SES Astra carries out the first Ultra HD broadcast in HEVC via satellite

Thanks to Harmonic's ProMedia Xpress high-performance transcoding platform, Astra achieves a significant compression improvement in HEVC instead of MPEG-4 AVC (H.264).

Through one of its satellites in the orbital position 19.2º East, SES Astra has carried out the first broadcasts in Ultra High Definition tests using the HEVC standard.

Thanks to the high-performance ProMedia Xpress transcoding platform from Harmonic and the HEVC decoding provided by the decoder Broadcom BCM7445, Astra has carried out this end-to-end transmission in DVB-S2 at 20 Mbps with a resolution of 3840x2160 pixels.

It is noteworthy that while on other occasions MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) has been used, as Astra already demonstrated at IBC 2012, or four high definition images in parallel, in this experience a single stream has been broadcast with a native resolution in Ultra High Definition.

After this pioneering experience, it seems more evident every day that the HEVC standard will emerge as the preferred option for operators for Ultra HD broadcasting.

Coinciding with the development of the first Ultra High Definition receivers, Astra intends to maintain an Ultra HD signal so that operators and installers can carry out tests 24/7. It should be noted that Astra was also a pioneer in the development of High Definition, providing a similar experience that greatly helped the development of HD in Europe.

Ian Trow, director senior de Tecnologías Emergentes y Estrategia, en Harmonic ha asegurado que “SES ha logrado un hito importante con la ayuda de Harmonic y Broadcom. Esta transmisión DVB-S2 demuestra claramente el beneficio de la codificación HEVC utilizando la plataforma ProMedia de Harmonic en este caso en una emisión satelital. Una mejora significativa de compresión se ha conseguido utilizando HEVC en comparación con los anteriores despliegues Ultra HD con MPEG-4 AVC (H.264)”.