NEC Corporation and Arqiva, the communications infrastructure and media services company, announced recently that they are working with the BBC in trials of a series of live, over-the-air 4K Ultra High Definition (UHD) broadcasts.
The company, in a statement, said that BBC Research & Development is using NEC’s new High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) solution and transmitters in the closed trials at its demo centre to demonstrate UHD transmissions over the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) platform, owned and operated by Arqiva.
HEVC is a major breakthrough in the history of broadcasting, enabling consumers to enjoy much higher resolution broadcasts over the triple-play of online, mobile and digital TV platforms using the finite radio spectrum and internet bandwidth that’s available across the network. The technology doubles the compression efficiency of current MPEG 4 technology, enabling broadcasters to transmit live UHD programs with four times the image quality of existing High Definition TV.
“By trialing Ultra High Definition with the BBC, Arqiva can demonstrate how future UHD live-events could be delivered to millions of UK homes via the leading television platform – DTT. We have been grateful for the technology and support provided by NEC in our preparations for the UK’s first UHD transmissions via DTT. We are delighted to demonstrate the future potential of the DTT platform using the benefits of the DVB-T2 standard, which we first deployed in 2009 as a world first.”
- Steve Holebrook, Managing Director of Terrestrial , Arqiva
“These trials will show the benefits that UHD TV broadcasting can bring to BBC viewers – particularly when there is fast-paced action during live sports events. High speed movement is much smoother as a result of NEC’s unique encoding technology and viewers will also be able to enjoy a wide range of colours, textures and nuanced brightness levels. The compression technology is also a major breakthrough as we transition to a multi-platform mobile, online and terrestrial world.”
- Mike Rhodes-Peel, Head of Broadcast at NEC in EMEA
