural details, and thus appreciate the colossal detail of the image. The use of timelapse technology in creating presentations allowed viewers to feel the passage of time, filling the installation with philosophical meaning. The choice of natural subjects made it possible to see the features of the color transmission of televisions and show the colorfulness of the image, superior to reality.

Artistic video installation used in the presentation

Decisive for the success of the entire presentation was the choice of video, which, in fact, the viewer saw. Such a presentation video has the highest requirements for accurate compliance with technical specifications, quality, plot, attractiveness and artistic content. Therefore, it is especially pleasant that the author of this presentation is our compatriot, a well-known specialist in creative special methods of creating and processing images, Andrei Denisyuk. Andrei, having a higher technical education, has been developing high-tech image processing methods and creating works at the intersection of technology and art for 8 years.

To solve the problem of obtaining 8K video resolution, Andrei used a camera in photo mode. Each ten-second video consists of 300 high-resolution photos (timelapse). To make the video look dynamic and attractive, he used the camera movement (Hyper Lapse). Typically, Hyper Lapse causes a significant effect of image jitter. To avoid this, Andrei used his own Smooth Hyperlapse development. It also needed to address the need for a large dynamic range and coverage. To do this, he did all the processing with great bitness of images, and also used his own unique methods of their special processing. It is easy to understand that Samsung's technical control services very meticulously selected presentation materials, requiring full compliance with technical and artistic standards. Judging by the fact that Andrei's work eventually represented the company's product at the exhibition, he successfully coped with this non-trivial, almost impossible task to date.

The nature of Thai parks shown by Andrei is a very successful choice for presentation. The scenes contained a large dynamic range - from the shadow of temples to the bright sun, necessary to demonstrate the capabilities of televisions. Transmitted with realistic colorfulness, nature made it possible to see the capabilities of televisions, to show shades of colors. The detail of the images created by Andrei allowed you to consider each sheet on the tree. The creativity of Andrei's art work gave viewers the opportunity to literally feel the touch of the first rays of the sun, and Smooth Hyperlapse technology immersed them in the reality shown on the screen.

In the continuation of the presentation installation, the plot has changed, and now the audience is already on the streets of big cities. Modern technology is inconceivable without skyscrapers in Hong Kong and New York. Viewers saw in the works of Andrei Denisyuk the crazy traffic of Hong Kong, the world-famous views of the Brooklyn Bridge, the business part of lower New York and the glow of night Manhattan, taken from a bird's eye view.

High Technology and High Art

The presentation of the technical novelty, as a rule, leaves only the numbers of the specifications in its head. After the presentation at IFA 2018, the sensations are different, as after visiting the art gallery and, at the same time, as after getting into a colorful high-tech future that could be touched. The image on the screen of the new Samsung Q900 TV, represented by the works of Andrei Denisyuk, is not even television, it is a new perception of the world around us. Andrei's art works on the screen of the most technological TV today are comparable to paintings and create a new technological artistic reality, essentially being a new type of high-tech art.

Highly artistic images created by Andrei were able to show all the advantages of the new technology - previously unattainable detailing, extended color coverage, realism of the image. Of great importance was the plot and artistic plan of the presentation, its attractiveness and symbolism. Presentation video installation is all that interests viewers and specialists in the new TV. Therefore, it can be said without exaggeration that the sensation at IFA 2018 was largely the result of the use of the works of the Russian artist Andrei Denisyuk.

Sergey Koshelev, TAdviser/September 18, 2018