SES has demoed an 8K satellite broadcast to a TV without a separate external receiver or decoder at its annual Industry Days event in Luxembourg.
The satellite operator broadcast the 8K content feed – 7680×4320 pixels at 50 frames per second – via its Astra 28.2 degrees East orbital slot with the help of partners Spin Digital and Samsung.
SES provided the bandwidth, Spin Digital encoded the 8K signal, while a Samsung 8K flat screen TV directly received and decoded the broadcast signal.
SES carried out the transmission on a single 33 MHz transponder using DTH broadcast parameters; Spin Digital used its HEVC encoder at a bit rate of 70 Mbps; and an 82-inch Samsung 8K Q950RB QLED TV received the signal directly using DVB-S2 transmission parameters.
“Audiences today want richer video experiences that can be best fulfilled by immersive Ultra HD content, hence a lot of our broadcast and video customers are migrating their channels to High Definition (HD) and Ultra HD,” said Thomas Wrede, Vice-President of New Technology and Standards at SES Video.
“It will be years before large 8K flat screens or video walls become a common sight in our living rooms. Nonetheless, we are anticipating the future by working with our industry partners to further improve the consumer’s video quality experience and to define an 8K satellite broadcasting standard.”
Spin Digital’s CEO, Mauricio Alvarez-Mesa, said: “The collaboration with SES is helping to define the compression and quality settings for the new 8K format exploiting all the potential of the HEVC coding technology. Our next step is to enable similar quality and compression for live 8K HEVC.”
Samsung Research UK’s Head of Business Development and Industrial Affairs, John Adam, added: “Samsung is delighted to partner once again with SES with another leading-edge technology demonstration at the SES Industry Days. Samsung is fully committed to the development of a future 8K TV market and this demonstration of the viability of the SES satellite platform is an important step towards that goal.”
