New Release for Helios Software Update Adds HDR Support

Shenzhen, China (1 July 2020) – With the release of the latest software version for the HELIOS LED Processor platform new features and options are added. The most important feature added is HDR support, which dramatically improves image coloring and vividness.

The HELIOS LED Processing Platform works with a wide range of ROE Visual LED panel types and is compatible with video sources that have up to 8K resolution (i.e media servers, production network switchers, and broadcast cameras). The HELIOS system will automatically integrate system components as they are connected or replaced. The new software release for the HELIOS LED processor platform adds much-awaited high lights as High Dynamic Range (HDR) support and Seamless Mode redundancy.

High Dynamic Range with Metadata support

Featuring one of the most accurate end-to-end color workflows in the industry, HELIOS now adds HDR support, including support for HDR10+ with dynamic metadata. Using HDR will dramatically improve image vividness and will enhance performance at low brightness levels with increased bit-depth. This will result in striking images, with much more details and great fluent greyscales.

HDR on HELIOS is comprised of several features all coming together: bit depth, gamut, and decoding with an HDR transfer function. Standard definition content uses the typical SDR gamma curve. HDR uses an entirely different function to map a higher range of brightness onto a display. HDR is more than just brightness, it also includes a wider range of colors. As such, the system must be making use of, at minimum, 10-bit color.

Seamless Mode redundancy

Redundancy is one of the most favorite features for any LED technician, if everything fails, a fully redundant system is there to save the show. In addition to traditional redundancy modes, the HELIOS LED processor platform now offers an innovative Seamless Mode. This allows for a completely glitch-less failover experience of your back-up system.

The HELIOS system supports multiple high-availability redundancy modes. This is accomplished by sending video data from two HELIOS Processors to the same string of LED panels at once using bidirectional data flow from each end of the tile string simultaneously. LED panels are automatically associated with the highest priority processor available to them during startup. In this mode, the LED panels in the display are allowed to receive video simultaneously from both processors. The image that a panel displays can be made up of data from both the main and backup processor. When using the Seamless mode, the input video to each of these HELIOS Processors must be identical and frame sync. This is so that there will be no perceptible difference in the image, as LED panels use data from both processors. Since the system is using both processors simultaneously, failures have a nearly imperceptible impact

More Information:

Using the HDR Support can be found in the HELIOS LED Processing Platform User Guide 

The Helios & PX1 Software v20.05.0 software update and the HELIOS LED Processing Platform User Guide can be downloaded here: https://bit.ly/download-HELIOSV20-05-0