Rai, Eutelsat team for Euro 06 Ultra HD

Rai, Eutelsat team for Euro 2016 Ultra HD posted: 12/04/2016

Eutelsat Deploys V-Nova PERSEUS to power 4K Contribution of Live UEFA Euro Championship Matches for RAI UHD channel

Rai, Italy's national public broadcaster and satellite operator Eutelsat are teaming up to deliver live coverage of premium sport in Ultra HD. Following an agreement between the two companies, seven matches of the Euro 2016 championship will be offered to Italian TV homes receiving Tiv sat, the free-to-view platform distributed by satellite from Eutelsat's HOT BIRD video neighbourhood. The initiative with Eutelsat marks Rai's most ambitious foray into Ultra HD that represents the next big leap forward in broadcasting.

Unprecedented Ultra HD broadcasts

The live broadcasts of European Championship matches constitute Italy's most significant satellite broadcast of live sport in Ultra HD and prefigure the launch of regular channels. They begin on 30 June, with the first match of the quarter-finals, followed on 1, 2 and 3 July by the other quarter final matches. The semi-finals will be broadcast in Ultra HD on 6 and 7 July with the final scheduled for 10 July.

Viewers equipped with an Ultra HD screen and a CAM certified by Tiv sat will be able to watch the matches by tuning to the number of the special channel to be activated by Tiv sat for the championship. Take-up of Ultra HD screens in Italy is accelerating, with ANITEC, the Italian association representing the ICT industry, forecasting that sales will surpass one million units by end 2016.

The special broadcasts also involve the support of industry-leading technology partners, including V-Nova from the UK that will provide the P.Link 4K, a software-based contribution encoding and decoding system that will contribute the highest signal quality from the International Broadcasting Centre to be located in Paris.

V-Nova PERSEUS to support Eutelsat delivery of 4K visually lossless international feeds to RAI

Combined solution to be deployed for seven games of Europe's most awaited sports tournament

Deployment confirms readiness and robustness of V-Nova PERSEUS powered P.Link 4K products for UHD high quality live contribution

V-Nova Ltd., a leading provider of video compression solutions, today announced that Eutelsat has chosen V-Nova PERSEUS video compression for the contribution of visually lossless 4K international feeds of the UEFA Euro Championship 2016. The deployed system will be used from the quarter final onwards to enable RAI to offer live coverage of the final stages of the football tournament in Ultra HD/4K to all Italian homes that can receive RAI's Ultra HD (UHD) channel on the Tiv sat platform.

To achieve its goals, the Italian broadcaster has partnered with Eutelsat, who will assist in the personalisation of the RAI UHD Channel with operations fully managed from its teleport in Rambouillet, near Paris. Eutelsat shall provide the contribution link from the International Broadcasting Center (IBC) to its teleport in the most pristine 4K/UHD quality using V-Nova's PERSEUS-powered P.Link 4K products that will enable the UHD contribution feed at practical bitrates, alongside multiple HD feeds, while maintaining the lowest possible latency to ensure those very important goals are delivered as they happen.

We're excited to be part of RAI's exceptional mobilisation on Ultra HD for the tournament. Live 4K broadcast requires a high-quality communication infrastructure, which plays to Eutelsat's core strengths, said Cristiano Benzi, Director Special Projects Italy, Eutelsat. By working with V-Nova, we will be able to add pristine 4K/UHD feeds alongside the all-important HD feeds.

The complete solution combines V-Nova P.Link 4K encoders and decoders, powered by V-Nova PERSEUS , to contribute a high quality full-frame 3840x2160 50fps signal. The single unit compact solution avoids the need for multi-quadrant synchronisation and greatly simplifies operations.

Guido Meardi, V-Nova CEO and Co-Founder, explained: It is an honour to have Eutelsat choose V-Nova PERSEUS to power contribution for this important initiative. It demonstrates the hard work gone into making P.Link 4K a product ready for deployment in the most important situations and demonstrates that 4K/UHD contribution is commercially viable today alongside existing services.

V-Nova PERSEUS is a video processing technology that addresses today's video delivery challenges. PERSEUS software closes the capacity gap for quality delivery to connected devices over existing networks. It redraws the traditional quality-bitrate curve, enabling operators and service providers to provide high quality video within their bandwidth constraints.

About V-Nova

V-Nova is a London-headquartered software company providing advanced signal compression technology and software solutions to address the dramatic growth in global network traffic. V-Nova is at the heart of digitalisation, serving multiple industry segments, including TV & Media where it provides solutions spanning the entire media delivery chain, from UHD/4K contribution to distribution, to connected devices and set-top-boxes.

V-Novas award-winning PERSEUS technology closes the gap between evolving capacity needs and limitations associated with legacy compression technologies to process data and video in new ways. This means that data can be transported, stored and secured, faster and more cost-effectively, without the need for network upgrades. V-Nova is driving a new era in TV & Media with ground-breaking software solutions that shift the bitrate-quality curve to enable UHD at HD bitrates, HD at SD bitrates, and SD video at sub-audio bitrates.

V-Nova is empowering a growing number of customers and partners to differentiate their products, increase market reach, and provide new servi

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