In the course of 2021, Swiss public broadcaster SRG plans to migrate the DTH satellite broadcast of its TV channels on Eutelsat Hotbird (13° East) to HEVC/H.265 in preparation for the introduction of Ultra HD.
According to SRG, the move is part of its ‘UHD-Ready’ strategy to further enhance the technical picture quality.
HEVC/H.265 was developed around 10 years ago and was standardised by the ITU at the beginning of 2013. The majority of today’s TV reception devices are compatible with the video coding standard. TV sets or set-top boxes that are not compliant will have to be replaced.
SRG intends to announce the timetable for the changeover this year. However, the broadcaster is already advising retailers to sell only receivers suitable for HEVC/H.265.