Tweet
The BBC received 1.6 million requests for 4K streams in its 4K, HDR (HLG of course), wide colour gamut, internet streaming trial involving the Worldcup and Wimbledon tennis tournament that both ended Sunday.
"The trial is an important step forward, showing for the first time that Ultra HD and High Dynamic Range (HDR) can be delivered live and “free-to-air” over the Internet. It’s part of the BBC’s mission to ensure that future audiences can enjoy the benefits of improved picture quality", said Phil Layton Head of Broadcast & Connected Systems at the BBC in his blog post on the BBC R&D website.
Following previous 4K trial over terrestrial and satellite broadcast networks since the Brasil World Cup in 2014, the focus of this trial was streaming Ultra HD over the Internet, where the BBC offered 'a broader range of content and, with the addition of HDR and wider colour gamut, at a higher quality'.
The required scale to test Internet delivery, hence the selection of the World Cup and Wimbledon for the over-the-top live 4K HDR delivery. Carrying just over 60 thousand streams on Saturday July 7th when 60.3k streamed the Sweden versus England Quarter Final Football match and the Center Court stream from Wimbledon. The other popular days had around 40 to 50 thousand stream request, the fifth most popular day carrying 37 thousand 4K streams.
Besides the expected latency issues people experienced dullness or dimness of the picture, with the issue occurring inconsistenly among users of the same model TV. There was also and colourmetric issue with the grass at Wimbledon that on the HDR signal looked blue-ish under extreme sunlight. This actually may be a more accurate coverage as it was also observed at the event itself.
The trial has left the BBC with the ongoing capability to receive an incoming Ultra HD contribution, and to encode, package and distribute via commercial CDNs. Over time it will add its own CDN to this. The BBC now has the capability for streaming live Ultra HD content into BBC iPlayer on compatible devices.
"The trial is an important step forward, showing for the first time that Ultra HD and High Dynamic Range (HDR) can be delivered live and “free-to-air” over the Internet. It’s part of the BBC’s mission to ensure that future audiences can enjoy the benefits of improved picture quality", said Phil Layton Head of Broadcast & Connected Systems at the BBC in his blog post on the BBC R&D website.
Following previous 4K trial over terrestrial and satellite broadcast networks since the Brasil World Cup in 2014, the focus of this trial was streaming Ultra HD over the Internet, where the BBC offered 'a broader range of content and, with the addition of HDR and wider colour gamut, at a higher quality'.
The required scale to test Internet delivery, hence the selection of the World Cup and Wimbledon for the over-the-top live 4K HDR delivery. Carrying just over 60 thousand streams on Saturday July 7th when 60.3k streamed the Sweden versus England Quarter Final Football match and the Center Court stream from Wimbledon. The other popular days had around 40 to 50 thousand stream request, the fifth most popular day carrying 37 thousand 4K streams.
Besides the expected latency issues people experienced dullness or dimness of the picture, with the issue occurring inconsistenly among users of the same model TV. There was also and colourmetric issue with the grass at Wimbledon that on the HDR signal looked blue-ish under extreme sunlight. This actually may be a more accurate coverage as it was also observed at the event itself.
The trial has left the BBC with the ongoing capability to receive an incoming Ultra HD contribution, and to encode, package and distribute via commercial CDNs. Over time it will add its own CDN to this. The BBC now has the capability for streaming live Ultra HD content into BBC iPlayer on compatible devices.