NRK to drop standard def from DTT

Telenor Broadcast Day – Oslo. NRK is to replace the standard definition feeds for all three of its principal channels with high definition.Already the terrestrial version of NRK1 is broadcast with a high definition raster at all times. Programming is upconverted from SD when HD content is unavailable. The move has been made possible by the release of additional DTT capacity and is expected to take place early in 2011.

Per Böhler, principal engineer of NRK’s content division, said that following the success of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, the public broadcaster did not want to tell the Norwegian public that the Winter Olympics in Vancouver might only be transmitted in SD. Consequently plans for HD were accelerated and a second HD truck ordered that will be brought into service in time for the World Ski Championships next February.

Unlike most of the rest of Western Europe, Norway’s terrestrial system is broadcast in MPEG-4 and all of the DTT receivers deployed in the market are capable of processing HD signals.

NRK is gradually upgrading its production to HD, a process that will be completed by 2014. However, Böhler cautioned on any idea that the broadcaster might next look at 3D: “If we had to talk about 3D, that would upset these plans, and we don’t have that much money because everything has to come from the licence fee.”

The satellite feed, broadcast from Telenor’s One West position, will continue to be available in SD.