Sigma Designs Cites 'Widespread' HDR Adoption Among Its TV-Maker Customers

SoC supplier Sigma Designs thinks high-dynamic-range adoption is “widespread right now” among its base of TV-maker customers, said Ken Lowe, vice president-strategic marketing, on a Tuesday earnings call. “Everybody that we’re working with right now” on 4K TV design wins “is designing TVs that are HDR-enabled,” Lowe said. For TV makers, HDR’s only sticking point is deciding “which specific version of it” to use, he said. HDR10 has had the widest adoption so far because it has “the lowest costs,” but the hybrid-log-gamma technology espoused by the BBC and NHK “seems to be getting more popular,” Lowe said. Dolby Vision “is there for a lot of people that want the premium and Dolby is going to continue to promote it,” he said. What Sigma has done with its “universal HDR” SoCs is “we’ve mitigated the risk of the making that decision,” Lowe said. Of the TV makers “we deal with,” they can “load our chip and they are covered for all the standards,” he said. “That’s the strongest position we can offer them.”