Live from the Eiffel Tower: Envivio compression powers Ultra HD over DTT

French fans of artists like Pharrell Williams can now watch music videos in Ultra HD with four times the resolution of current HD TV. Following its successful live 4K broadcast of French Open tennis for TDF, national regulator CSA has authorised TDF to broadcast Ultra HD TV over the DTT network using the DVB-T2 standard from the Eiffel Tower.

Envivio’s 4K Ultra HD compression technology is now being used by French broadcaster TDF to transmit programming in Ultra HD TV for NRJ HITS — the French music channel — distributed over the national digital terrestrial television service. This ongoing DTT video transmission uses HEVC (H.265) compression over DVB T-2 delivered in 4K. The 4K video is encoded at 50 frames per second using Envivio Muse Ultra HD encoding software on Envivio G5 appliances.

Christophe Cornillet (NRJ Group Broadcast expert) commented, “We are so happy to be the first to transmit music videos in Ultra HD. The stunning 4K video resolution makes our videos look like they are popping right out of the screen. We can’t wait for everyone to see this. Our vision is that UHD is the future of television.”

“Envivio successfully debuted live 4K HEVC video transmissions over a DTT network for us at the French Open tournament, and our confidence in Envivio continues to grow with this transmission of Ultra HD content from NRJ HITS,” said Alain Komly, deputy director at TDF.

“Wrapping up our successful broadcast of the World Cup, this transmission is yet another example of the technical power of our video processing software for over-the-air broadcast in 4K Ultra HD, and we are proud to work in partnership with TDF and NRJ using this emerging technology,” said Envivio’s chief technology officer Jean-Pierre Henot.