NEWS
Branislav Pekic
248
TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
— 07-08/2013
—
Ultra High Definition HDTV
EUROPE
DIGITURK AND EUTELSAT
LAUNCH 4K DEMO CHANNEL
Turkish pay-TV platform Digitürk has launched a
dedicated demonstration 4K channel in part-
nership with Eutelsat Communications. The
first broadcasts in Turkey took place in April
at Digitürk’s headquarters in Beşiktaş, using
content transmitted via the Eutelsat 7A satellite.
RTVE, EBU TRIAL UHDTV VIA DTT
Spanish public broadcaster RTVE, the EBU,
Abertis Telecom, Sony, Sapec, La Salle, and
The Technical University of Madrid in Febru-
ary implemented the first UHDTV-1 standard
broadcast over a DVB-T2 network. The event
took place at the Mobile World Congress in
Barcelona. The trial used the 3840×2160 pixel
resolution known as UHD-1, which offers four
times the resolution of current HDTV services.
ERICSSON CONDUCTS UHDTV
DEMO DURING EBU SEMINAR
Ericsson conducted a UHDTV demonstration
at the EBU Production Technology Seminar in
Geneva during March. The demo focused on
interoperability using the Ericsson technology to
receive an off-air feed of a 4:2:0 file-based system
and receive and decode as 4K UHDTV. Ericsson
also demonstrated a MPEG-4 AVC 4:2:2 10 bit
precision 4K UHDTV system capable of 4Kp50
transmission. The platform comprised Erics-
son’s market AVP 2000 contribution encoders
and RX8200 advanced modular receivers.
SES, HARMONIC AND BROADCOM
IN ULTRA HD DEMO
Satellite operator SES has teamed up with video
compression specialist Harmonic and chipset
vendor Broadcom to deliver HEVC-based Ultra
HD signals from the 19.2° East satellite position.
The demo took place at the SES Industry Days
event in Luxembourg using Harmonic’s ProMedia
Xpress and a HEVC decoder reference-design
system based on Broadcom’s BCM7445 device
for receiving HEVC encoded Ultra-HD televi-
sion transmission. The signal was broadcast in
DVB-S2 using a data rate of 20Mbps. According
to SES, this was the first live demonstration of a
full 3840×2160 pixel Ultra HD picture in HEVC.
NHK SHOWCASES 8K AT
CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
Japanese public broadcaster NHK held a public
screening of content in its Super Hi-Vision (8K)
format in May at the Cannes Film Festival. The
highlight was the first 8K narrative film, the
comedy short “Beauties À La Carte.” The 8K
format has 7,680 by 4,320 pixels — four times
the resolution of 4K and 16 times that of current
HD and features 22.2 multichannel sound.
RAI TESTING 4K IN VALLE D’AOSTA
Italian public broadcaster RAI is testing in Valle
d’Aosta the latest technology for the transmission
of programs in HD and 3D. Second generation
DVB-T2 tests are underway with different types
of content for fixed and mobile reception 3D
and HD, both 2K and 4K, encoded with the new
HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) stand-
ard and 5.1 multichannel audio. Two transmit-
ters in SFN are being used on UHF channel
53 (Aosta-Gerdaz and St. Vincent-Salirod).
NORTH AMERICA
ERICSSON PRESENTS COMPRESSION
PLATFORM AT NAB 2013
Ericsson presented the AVP 4000 compres-
sion platform at NAB 2013, held April 8-11,
powered by the in-house developed program-
mable video processing chip. The AVP4000
offers high performance and broad capability on
a single platform across all applications, from
SD to HD, 1080p50/60, 3DTV and Ultra High
Definition TV (UHDTV) and all codecs includ-
ing MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVE and JPEG2000, with
4:2:0 and 4:2:2, 8-bit and 10-bit all supported.
NHK CONDUCTS 8K DEMO AT NAB
Japanese broadcaster NHK demonstrated at the
NAB in April the real-time, over-the-air transmission
and reception of 8K, which is 16 times the resolution
of HDTV. The demo featured the latest version of
NHK’s Super Hi-Vision system, which supports 8K
video and 22.2-multichannel sound. The broadcast
was of an 8K recorded program compressed in
H.264 (MPEG4) and transmitted using two UHF
television channels. NHK plans to record its “Super
Hi-Vision” 8K coverage of the figure skating and
opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics
and to begin domestic 8K satellite tests to coincide
with the 2016 Summer Olympics. It aims to launch
an 8K broadcast service in Japan by 2020.
3NET INVESTS IN UHDTV PROGRAMMING
US 3D network 3net has announced it is work-
ing, along with production unit 3net Studios,
on the development of three new 4K natural
and history programs - National Park Adven-
tures, Metropolis and Made by Man. The net-
work is expanding a faster than anticipated
rollout of 4K. 3net is a joint venture of IMAX,
Sony, and Discovery Communications.
GOLF CHANNEL DEPLOYS 4K
ULTRA HD MIRA SERVER
The first 4K Ultra HD Mira Production Server from
Abekas has been deployed by Golf Channel. The
server feeds two separate panoramic video walls in
the Arnold Palmer Studio at their facility in Orlando,
Florida. The signature look of the “Morning Drive”
program is accomplished by linking twenty 90-inch
and ten 52-inch monitors to create golf course
morning vistas. The video wall is fed by a 4K Ultra
HD Mira Production Server to make viewers feel
like the “Morning Drive” is broadcasting from just
inside the picture windows of their local clubhouse.
SOUTH AMERICA
TV GLOBO, NHK TEST 8K AT RIO CARNIVAL
The Rio de Janeiro Carnival this year was
shot in UHDTV (8K) by Japan’s NHK and
Brazil’s TV Globo. A special programme
with behind the scenes footage was aired
in Japan during the first half of this year.
FIFA AND SONY TO TEST 4K DURING
CONFEDERATIONS CUP
Sony and FIFA have announced that they will test
4K during the FIFA Confederations Cup in June in
Brazil, using a 4K mobile production unit supplied
by UK-based production company Telegenic.
The trial will test the process involved in shoot-
ing and delivering live 4K programming. The
content itself will not be screened for the public,
as the test is aimed at examining the techni-
cal and creative aspects of using the technol-
ogy. Sony and FIFA have been eyeing the 2014
FIFA World Cup in Brazil for 4K broadcasting.
TBS SHOOTS WORLD HERITAGE SITES IN 4K
Japanese broadcaster TBS Inc. is using the 4K
format to shoot World Heritage sites in Egypt,
Italy and other places. In June, the TV sta-
tion started broadcasting these images once a
month on The Sekai Isan (World Heritage Sites),
a weekly Sunday program. Last November,
classic Kyoto cityscapes were recorded in the
format and the images were aired after being
converted to the current high-definition system.
ASIA
NTT DOCOMO LICENSES HEVC
DECODING SOFTWARE
Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo
started licensing software for decoding HEVC,
which allows playback of full HD on smart-
phones. For playback on PCs the software
enables real-time decoding of UHDTV (4K).
WORLD
ULTRA HD TV SHIPMENTS TO
REACH 4 MILLION UNITS IN 2013
Estimated global shipments of Ultra HD TV panels
in 2013 have been upward adjusted from 2.3-
2.6 million units originally to 3.5-4 million units,
according to industry sources. Innolux alone is
aiming to ship between 2-3 million Ultra HD TV
panels and is likely to account for 60-70% of
global shipments of the technology in 2013. AUO
has been shipping 55- and 65-inch Ultra HD TV
panels to customers such as Sony and Toshiba,
and CSOT has been focusing on production
of 55-inch units for customers such as TCL.
LG CONDUCTS ULTRA HD DEMO AT MWC
LG conducted a demonstration of its Wireless Ultra
High Definition (Ultra HD) transmission technol-
ogy at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Users were able to experience smartphone
content in real time, via Wi-Fi connections.
Multimedia content was automatically adjusted
to match the receiving TV’s screen resolution.
SAMSUNG PRESENTS FIRST
85-INCH UHD TV SET
Samsung has presented the LED TV UHD S9,
the first 85-inch ultra High Definition TV (UHD)
TV set. Users can interact and control the TV
via the enhanced Smart Interaction: navigation
among the five new screens - TV programming,
VOD, app, personal and social content. The
exclusive function S-Recommendation proposes
suggestions on content to watch. The S9 fea-
tures four times higher resolution to a normal
Full HD screen, converting HD and Full HD video
into UHD. It also features 120 W speakers.
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