Mediapro has made television history with the production of the first match between Madrid and FC Barcelona in Ultra-High Definition.

The latest in Broadcast Solutions’ series of far-reaching Innovation Days took place at the company’s headquarters in Bingen, Germany, on 9 December. Once again it featured extensive exhibits and OB van showcases.

Broadcast infrastructure specialists Axon Digital Design is using the BVE platform to showcase a range of 4K products and production tools that are designed to help broadcasters deal with the challenges of this new format.

JVC Professional Video, a division of JVCKENWOOD USA Corporation, will demonstrate its new GY-HM200SP 4KCAM camcorder with embedded score panel graphics at CES 2016 (Booth N105), which runs Jan. 6-9 in Las Vegas, Nev. Designed to enhance single-camera HD sports coverage, the camera produces a real-time score overlay on recorded and streamed video output without the use of an external CG and production switcher.

Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT), a worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure, announced that they have created Ultra HD (UHD) content in high dynamic range (HDR) with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The content was on display for the first time at CES 2016, Jan. 6-9 in Las Vegas. Harmonic and a broad range of ecosystem partners, including Broadcom, LG Electronics, Sigma Designs, STMicroelectronics and ViXS Systems, showcased how content was produced and delivered in HDR UHD transcends using current UHD BT 709 video format, making the television viewing experience significantly more compelling. 

At BVE 2016 Pixit Media will demonstrate its software defined storage as a central repository to provide 4K uncompressed playback for a number of leading applications used in the broadcast and post production industries. Google, NetApp, Mellanox, Digital Vision, The Foundry and Adobe will be amongst the companies demonstrating their latest technologies through the efficient and effective PixStor central NAS storage system on Stand K11.

A report in Display Daily from highly regarded industry analyst Chris Chinnock says that HDR and WCG displays will rapidly become mainstream. He states: “Nearly every UHD TV in 2016 will support the basic HDR-10 level of HDR. Most will have HDMI 2.0a connectors to be able to read static metadata, which is part of HDR-10.”

Tokyo-based video production company, Ellroy Inc., decided to see for themselves if zoom lenses from Fujifilm, for all their undoubted functionality, fall short when compared to single-focus PL mount cine lenses in terms of image quality. To independently assess the lens performances, Ellroy crew conducted a hands-on investigation, pitting three FUJINON 4K Cabrios PL-mount lenses – the 85-300mm Cabrio, 19-90mm Cabrio, and 14-35mm Cabrio – against high-quality single focus primes on actual commercial shoots and performed a variety of quality checks. Led by veteran DP Kazumi Takahashi, the Ellroy team focused on resolution, distortion and how the lenses handled color.

The 4K/UHD spotlight will be on NHL hockey Saturday with Rogers’s 4K production of the Toronto Maple Leafs-Montreal Canadiens matchup at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre (ACC). Although Rogers’s first live 4K sports broadcast (the first ever in North America, for that matter) took place last week when it teamed with the NBA and BT Sport to present a Toronto Raptors-Orlando Magic match at London’s O2 Arena, Sportsnet’s Hockey Night in Canada telecast today will be the first produced on Canadian soil.

MEDIAPRO Group has produced the first 4K version of El Clásico, the iconic football match between archrivals Madrid and FC Barcelona, using core SAM technology. The game was produced simultaneously in HD and 4K, the latter supported by a new mobile production vehicle equipped specifically for 4K.

Both the World Cup and the Olympics have been broadcast in 8K, and now, finally, America’s largest sports event, the Super Bowl, will have its chance to shine in 8K. Super Bowl 50 will be the first ever to get the 8K treatment. NHK is on hand to shoot the game with a new 8K mobile unit and six 8K cameras, good news for tech geeks everywhere. The bad news? The only place to see the game live in 8K will be in the compound at Levi’s Stadium or at NHK headquarters in Tokyo.

At the 9th of December 2015 Broadcast Solutions held its Broadcast Innovation Day at the company’s headquarters in Germany. During the event visitors had the chance to witness the world premiere of two new members to the slomo.tv product family. With BlackJack 4K and Arrow 4K the company once again sets a new standard in slow motion servers. Initially planned for this years’ NAB show both products were shown for the first time at the Broadcast Innovation Day and are available immediately.
 

Celebro Media, the first 4K studio in central London is celebrating their first year with an expansion of their facility. After just a year of opening their state-of-the art TV studio in Oxford Circus, Celebro has reached its full capacity. Now, with their expansion, they are tripling the size of their studios, including all that is needed for live TV production, with a focus on news, sports and entertainment programming.

NEP Group announced today that it provided broadcast production services for the first live 4K soccer broadcast in North America, which was streamed and delivered over-the-top (OTT) to Sony 4K Ultra HD TVs.  Univision Deportes, the multimedia sports division of Univision Communications Inc. (UCI), which also includes UDN, the number one Spanish-language sports network, delivered the broadcast in partnership with Sony and NeuLion, Inc.

Cinegy, which develops and produces software technology for digital video processing, asset management, video compression, automation and playout today announced that it has been invited to join ‘ImmersiaTV’, an EU consortium of university technology incubators, research institutes, and commercial entities collaborating to research and develop the future of home entertainment, including virtual and augmented reality.