EBU invests in Snell technology for global sports delivery

The European Broadcasting Union has made a further investment in Snell Alchemist Ph.C-HD standards conversion systems to enable the highest quality SD and HD TV coverage of global sports and entertainment events. The EUROVISION network, operated by the EBU, is currently integrating Snell products to deliver television coverage from the FIFA World Cup venues to leading broadcasters worldwide.

EUROVISION has previously integrated Snell in its network service, offering the Alchemist systems for the delivery worldwide of live coverage of major sporting events such as the Olympic Games, national football (soccer) leagues, and Formula 1.

Paolo Pusterla, head of procurement and network partnerships, at EBU, commented: “We’ve had an ongoing relationship with Snell for many years now and trust that they will deliver a quality service. With the growing demand for globally distributed live events, we’ve clearly seen a greater need for standards conversion. Quality is crucial and customers expect no visible degradation and real-time transcoding of frame rates. Snell’s Alchemist has proven itself to be the gold standard for HDTV standards conversion.”

In total, EBU purchased 15 Alchemist Ph.C-HD systems, including Dolby E Authoring, 37 Alchemist Ph.C-HD LIVE systems and one KudosPro MC500.

Stefan Geradts, sales director for Central and Eastern Europe at Snell, added: “Broadcasters, content owners, and content providers choose Snell’s award-winning technologies to give them peace of mind that the quality of their valuable content is maintained. EBU has long recognised Alchemist’s excellent reputation for quality standards conversion. We’re delighted to continue this relationship and help them protect and future-proof their content as they deliver it to the most demanding World Cup broadcasters.”