Slovakia’s Antik Telecom will become the first operator in Central Europe to move from MPEG-4 to HEVC-encoded broadcasting technology.
According to Antik Telecom, it will start making the switch gradually from the beginning of this month. The change is possible mainly due to the long-term strategic investment in the development of the latest terminal equipment for clients supporting advanced technology, which the operator has been providing since 2017. In that year, all clients with older devices received free boxes with HEVC codec. Today, all satellite boxes with the Antik brand also support broadcasting in very high resolution – 4K.
Commenting on the development, Vlastimil Lakatos, TV services manager Antik Telecom, said: “Today we have another chance to prove our technological lead in television broadcasting with a complete departure from the outdated encoding of MPEG-4 video.
“Due to the fact that the design of our devices has only supported the new H.265 / HEVC efficient codec platform for five years, our clients do not have to change their set-top boxes and the change does not require a device restart. On the contrary, in the future we can easily add programmes in the desired resolution of 4K or more stations in HD to save data capacity on the Eutelsat 16A satellite. The benefit of the new technology is also the possible increase in image quality. We are convinced that such a change is necessary so that satellite TV is a modern service in the highest quality, even with its IPTV hybrid functions”.
Antik Telecom notes that the transition to HEVC will take place gradually between January 17-31, during which broadcasting will be undertaken in both standards.
