The Premiership Rugby match between Saracens and Bristol Bears was shown to selected homes last month
BT Sport has revealed that it has broadcast a top tier event live in 8K to homes for the first time.
The Saracens v Bristol Bears Gallagher Premiership Rugby match on 26 March was broadcast to selected homes. This builds on it and Samsung’s public live 8K broadcast of Arsenal v Olympiacos in the Europa League to fans inside the Emirates Stadium in 2020, moving the broadcast from location into dwellings.
The Premiership Rugby broadcast was produced entirely remotely and without a significant on-site presence, and the trial also enabled BT Sport to further explore OB and production workflows for future live 8K broadcasts. This included testing the ability to run 8K HDR with match coverage, domestic presentation and playout including ad insertion.
A number of partners worked on the production, including Premiership Rugby. In addition, BT Media & Broadcast provided contribution links from Tottenham to Stratford, Sony Image Products and Solutions Europe who provided two UHC-8300 cameras and a PWS-4500 server to record the output, and Samsung Electronics UK provided its QN800 Neo QLED 8K Televisions to BT Sport Stratford Studios.
Also, EMG UK provided the 8K truck and onsite facilities, Fujinon who provided a 22:1 wide angle and 86:1 box lens, Appear provided 8K contribution encoders and decoders integrated into the Vena network, and Synamedia provided the 8K distribution/streaming encoder and origin server.
Jamie Hindhaugh, chief operating officer, BT Sport, said: “BT Sport continues to lead the industry with innovation that provides our customers with the best sports viewing experience in the UK. Whether it’s last season’s launch of the Matchday Experience features on our App, or, our recent trials of 5G-enabled augmented reality viewing, we’re on a mission to take our viewers to the heart of sport.”
BT Sport hasn’t announced any plans to launch a consumer 8K service, with this test, and interest in 8K, part of its research and development into in new formats and tech innovation.
No comments yet