Harmonic, a specialist in video delivery infrastructure, has announced that Japanese cable TV operator EHIME CATV has deployed Harmonic’s Electra X3 advanced media processor to support a trial of the country’s first live, full-frame 4K Ultra HD channel. Utilising the Electra X3 media processor to encode UHD content using the HEVC Main 10 codec, EHIME […]
Sky’s ground-breaking ‘Project Ethan’ set-top box is ready to be announced shortly, according to widespread media reports over the weekend. The UK’s Sunday Telegraph said the unit, now dubbed the SkyQ box, will enable users to record four channels at the same time and – at long last – permit subscribers to transfer some programming […]
Ultra HD programming is expected to see strong take-up rates globally, with failure to invest now will mean a failure to tap into its growing premium revenues, according to Alan Crisp, Analyst at satellite industry market research and consulting services firm NSR. Writing in NSR’s ‘Bottom Line’ Blog, Crisp says
SES has signed agreements for a further three UHD channels to be launched by the end of the year, and these are in addition to the 4K service already announced for Sky Deutschland and a shopping channel (pearl.tv) scheduled to launch in September. CEO Karim Michel Sabbagh, in the SES half-year financial statement, said that […]
The Ultra HD Forum, a global advocacy body with a mission to facilitate the adoption of UHD and related technologies, announced today that its membership has grown significantly, as the industry ramps up for UHD commercial deployments. The Ultra HD Forum’s membership has tripled to 20 member companies from the original founding charter members who […]
Satellite operator SES has initiated the first-ever live and linear Ultra HD (UHD) trial with US cable MSO (Multiple System Operator) Armstrong. Armstrong is testing SES’s camera-to-screen Ultra HD ecosystem at its headquarters cable lab in Butler, Pennsylvania. SES’s Ultra HD offering, first unveiled in April 2015 at the NAB Conference, combines broadcast and IP […]
Brazilian TV giant Globo is making available 4K programming on Sony 4K-enabled TV displays. Globosat Play TV includes 4K material shot by itself, but also includes programming from GNT, SporTV, Viva, +Globosat, Telecine and ‘Off’. Viewers are being reminded that they need a web connection capable of supporting 30 Mb/s in order to download the […]
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has suggested the Internet entertainment streaming service will benefit from the growth of 4K/Ultra-HD television. Speaking during Netflix’s Q2 2015 Results Earnings Call, Hastings noted that with the service’s top plan – the Ultra-HD four-stream plan – there were two drivers. “There’s people who have big families and want to watch […]
Satellite operator Hispasat is organising an international 4K Film Festival for short movies. Hispasat says its competition is open to films produced in any country and genre, with a maximum duration of 20 minutes as long as they are shot in 4K format. The call for entries began July 14 and runs to September 23. […]
BT has announced details of its new BT TV Ultra HD package, which includes Europe’s very first live sports Ultra HD (4K) channel, BT Sport Ultra HD, and the company’s new BT TV Ultra HD set top box. The new channel will launch with its first live broadcast being the FA Community Shield match at […]