The UPM and RTVE renew their collaboration through the Chair

The rector of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), Guillermo Cisneros, and the general secretary of the Board of Directors of RTVE, Alfonso Morales, signed this Wednesday the renewal of the specific cooperation agreement between both entities until 2026.

After the signing, Cisneros referred to the importance of this type of agreement. "UPM has always worked to enable technology transfer with companies and entities from different sectors linked to Engineering." In reference to the renewal of the RTVE Chair, created in 2015, he has been 'proud' of the agreement and has stated that "this technological transfer is very positive for both parties and beneficial for society in general due to its contributions in multiple areas: improvement of the quality of life, improvement of student training, support for the economic growth of the country, among other aspects."

For his part, Alfonso Morales wanted to point out that it is not just a renewal, but “a collaboration with a view to the future and progress of technology, because Radio Televisión Española is committed to the forefront of new technologies in the audiovisual sector.” Likewise, he has shown his satisfaction with the degree of excellence and great functioning of the Chair and the assigned work team. “It is a pride to be part of projects that improve the quality of audiovisual content perceived by citizens,” he noted.

The director of the RTVE Chair at the UPM, the professor at the ETSI of Telecommunications, Jose Manuel Menendez, recalled that this renewal is the result of the work carried out since the birth of the chair and "values the results obtained in multiple broadcast pilots in which we have tested different signal transport technologies in production and to end users, and we have also demonstrated the viability of working with a UHD signal despite its complexity." In addition, he highlighted the role of the chair's advisory committee, made up of Cellnex, Dolby, Sapec and the Televés corporation, "without whom it would not have been possible to carry out these technological advances."

Twenty years of collaboration

The RTVE Chair was created in 2015, but much earlier, since 2004, the ETSI of Telecommunications (headquarters of the Chair) has been collaborating in different research projects for the development of telecommunications linked to the distribution of audiovisual content. In 2006, the first experimental UHD broadcasts on DTT or the first high definition test broadcasts on DTT that included interactive services were carried out (Campus HD, 2006).

From the Chair, projects have been carried out in the field of UHD (Ultra High Definition), pruebas de emisión en UHD, y las llevadas a cabo en TDT o pruebas de mejora de señal con mayor sensación de inmersión en UHD (incluyendo HDR, WCG, HFR o audio de nueva generación).

Aparte de producir contenidos específicos en UHD, se ha estudiado su comportamiento en los distintos elementos que conforman la cadena de valor extremo a extremo para las emisiones en directo, desde la captación hasta la recepción. Para ello, se han utilizado como plataformas de distribución la TDT, el satélite (DVB-S2) y la televisión híbrida.

In recent years, work has also been done on the study of new generation communication networks (5G and others), with a view to their possible use in the broadcast sector to improve production processes.