Expanding deeper into the world of 4K video, Harmonic has forged a partnership with satellite operator AsiaSat to launch a new Ultra HD channel.
That channel, 4K-SAT2/HVN, will be AsiaSat’s second free-to-air UHD channel on AsiaSat 4, a bird that’s situated at 122 degrees East, serving the Asia-Pacific region.
The new channel will launch on March 1, and will deliver 4K content from Harmonic’s video library, including content from the new NASA TV UHD channel, encoded in the bandwidth-saving HEVC Main 10 format.
The UHD channels via AsiaSat 4 will cover a footprint spanning an area across Zealand to Pakistan and part of the Middle East, encompassing more than 50 countries and regions, the companies said. Viewers will need an AsiaSat 4 C-band antenna and a HEVC set-top box.
The new channel is powered by Harmonic’s MediaGrid shared storage system, Polaris playout management platform, and Spectrum X media server system.
“With the cost of UHD TV sets dropping dramatically over the past year, demand for UHD content in Asia is expected to grow exponentially in the next couple of years,” said Sabrina Cubbon, vice president, marketing & global accounts at AsiaSat, in a statement. “Our partnership with Harmonic for this new channel ‘4K-SAT2/HVN,’ following the successful launch of our first UHD channel last year, enables the delivery of a choice of rich and compelling UHD content on AsiaSat 4, allowing us to demonstrate the superior quality via satellite of a linear Ultra HD channel in 2160p60 resolution.”
