During the 2014 NAB Show, a group of tech companies--Intelsat S.A., the BT Group Plc, Ericsson, Sony, and Newtec—will be demoing an end-to-end video transmission of UltraHD or 4K content over satellite of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The demos are designed to show that 4K distribution systems are ready for market. They can be viewed at the booths for Intelsat and Ericsson.
The companies will use sports programming that was captured in 4K using Sony's PMW-F55 4K cameras, 4K production switcher and SR-R1000 recorder.
The video will be encoded using Ericsson AVP 2000 Contribution Encoders, which will be encoding four 3G-SDI feeds in real time using MPEG-4 AVC compression technology.
The 4k signal will then be transmitted in a 100 Mbps video stream from BT Tower in London over the BT Global Media Network to Intelsat, via the Intelsat point of presence in New York.
The feed will then be sent over the IntelsatOneSM terrestrial network to Intelsat's teleport in Riverside, California, where it will be uplinked to Galaxy 17, using modulation equipment from Newtec.
That 4:2:2, 10-bit, 4K UHDTV signal at 60 frames per second will be sent to the Intelsat and Ericsson booths.
The partners in the demo also plan to send a down converted HD feed over the same path.
"Intelsat distributes content for the world's most admired programmers, all of whom are looking at 4K and studying the technical and commercial considerations that will make 4K a compelling differentiator in a world filled with content," said Peter Ostapiuk, Intelsat's VP of media product management in a statement. "Intelsat and the rest of our technical team are pushing to capture gains in compression technology, and as part of our testing, we determined that a multiplex 4K feed and a down-converted HD feed could be transmitted over a 36MHz transponder utilizing DVB-S2X technology. By doing so, it will provide programmers with a commercial, off-the-shelf solution where they will be able to offer 4K content in a much more efficient manner, while at the same time maintain the breathtaking quality of the content for an immersive viewing experience."
