The evolution of DTT towards UHD: a day of unity with great challenges on the horizon

RTVE y UHD Spain organize “Evolution of DTT to Ultra High Definition”, a series of presentations with representation from broadcasters such as RTVE, CRTVG y CCMA, and contributions from the public sector (Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service) and private sector (Cellnex Telecom) in which the roadmap has been advanced that will lead the Spanish industry to once again position itself as a global reference in terms of commitment to digital television and technological innovation.

The auditorium of Prado del Rey (RTVE) has welcomed dozens of representatives of the Spanish broadcast industry in an event more focused on unity than on debate, reflection or the presentation of great news. Throughout the different presentations, the keys to the new National DTT Technical Plan, the path of RTVE on the UHD land and has been defended technological cutting edge as a means to defend the value of public service in the face of a context of misinformation, a growing capacity to influence the political decisions of large technology corporations and, ultimately, the need to occupy “trenches of resistance” to “take care of democracy.”

Precisely, this reflection has structured the inaugural intervention of Roberto Lakidain. In his presentation, the director of corporate development and public service of RTVE has provided an interesting defense of DTT against the interests of IP and private operators. To this end, defending public access to digital television is shown as a key tool in the face of the proliferation of speeches against democracy, driven by increasingly biased digital channels. “Help us”, he addressed the engineers present in the auditorium, urging that development efforts make it possible to bring the avant-garde to public media, helping them in the process to defend their relevance.

Next, Julia Criado, deputy director general of planning and management of the radio spectrum (Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service), reviewed the new national DTT technical plan, whose main lines are collected in this article. Underscoring the coding and modulation capabilities of the DVB-T2, explained a vision of the future, without defined deadlines beyond having at least 95% of DVB-T2 receivers, in which all DTT channels would start broadcasting in UHD. Waiting is the updating of the catalogs of many thematic channels, depending to a large extent on the resolution scaling, o la adaptation of production media in UHD, a task that RTVE itself recognizes that it has not yet completed.

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The commitment to UHD on public television

One of the biggest attractions of the day was a round table moderated by Javier Sanchez, director of audiovisual policies and public service at RTVE, in which they participated Jesus Garcia, director of the television technical area of ​​TVE; Sara Gonzalez, director of the technological support and media area of ​​CRTVG; Tony Roig, COO of CCMA; David Jimenez Bermejo, GATV researcher at ETSIT (RTVE Chair at UPM), and Ramon Salat, strategic growth opportunities director of Cellnex Telecom. With hardly any cross-talk, the different representatives presented their vision of the development of the UHD to date, as well as their current situation.

In these terms, García reviewed the progressive UHD implementations on RTVE, initially in the testing phase until moving to broadcasts in simulcast, always accompanied by great sporting milestones such as the recent broadcast of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. In the process, the director of TVE's television technical area expressed not only the difficulty of transferring all production and broadcast phases to ultra high definition, but also of creating and offering specifications and tenders to meet these new needs. “It was a double somersault", he highlighted the process of generating the necessary infrastructure to manage the broadcast of the Olympic Games from Torrespaña in UHD and IP. Regarding the near future, García and his team are working on bringing UHD to two new studios in Sant Cugat and one in Torrespaña, as well as the creation of a new mobile unit to continue promoting the creation of UHD content throughout the house.

From the perspective of regional television, Sara Gonzalez transferred the success story of CRTVG, which became the first regional television to begin broadcasting in UHD, taking advantage of the multiplex reserved for it. “We are quite happy with the result, due to the definition it offers and the processing of the HLG curve,” he commented, anticipating that in a second phase he seeks to consolidate the “recording and playback of 4K content.” On the other hand, Tony Roig of CCMA, a corporation that has already announced its intention to start UHD broadcasts before the end of the year, announces that they are already “prepared” to begin the transition, although there are still pending tasks such as increasing UHD production capacity and consolidating all the dimensions of this technology: “There are technological, operational, flow and process challenges…”

Researcher David Jiménez took advantage of the occasion to claim how the experimental broadcasts carried out within the framework of the RTVE chair have managed to translate into the broadcasts that viewers can enjoy from home today. Currently, the UPM focuses on continuing to explore the possibilities of scaling and conversion format, as well as the possibilities of adding dynamic conversion in the HDR world. For his part, Salat from Cellnex Teleco confirmed that the company seeks to bring the compatibility of 80% of its towers to DVB-T2 technology before summer.

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Collaboration to consolidate the UHD

Victor Sanchez, director of media and operations at RTVE, and Xavi Redón, product manager of Cellnex Telecom, as president and vice president of UHD Spain, briefly took the stage in the Prado del Rey auditorium to offer the sector the experimental multiplex and thus continue to favor, through collaboration, the consolidation of the UHD in Spain. “We have a wide quality and spectral efficiency that allows us to compete on other platforms,” García explained, highlighting how the combined efforts channeled through the association have allowed the sector to walk “united” in the field of ultra high definition. Redón, joining his partner's reflection, stressed that it is necessary remain competitive in the current audiovisual market, “and, to be competitive, we have to raise the quality.”

The day ended with the intervention of Javier Sanchez, director of audiovisual policies and public service at RTVE, who defended the public service through broadcast channels. “It does not mean that we despise the world of the Internet, but where we have to become strong is where we already are,” he commented, claiming how Europe has been able to benefit from the joint application of harmonized standards, such as DVB T2: “We believe in horizontal markets, for all and open.” In a world of gatekeepers and crossed interests, in which nothing is assured against a digital convergence still in definition, DTT can continue to be a lifeline to guarantee access to viewer information: "Within a future that no one knows what it will be like, we have to make bets. As a sector, we have bet on the same future."