Politics in Ultra High Definition

TV4 produces for the first time in 4K and live Sweden's annual political debates at Almedalen Week.

Almedalen Week is one of the most important weeks in Swedish politics, with tens of thousands of attendees gathering in the city of Visby to attend seminars and forums, and listen to speeches by representatives of the main political parties.

During Almedalen Week 2014, the Swedish national broadcaster TV4 produced all speeches given by political leaders in Ultra High Definition 4K. This was part of an ongoing effort to modernize and future-proof TV4 and TV4 Play's production formats. At the heart of live production lies the 4K camera system of Sony, consisting of the PMW-F55 camera with 4K Super 35 mm CMOS sensor, the CA-4000 4K fiber transmission adapter, the BPU-4000 4K baseband processing unit and the HDCU-2000 camera control unit.

Cecilia Beck-Friis, executive vice president and head of technology at TV4-Gruppen, highlighted that "we are continuously working to develop TV4 and TV4 Play in order to offer the television experience of the future. 4K resolution will become increasingly popular and we want to see the new opportunities that this format can offer us and our viewers."

All speeches by party leaders in Almedalen were filmed with the Sony PMW-F55, and the interventions were broadcast live on a Sony 85″ BRAVIA 4K professional monitor to the crowd. Viewers were able to experience the quality of 4K, which provides four times the resolution of regular HD.

"The 4K signal was transmitted from Almedalen Park to the TV4 studios via a fiber optic connection. We do not have any official information as to when television channels could start offering regular 4K broadcasts to their consumers. The production in Almedalen was mainly an opportunity for those attending the event to see and experience the new 4K format," admits Jonathan Nordin, head of TV4's digital project.