SES Teams with Harmonic, Sony, Telvue, Pacsat and Superior to Deliver First Live and Linear Ultra HD Broadcast to a Cable System

The Ultra HD broadcasts are being enabled by SES’s satellites and teleport network and a team of technology partners. Harmonic is contributing its Electra™ X3 advanced media processor providing live, full-frame, full-GOP UHD (HEVC Main 10 profile) encoding, ProView™ integrated receiver-decoders for satellite reception, and NSG™ Exo distributed CCAP system for DOCSIS transmission. Sony brings its content and 4K Ultra HD smart TVs to the first-of-its kind project. TelVue playout servers are stationed at the SES teleport in Woodbine, Maryland to enable content delivery. Superior Satellite Systems is enabling satellite downlink services over an onsite antenna. PACSAT is providing uplink services from its SNG truck next to the SES Ultra HD studio to be located at the front entrance of the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

A mix of pre-produced content, feature coverage of events throughout Las Vegas, and live interviews with Hollywood and television celebrities and executives will be broadcast in Ultra HD to a fully operational cable system in the SES NAB booth (#SU1910). NAB attendees visiting the SES, Harmonic and Sony booths in the Las Vegas Convention Center will be able to watch the live Ultra HD broadcast.

In conjunction with Sinclair Broadcast Group, the live celebrity interviews will be conducted by a KSNV News TV 3 reporter in Las Vegas and distributed to partner booths, and to HD news audiences watching KSNV-TV news in Las Vegas and viewers watching dozens of Sinclair news stations nationwide.

“Satellites provide the best solution for delivering high quality, premium content into the homes of American viewers,” said Steve Corda, Vice President of Business Development for SES in North America. “We have created a full end-to-end Ultra HD broadcast solution, with live Ultra HD broadcasts at NAB to demonstrate that SES and its partners are well positioned to deliver live and linear Ultra HD to the home today.”

“Harmonic is excited to enable SES to offer a complete UHD workflow in IP with leading UHD products ready for service deployment today. Harmonic is uniquely positioned to provide comprehensive support to SES on their UHD-IP project, which requires no set-top box, and we look forward to supporting SES in offering this to cable operators,” said Jeremy Rosenberg, Vice President, Business Development, at Harmonic.

“Sony is a worldwide leader in 4K acquisition, distribution, workflows, and display,” said Ali E. Amoli, Director of Product Management, Content Creation Systems, Sony’s Professional Solutions Americas. “We believe it’s important to work with other industry leaders, such as SES, to demonstrate the practicality of getting 4K content to its ultimate destination – the consumer – enabling Sony’s ‘Beyond Definition’ technologies to be experienced.”