In Europe’s first such demo, an 8K signal is directly broadcast to a flat screen TV without any separate external receiver or decoder

LUXEMBOURG -- (BUSINESS WIRE) --

The SES annual Industry Days event kicks off today with the world leading satellite operator announcing that an 8K demo signal is broadcast directly to a flat screen TV with a built-in satellite receiver.

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The 8K content broadcast via ASTRA 28.2 degrees East orbital slot is unveiled at the invite-only two-day event that is held in Luxembourg, with Spin Digital providing the expertise to encode high quality 8K signals, SES the bandwidth to broadcast the signal, and Samsung the 8K flat screen TV to receive and decode the broadcast signal directly.

The 8K content, with 7680x4320 pixels at 50 frames/s, is encoded by Spin Digital using its HEVC encoder at a bit rate of 70 Mbps for broadcast-grade quality, while the transmission is carried out by SES on a single 33 MHz transponder using DTH broadcast parameters. The 82” Samsung 8K Q950RB QLED production model TV receives this signal directly, and is using DVB-S2 transmission parameters specifically for this demo. This Samsung flagship TV features a 4000 Nits peak luminance, an 8K-compatible HEVC 50/60 fps video decoder, the latest HDMI interface and is capable of displaying High Dynamic Range (HDR) content. The TV will soon be available across Europe.

Transmitting broadcast-quality 8K content across multiple video formats calls for both efficient video coding and reliable infrastructure technology. While compression technology will become more efficient in the next few years, the demo underlines how satellite is already capable of reliably providing the transmission bitrates necessary to distribute 8K signals across continents.

Not only is the SES Industry Days an ideal platform to showcase the latest satellite-enabled products and services, the event has also gained the reputation of being a birthplace for innovation as over 300 attendees from 190 companies around the world gather together to discuss budding business concepts and how they can partner together to bring about more cost-efficient and effective solutions for their customers.

“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”, said John Adam, Head of Business Development and Industrial Affairs at Samsung Research UK.

“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,” said Mauricio Alvarez-Mesa, CEO of Spin Digital.

“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. As their trusted partner, our vast TV audience reach and ability to deliver truly engaging video experiences via satellite mean we are well placed to differentiate their offerings and deliver customer success,” said Thomas Wrede, Vice-President of New Technology & 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.”

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About SES

SES is the world’s leading satellite operator with over 70 satellites in two different orbits, Geostationary Orbit (GEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). It provides a diverse range of customers with global video distribution and data connectivity services through two business units: SES Video and SES Networks. SES Video reaches over 351 million TV homes, through Direct-to-Home (DTH) platforms and cable, terrestrial, and IPTV networks globally. The SES Video portfolio includes MX1, a leading media service provider offering a full suite of innovative services for both linear and digital distribution, and the ASTRA satellite system, which has the largest DTH television reach in Europe. SES Networks provides global managed data services, connecting people in a variety of sectors including telecommunications, maritime, aeronautical, and energy, as well as governments and institutions across the world. The SES Networks portfolio includes GovSat, a 50/50 public-private partnership between SES and the Luxembourg government, and O3b, the only non-geostationary system delivering fibre-like broadband services today. Further information is available at: www.ses.com