Synamedia has given details of its involvement in the direct-to-home broadcast of last month’s Saracens-Bristol Bears Premiership Rugby match.
The game was broadcast by BT Sport in 8K-UHD – the UK’s first live 8K home broadcast of a top-tier sporting event – using Synamedia’s VIVID Compression encoding and streaming technology.
“Within six months, we’ve delivered on our promise to distribute 8K content at scale and cost-effectively to help kickstart the 8K economy,” said Elke Hungenaert, Vice President, Product Management, Synamedia. “Our highly efficient software-defined, AI-based compression algorithms, combined with the power of the AMD EPYC processor high core-counts, deliver on the market demand for immersive experiences to feel as if fans are ‘in the game.’ The global implications of this deployment with BT Sport will ignite live sports streaming in 8K for years to come; we’re excited to be a part of it.”
Along with the AMD EPYC processors, VIVID Compression delivers pin-sharp sports scenes by eliminating the need for multiple tiles and other technology tricks which compromise video quality. Its Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based algorithms remove the need for technology trade-offs by leveraging the full codec toolset, powered by AMD EPYC 7763 processors.
“Our technology partnership with Synamedia has already helped drive the industry forward, and we’re proud to support companies like BT Sport on their mission to deliver high-quality viewing experiences,” said James Knight, director, Global Media & Entertainment – VFX, AMD. “Our collaboration has already supported one industry-first, and we’re excited for the many more to come.”
This deployment showed there is no need to split the 8K signal into 4K quadrants, nor for dedicated CPUs or other hardware acceleration.
BT has not made public any plans for a permanent 8K service into the home.
