Elemental powers Kansai TV ISDB-T broadcast in 4K/HEVC

May 30, 2014. Elemental Technologies, the supplier of software-defined video solutions for multiscreen content delivery, has announced that Kansai TV, the leading commercial broadcaster in Osaka, has used Elemental video processing to encode 4K content in high-efficiency video coding (HEVC) for terrestrial broadcast delivery over ISDB-T to an Ultra HD TV. The off-air demonstration took place during a 4K educational event hosted by Kansai TV and system integrator CTCSP last week.

Unlike other digital transmission standards, ISDB-T covers television, radio, and data services. It drives efficiencies by enabling terrestrial TV and mobile terminal broadcasts over a single transmitter—in contrast to other standards, such as DVB-T2, which requires two transmitters. Japan, the Philippines, Costa Rica, and multiple South American countries are among the regions that have adopted ISDB-T.

During the demonstration, original Kansai TV content featuring the 2014 Osaka International Women’s Marathon was transmitted by very low power from an indoor UHF antenna with 64QAM modulation to a receiving antenna licensed for the demonstration. Elemental encoded the content in 4K/HEVC at full frame rates for transmission at 14.5 Mb/s over ISDB-T to a decoder for display on a Toshiba Regza Ultra HD TV.

“We could not have done this without Elemental, which has set the pace for the industry in terms of proven 4K/HEVC transmissions and is the only video processing vendor that offers 4Kp60 live encoding with high quality video,” said Koichi Ono, deputy director of the technology promotion division for the Kansai Telecasting Corporation’s broadcast technology department.

“With World Cup 2014 around the corner, pressure is intensifying to realize successful 4K OTA broadcasts,” said Keith Wymbs, chief marketing officer for Elemental. “We are thrilled that media leaders such as Kansai TV are using Elemental video processing to tap into the high quality of 4K to bring sports fans’ experiences to a whole new level.”

Kansai TV, www.ktv.jp/en/tv.html

CTCSP, www.ctc-g.co.jp

Elemental, www.elementaltechnologies.com