Elemental Technologies made claims Tuesday that it had successfully demonstrated live “full frame rate” 4K video processing using high-efficiency video coding (HEVC)/H.265, a compression scheme that is about 50% more efficient than H.264/MPEG-4.
The company said it achieved live 4K at 60 frames per second at a demo in London that featured in which the company’s Live video processing system received high bitrate 4Kp60 AVC video in an MPEG-2 transport stream featuring professional sports content. The system was then used to encode and deliver a 4Kp60 HEVC output to a PC-based encoder, with final rendering on a 84-inch Planer 4K television, Elemental said.
Although 24 frames per second is typically viewed as passable for movies that are formatted and encoded in 4K, live TV, especially fast-moving sports content, will likely need 60 frames per second.
The demo in London follows Elemental’s announced support of the H.265 codec in January, and its real-time video processing of live 4K at 30 frames per second using HEVC at the Osaka Marathon in October.
“Unlike cinema, live sports are best viewed at higher frame rates. In 2014, we expect live sports to drive 4K Ultra HD adoption by those programmers and pay TV operators seeking to deliver a more compelling sports entertainment experience,” said Aslam Khader, chief product officer for Elemental, in a statement.
Elemental’s customer roster includes HBO, the BBC, ESPN, ABC News, CBS Interactive and Comcast, among others. Among them, notably, Comcast demonstrated 4K video at The Cable Show in June.
