By Sven Freudenfeld, Kontron
As consumer demand for high-quality video content continues to grow, the Ultra HD (UHD)/4K television market is heating up. Recent research from IHS predicts that revenue from 4K TV sets will reach $52 billion in 2020. Beyond consumer electronics sales, there is a strong indication that broadcasters, pay-TV, and mobile operators will be able to successfully monetize 4K services. In fact, Juniper Research found that subscriptions from OTT TV providers will generate $31.6 billion by 2019, up from just under $8 billion in 2014.
Last year, there were only a few on-demand 4K offerings from OTT players like Netflix and Amazon. But as 4K gains enthusiasm among consumers and the television industry gets closer toward resolving certain technical and business roadblocks, production-grade 4K services are rolling out on a global scale, providing consumers with a more immersive viewing experience. This article will explore the key applications for 4K content while discussing the benefits, challenges, and solutions for operators, with a close look at how cloud-based HEVC platforms are making it more efficient to transcode UHD/4K video.
4K Applications and Benefits
There are several key applications for 4K, including on-demand (e.g., movies and TV series) and live content (e.g., premium sporting events). For broadcasters and other pay-TV operators, the most attractive driver for UHD/4K is live sporting events.
![BROADCASTBEAT_CDN[5]](https://www.broadcastbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/BROADCASTBEAT_CDN5.jpg)
By delivering sports in crystal-clear 4K resolution, in real time, operators can bring viewers closer to a football game or tennis match, making sure they don’t miss a second of the action. On the flip side, launching a 4K service is a great way for operators to differentiate themselves from competitors, attracting new subscribers and opening up additional revenue streams.
Given the overwhelming consumer demand and potential revenue opportunities stemming from 4K, there has been a flurry of service deployments lately. In August, European telecommunications operator BT launched three new sports channels, including BT Sport UHD, the first UK television channel to broadcast soccer matches from the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. In addition, the 2015 French Open tennis championship was streamed in 4K by France Télévisions in partnership with FRANSAT, the French DTH platform operated by Eutelsat, with HEVC video encoding handled by French-based Thomson Video Networks.
4K Challenges
Obviously there are advantages to delivering 4K video, but challenges exist as well. Creating and distributing video content in the 4K format, especially live television, requires operators to make significant infrastructure changes, which can be expensive and time-consuming. Beyond that, operators need to develop a solid business plan for 4K services. According to Frost & Sullivan, the revenue is likely to be between two to three times more than that of HD content, with the subscription costs for 4K live and VOD pay-per-view sports and cultural events estimated at $25 to $40.
Another issue is bandwidth. 4K has a horizontal resolution of 4096 x 2160 pixels compared with 1920 x1080 for full HD. Without an efficient video compression method, operators will have a difficult time delivering 4K at low bit rates.
HEVC Offers a Solution — to a Certain Degree
The High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC) was recently developed, providing operators with a more bandwidth-efficient video compression technology than H.264. Using the next-generation video compression standard, operators can distribute more video content, or higher resolution content, with![SYMKLOUD_MS2910_MASTER_1000pxw[6]](https://www.broadcastbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/SYMKLOUD_MS2910_MASTER_1000pxw6.png)
the same amount of bandwidth. Frost & Sullivan analysts say there are early signs that HEVC will cut greenfield DTT transmission infrastructure costs by as much as half.
Despite the power of HEVC, the consumer broadband infrastructure needs to improve before the television industry will see a ROI for 4K. Right now there is the lack of 16-plus Mbps bandwidth to end users living outside of modern urban areas. Ideally, broadband operators would need to provide a 25 Mbps service to all subscribers. Based on industry forecasts, this is likely to take place in the near future. Cisco’s Visual Networking Index calculates that broadband speeds will triple, from 16 Mbps to 42 Mbps average peak speed, by 2018.
Cloud Infrastructure is the Missing Piece to the 4K Puzzle
With 4K upon us, now more than ever, operators need to increase operational efficiencies — from acquisition to transport and delivery. Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) cloud infrastructure has emerged as the ideal way to achieve increased efficiency, flexibility, scalability, and cost savings for video production and distribution.
Independent software vendors are now using COTS media servers and converged cloud-based media platforms, such as Kontron’s SYMKLOUD, to build more space-efficient, power-efficient, and low-latency real-time HD and 4K media processing devices. Using these devices for complex media processing tasks, such encoding and transcoding, broadcasters and pay-TV operators can deliver a much higher level of video quality, at low costs. During a recent tradeshow, digital TV broadcaster StarTimes provided a demonstration how to encode/decode two live 4K HEVC streams at 60fps utilizing an x86 CPU and GPU implementation that is optimized by the Intel Media Server SDK, and packaged within the COTS 2U Kontron SYMKLOUD converged modular platform.
Conclusion
Consumers have clearly demonstrated that they are interested in watching 4K content. Through a COTS cloud infrastructure that supports the acquisition, collection, storage and delivery of video to any device at any time, along with next-generation standards like HEVC, operators can deliver 4K in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible.
