Practical Difficulty of Delivering 8K Content Typ
Post# of 96879
Typically, 8K requires 48 Gbps, either using 4x12G SDI infrastructure or over IP using ST 2110. 4K (12 Gbps) is still under interoperability testing, and we expect it will take several years before we can see the same with 8K.
But some companies are pushing forward. BT Sport, who was the first operator to deliver 4K in HDR, recently demonstrated an 8K live production workflow. They are also now offering a limited number of 8K EPL matches to connected TVs for upcoming seasons.
Distribution bitrate is also of critical importance in delivering 8K. Today, 8K is delivered via satellite or over IP to connected TVs. Since 8K video has a much higher resolution than 4K video, more bandwidth is required to deliver 8K video streams. However, if your video delivery solutions support HEVC, you can significantly lower your video’s bitrate. The bitrate for 8K video services that use HEVC is between 85 Mbps for satellite and 65 Mbps for OTT.
When you implement Content Aware Encoding (CAE) used in combination with HEVC, you can lower the bit rate for 8K distribution by another 50%. CAE leverages the mechanics of the human eye to assess video quality and optimize encoding parameters in real-time.
Together with France Télévisions at the Roland-Garros Lab 2020, we demonstrated the power of Harmonic’s VOS® Cloud-Native Software with HEVC and CAE for live sports video workflows.