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The bulk of this year's facilities upgrades to 4K were spurred by the FIFA World Cup Football currently ongoing in Russia, as it was the first World Cup to be fully covered in 4K. Seeing many rightsholders and MVPDs launch their first 4K services, down to some of the smallest nations like the Maledives.
The latest announcement being of French national broadcaster TF1, that also used its new Harmonic 4K Contribution and Distribution system to deliver an unnamed motorsports event.
"TF1, a leading French TV channel, has deployed an Ultra HD (UHD) contribution and distribution solution from Harmonic to broadcast live sports events, including the world's largest soccer tournament and a premier motor racing championship. Using Harmonic's platform, TF1 can deliver live UHD coverage of premium sports competitions directly to French service providers, providing exceptional video quality at low bit rates", the vendor stated.
Hervé Pavard, CTO at TF1 explains: "We are gearing up to deliver one of the first live UHD transmissions via IPTV, a feat that can only be accomplished by partnering with a trusted technology provider. Harmonic delivers the best video quality we've seen at maximum bandwidth efficiency, and we look forward to showing viewers how incredibly immersive sports events can be when experienced in UHD. We're especially excited that Harmonic's contribution and distribution solution supports HDR, and we expect to use it in the future to further enhance our live sports feeds".
The system takes care of both the initial contribution form the event to the broadcaster, as well as final delivery of the final broadcast to viewers. Harmonic's ViBE CP9000 HD/UHD contribution solution preserves video quality at the front of the broadcast chain — with the ability to process uncompressed UHD signals that are eight times more bandwidth-consuming than current HD sources — and creates 'pristine compressed video'.
"To be effective, UHD video quality must be preserved throughout the entire workflow, from the contribution phase to the consumer's display," said Ian Graham, senior vice president of sales, EMEA and LATAM, at Harmonic. "Our UHD platform is designed to maintain sharpness and image quality during the entire production and delivery process".
Wimbledon the number one lawn tennis tournament, that just started in London, sees the use of a new completely IP based workflow, based around the SMPTE ST 2110 IP production standard. Provided by OB and broadcast production services provider NEP UK. that build a fully redundant IP technology workflow for the event. NEP UK is providing technical Host Broadcast Services to WBS. Wimbledon Broadcast Services is the tournaments new Host Broadcaster.
WBS is providing multi-camera coverage of all 18 Championships courts for the first time. With seven courts covered by Fletcher Group robotic camera systems. A net-cam is used on both Centre Court and No.1 Court, and there is 4K HDR coverage of the Centre Court.
NEP UK is deploying its new IP-based outside broadcast trucks, which reduce the expense and use of cabling throughout the grounds. The IP infrastructure simultaneously provides UHD (SDR and HDR versions) and HD-SDI, and is controlled by Axon’s Cerebrum platform, which integrates and manages a range of producs from Grass Valley, EVS, Phabrix, Calrec, Evertz and other manufacturers in a unified IP workflow.
So what new broadcast technology and services will The Tour de France offer as it goes en route this weekend...
The latest announcement being of French national broadcaster TF1, that also used its new Harmonic 4K Contribution and Distribution system to deliver an unnamed motorsports event.
"TF1, a leading French TV channel, has deployed an Ultra HD (UHD) contribution and distribution solution from Harmonic to broadcast live sports events, including the world's largest soccer tournament and a premier motor racing championship. Using Harmonic's platform, TF1 can deliver live UHD coverage of premium sports competitions directly to French service providers, providing exceptional video quality at low bit rates", the vendor stated.
Hervé Pavard, CTO at TF1 explains: "We are gearing up to deliver one of the first live UHD transmissions via IPTV, a feat that can only be accomplished by partnering with a trusted technology provider. Harmonic delivers the best video quality we've seen at maximum bandwidth efficiency, and we look forward to showing viewers how incredibly immersive sports events can be when experienced in UHD. We're especially excited that Harmonic's contribution and distribution solution supports HDR, and we expect to use it in the future to further enhance our live sports feeds".
The system takes care of both the initial contribution form the event to the broadcaster, as well as final delivery of the final broadcast to viewers. Harmonic's ViBE CP9000 HD/UHD contribution solution preserves video quality at the front of the broadcast chain — with the ability to process uncompressed UHD signals that are eight times more bandwidth-consuming than current HD sources — and creates 'pristine compressed video'.
"To be effective, UHD video quality must be preserved throughout the entire workflow, from the contribution phase to the consumer's display," said Ian Graham, senior vice president of sales, EMEA and LATAM, at Harmonic. "Our UHD platform is designed to maintain sharpness and image quality during the entire production and delivery process".
Wimbledon the number one lawn tennis tournament, that just started in London, sees the use of a new completely IP based workflow, based around the SMPTE ST 2110 IP production standard. Provided by OB and broadcast production services provider NEP UK. that build a fully redundant IP technology workflow for the event. NEP UK is providing technical Host Broadcast Services to WBS. Wimbledon Broadcast Services is the tournaments new Host Broadcaster.
WBS is providing multi-camera coverage of all 18 Championships courts for the first time. With seven courts covered by Fletcher Group robotic camera systems. A net-cam is used on both Centre Court and No.1 Court, and there is 4K HDR coverage of the Centre Court.
NEP UK is deploying its new IP-based outside broadcast trucks, which reduce the expense and use of cabling throughout the grounds. The IP infrastructure simultaneously provides UHD (SDR and HDR versions) and HD-SDI, and is controlled by Axon’s Cerebrum platform, which integrates and manages a range of producs from Grass Valley, EVS, Phabrix, Calrec, Evertz and other manufacturers in a unified IP workflow.
So what new broadcast technology and services will The Tour de France offer as it goes en route this weekend...