This year at IBC, BT’s Media and Broadcast (BT M&B) division will reveal the advanced Outside Broadcast (OB) unit it plans to use to broadcast BT Sport’s live coverage of the Round 2 AVIVA Premiership Rugby Matches in UHD/4K.
The TES52 OB truck, designed and built by systems integrator Megahertz, claims to be the first vehicle in the UK capable of contributing multiple HD and UHD/4K feeds via fibre and satellite simultaneously, using encoding equipment specially designed for premium live sports broadcasting.
BT M&B recently completed work upgrading 20 UK football stadiums with 40Gps fibre to support multiple simultaneous camera feeds, running directly from each Premier League football ground to the BT Tower. The fibre cabinets that are part of the new network will also be on display at BT’s IBC stand.
BT also recently signed a major deal with the BBC to provide the broadcaster with global IP network services for at least 7 years from April 2017. Under the agreement, BT is delivering a brand new optical fibre network designed to give the BBC flexible capacity to support and accommodate existing and future requirements.
BT M&B, which is the digital media and broadcast services arm of BT’s Wholesale division, provides the specialised media network that underpins the UK’s digital terrestrial TV offer. It is also responsible for delivering OB services from over 150 sports and news locations around the UK.
