BT Sport broadcasts live 8K rugby at IBC 2019

BT Sport used IBC 2019 to demonstrate one of the world’s first live 8K sports broadcasts – of the Gallagher Premiership Rugby 7s tournament.

The images were captured in 8K on a single Ikegami SHK-810 8K system camera with Fujinon lenses and displayed on an 82” Samsung Q950R 8K TV, with the broadcast made possible through the partnership of a wide range of companies.

These included the Appear TV X10 platform, for encoding, decoding and interfacing to the BT network; and the Blackmagic Design ATEM Constellation 8K for vision mixing and its HyperDeck Extreme 8K HDR for recording. Moov supplied the 8K graphics and Telegenic provided OB support.

BT Sport chief operating officer Jamie Hindhaugh, said: “By working with our Media & Broadcast division and other valued partners, BT Sport is underlining its position not only as a leading broadcaster, but as a leading innovator in the industry.”

Blackmagic design director Stuart Ashton, added: “While 8K remains an emerging standard, it is the world of sports broadcasting that will set the benchmark for 8K broadcast in the future.”

Ikegami sales engineer, Broadcast & Professional Video Division, David Lieven, said: “After producing the world’s first 8K hand-held broadcast camera system, we are now excited to help realising one of the world’s first live broadcasts in 8K.”