Live 4K sport productions highlight day three of IBC2013

Sunday afternoon at IBC2013 became known as the afternoon of 4K sport with two live 4K transmissions: one of a Moto GP Race from Misano, Italy, and the second of a British Premiership rugby match between Saracens and Gloucester. The former involved Sky Italia working alongside MotoGP and Eutelsat; the latter involved BT Sport, Sony, Newtec, Intelsat, and Ericsson.

“There is so much noise around Ultra HD, but this is a true 4K test as 4K is about more than just spatial resolution,” says Matthew Goldman, senior vice president, TV compression technology, Ericsson, of the rugby test, which was produced in 3840×2160, p59.94 and 4:2:2 at 10 bit. “From our point of view, the business value is delivering a top-quality, immersive picture that shows the benefit of how beautiful it is.”

For the MotoGP test, a camera was located in the paddock area, giving viewers an opportunity to see the area with pristine clarity.

The rugby test was not a full production but instead had three Sony F55 cameras and a Sony vision mixer. The mixed signal passed through Ericsson AVP2000 encoders and into a BT OB truck, which passed them to the BT Tower in London. From there, the signal was passed up to Intelsat One and brought down in Fuchsstadt before being passed up to Intelsat 1W 33 MHz and then down to the RAI in Amsterdam. Newtec demodulators and Ericsson decoders passed the signals to Ultra HD sets located at the Ericsson, Intelsat, and Sony stands.