UHD SPAIN COMPLETES THREE YEARS OF CHALLENGES WITH GREAT GOALS ACHIEVED

The UHD Spain Association celebrates its third anniversary keeping more alive than ever its goal of promoting the television of the future. Thanks to its 39 members, the association has been able to fulfill during an intense 2023 all its purposes, while 2024 is presented as another year full of activity and challenges to continue promoting Ultra High Definition.

UHD-HDR over 5G: purpose fulfilled by 2023

One of the most ambitious challenges of UHD Spain in 2023 was the pioneering test of UHD-HDR broadcasting and next-generation audio (NGA), using 5G technology at different points of the channel carried out in October. A milestone that opened the way to the future of these technologies and culminated the work of a whole year in which the association has been committed to 5G technology.

Making Of UHD-HDR & 5G

The transmission of a live concert of the singer Israel Fernandez held at the Royal Astronomical Observatory of Madrid with the collaboration of Radio 3 was the event chosen to carry out this pilot that aimed to assemble a workflow in UHD with HDR-HLG from the camera to the user’s device, using various broadcast media and technologies such as 5G, processing on the ‘edge’ and in the cloud, and all available broadcast media: DTT (DVB-T2), satellite (DVB-S2), Internet (OTT, HbbTV) and the new 5G Broadcast system, with Dolby Atmos technology sound simultaneously.

If there are any acronyms that have represented the work of UHD Spain throughout 2023, these have been UHD and 5G. “We wanted to see the possibility of combining these acronyms because we wanted to see how far we could go to make an end-to-end workflow,” said Miguel Ángel Cristóbal, CEO of Sapec, during the briefing in which all the members who took part and worked side by side to make this “dream” of the association a reality shared their experience in this pilot test.

RTVE launches the broadcasting of its channels in 4K

Coinciding with the celebration of the 4K HDR Summit 2023, Radiotelevisión Pública Española (RTVE), one of the founding members of the UHD Spain Association, announced the start of Ultra High Definition broadcasts from February 7, 2024. “We are starting a new era: the beginning of free-to-air broadcasts in Ultra High Definition: better image, sound and, therefore, better service,” revealed Ángel García Castillejo, Director of Audiovisual Policies, Public Service and International at RTVE.

This is another step forward in the promotion of Ultra High Definition, which will allow practically 100% of the Spanish population to enjoy Spanish public television content in 4K, including sporting events such as the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, a historic event that can be enjoyed in full in the highest image and sound quality.

Presence at international fairs and events

UHD Spain had a large presence at the ‘International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) 2023‘, the convention on content creation, management and distribution held at the RAI in Amsterdam (Netherlands). In this edition 22 members of the association participated in an event in which they brought to the audience their latest cloud-based solutions for OTT streaming service providers or their latest developments in the field of broadcasting.

Also, UHD Spain was present for the second consecutive year at the international trade show ‘NAB 2023’ held in Las Vegas, Nevada, where 16 members of the association participated and presented their innovations at the world’s largest annual conference for broadcast, entertainment and technology professionals.

In addition, UHD Spain played a leading role in the ninth edition of the 4K HDR Summit, held last November at the National Digital Content Pole in Malaga, with its president, Pere Vila (RTVE), its technical test coordinator, Miguel Ángel Cristóbal (Sapec) and the coordinators of the working groups.

Also at the national level, the association participated in the sixth edition of the 5G Forum, held in Seville, among many other conventions and events related to new technologies and Ultra High Definition.

Similarly, UHD Spain was recognized with the ‘Innovation Award‘ for the broadcasting of the World Cup in Qatar in 4K and Dolby Atmos in the VII edition of the Innovators Awards organized by Dolby to recognize the role of its partners in the dissemination of its technologies.

The association held several meetings, including those held on Next Generation Audio (NGA) and its potential to improve the user experience thanks to the interactivity and immersive audio options or the professional meeting on the transition of DTT to the Internet to compete with streaming platforms, available for free in Your UHD Zone.

Renewal of the Board of Directors

On November 13, the General Assembly, held during the ninth edition of the 4K HDR Summit in Malaga, approved the renewal of the Board of Directors of the association, which was unanimously elected.

The renewed Board of Directors includes Pere Vila, Director of Technology Strategy and Digital Innovation at RTVE, as President; Xavier Redón, Product Manager at Cellnex, as Vice President; María Medina, General Manager at Medina Media, as Vocal-Secretary; and Emili Planas, CTO and Operations Manager at Grup Mediapro; Jorge Rodríguez, Head of Presales and Product Management at Hispasat; Eduardo Valencia, Director of Electronics Industry at Ametic and Miguel Ángel Cristóbal, General Manager at Sapec, as Vocal-Secretary; and as Vocal Members.

Against this backdrop, the Board of Directors aims to continue working and promoting actions to promote and develop Ultra High Definition in Spain, as well as to bring together all companies in the audiovisual industry in the country to work together in the progress and consensus of the implementation of UHD.

About UHD Spain

UHD Spain is a non-profit association created on January 26, 2021 to promote Ultra High Definition (UHD) in Spain. Currently there are already 39 associate members: ADM, Agile Content, Ametic, Ateme, Atresmedia, Axión, Canal Sur, Canon, CCMA, Cellnex, Cires21, COITT, Dolby, Egatel, Fenitel, Forta, Fraunhofer, Gradiant, Gsertel, Henneo, Hispasat, Hurí, Lavinia, Mediapro, Medina Media, Optiva Media, Rohde & Schwarz, RTVE, Sapec, Synamedia, Tedial, Telecom CLM, Televés, TRedess, TVU Networks, UPM, Uteca, Vestel and Video-MOS.

Among the founding partners is the Polytechnic University of Madrid, in particular with professors and researchers from the E.T.S. of Telecommunications Engineers who have been working on UHD issues since 2015 through the RTVE Chair at the UPM. It should be noted that in Europe only five countries have professional associations on Ultra High Definition: Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy and Spain.