As CES 2013 kicked off last week, European satellite company Eutelsat Communications announced the launch of the first Ultra HD channel. The dedicated channel (clarified as a demonstration channel), will broadcast content that is encoded in MPEG-4 and transmitted at 40 Mbit/s in four Quad HD streams. Ultra HD resolution (aka 4k), is four-times the resolution of standard HD at 3840 x 2160. Eutelsat (partnering with ATEME) will transmit the 4k video at 50 “progressive” frames-per-second. Eutelsat says they started transmitting the first native 4k content filmed on Tuesday, Jan. 8.
“Early and close collaboration between all players in the broadcast chain will be a key success factor for this new revolution. We are delighted to propose this first Ultra HD platform forEurope,” said Jean-François Leprince-Ringuet, Eutelsat’s Commercial Director.
CEA officially announced the naming convention for the next generation of high-definition back in October 2012, and the CEA Ultra HD Working Group was formed to discuss how to “define and educate” consumers about the next evolution.
The photo above shows the launch of the EUTELSAT 70B satellite on Dec. 3, 2012 which successfully reached orbit. The EUTELSAT 70B will replace the EUTELSAT 70A, providing video and telecommunications services over Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.
