Qvest Media realizes first 4K live channel infrastructure in Germany posted: 08/11/2016
Sky Sport UHD & Sky Sport Bundesliga UHD on air since October
The top match Borussia Dortmund vs. Hertha BSC Berlin on the 7th matchday of the ongoing Bundesliga season marked a new era for Sky Deutschland: In close collaboration with Qvest Media, Sky brought two new Ultra HD channels on air and broadcasted the match in Ultra HD. For the project, Qvest Media undertook the design and planning of the fully redundant system architecture, and implemented the IT-relevant system integration of the broadcast for the 4K live production infrastructure and Ultra HD broadcast management.
In order to implement Sky's new Ultra HD channels - and with a project duration of around 12 months - Qvest Media developed a fully-fledged 4K production environment with a live broadcast chain. In the first stage, the pay TV channel showed one match per Bundesliga matchday, as well as selected games of the UEFA Champions League in ultra-high-definition format on the channels Sky Sport Bundesliga UHD and Sky Sport UHD. In addition to football, other live sport events are intended to be shown in Ultra HD in the future. Christian Barth, Head of Strategy & Architecture / Broadcast Services at Sky Deutschland said: With our new Ultra HD offer, we are once again forerunners in Germany and Europe when it comes to using high-end technology to improve the audience's television experience. The 4K infrastructure that we have developed and implemented together with Qvest Media offers viewers sharper images than ever before.
Around 15 kilometres of video cable, six kilometres of network cabling and seven fully equipped 43 HE racks are needed in order to connect and provide the technology for the 4K infrastructure. Available for file and live ingest are a transfer storage from Elements and Venice servers from Rohde & Schwarz, which are connected to the Sky headquarters. As a result, all content is recorded simultaneously and independently from one another and saved in two different places. In the event of a deviation or damage due to this completely redundant system configuration, the 4K productions can be implemented and sent without interference or interruptions. During the ingest, incoming files from external sources, such as an OB vehicle, are received and recorded by Sky in the production format. Sky relies on the XAVC-I single file with a class 300 codec and a bandwidth of 500 Mbps. For the playout format Sky uses the UHDp50 standard.
The ingested material is also recorded on a nearline storage SpycerBox and Rohde & Schwarz processing applications. These have a gross capacity of over 500 hours of 4K material and serve as a central access and processing source for the Avid-based HighRes editing suites, graphic suites by Adobe and Vizrt, quality check and UHD playout. Highlight editing and slo-mos in XAVC-I single-file format are implemented via the EVS XT4K server. An EVS XFILE 3 system, which is integrated in the workflow, allows the ongoing archiving and restoring processes to be controlled and monitored.
Achieving the greatest possible level of automation for work steps and processes was an important goal of the integration. For this purpose, Qvest Media integrated and put into operation a customized and adapted ADC automation by Imagine Communications. This controls almost all components of the infrastructure and production processes. These include the video and logo server, Vizrt Media Sequencer, two fully equipped Evertz EQX routers with connection to the Lawo VSM studio control, Keyer from For-A, and the audio and video mixer.
Furthermore, Qvest Media installed an end-to-end Dolby E-capable audio processing, and integrated the internal voice communication into the Sky Riedel intercom-ring. Using Sky's operational concept, the studio and work stations provided Qvest Media with the customized Finecut studio furniture and 4K HDR class 1 monitors from Sony and Canon for reference monitoring.
Andreas Cohrs, Senior Key Account Manager at Qvest Media said: We are delighted that we were able to implement this 4K reference project together with Sky. The technical infrastructure has the newest and most modern features for an end-to-end 4K workflow. At the same time, the project shows that a fully 4K-based infrastructure was able to be implemented in an economically viable manner on a large scale and for live usage.
The cooperation between Sky and Qvest Media will continue once the project has been completed. Therefore, the engineering teams of both companies will maintain close ties for technical-service support and work together on the further development of infrastructure.
About Qvest Media
Qvest Media is a world leading systems architect in the fields of broadcasting and media technology, spezialising in the television, media and telecommunications industries. The company has locations in Cologne, Berlin, Munich, Dubai and Singapore with a team of over 180 employees. With a powerful spectrum of services consisting of consulting & development, systems integration and service & support, Qvest Media offers 360 expertise in the design, development, implementation and operational support of media technology infrastructures. With its business unit professional products, Qvest Media has specialized in the selection and distribution of AV and broadcasting IT products. Its partner network in this field includes the most innovative and important hardware and software manufacturers. Qvest Media is also one of the biggest suppliers of dry-hire equipment and systems solutions for live broadcasting of events, sports and entertainment. Today, Qvest's customer base includes eminent international broadcasters, telco providers and media networks such as ARD and ZDF, Sky, RTL, Al Arab, SRG, Al Jazeera, MediaCorp, beIN SPO
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Qvest Media realizes first 4K live channel infrastructure in Germany posted: 08/11/2016 
