SRG launches trial with 4K at Euro 2016

At the beginning of the year, the Swiss Radio and Television Company (SRG) still did not want to know anything about broadcasting the matches of the European Football Championship in 4K quality. The investment in this technology was currently associated with high risks that could not be justified in view of the still very low device population, they said. Now, however, SRG is nevertheless betting on 4K, at least on a trial basis. It is taking over the 4K signals of a total of eight European Championship matches from the European football association UEFA. These are the opening match and all matches from the quarter finals onwards. They are to be broadcast on the SRF zwei channel.

Orders Swisscom to pay the costs

However, SRG spokesman Daniel Steiner does not want to know anything about a U-turn. The trial is limited to the duration of the European Championship. For the transmission, only rented infrastructures will be used, Steiner told the news agency SDA on Wednesday. The costs of the trial will be borne by Swisscom, which will broadcast the 4K trial program. Steiner did not want to say how much the trial will cost. The partners had agreed to maintain silence on the matter. The broadcasts of the relevant games of SRF two in 4K quality can be received via the new TV box from Swisscom (Werbewoche.ch reported). As the telecom provider announced on Wednesday, the box can be ordered in stores from Thursday. According to Steiner, SRG has not yet set the date for the introduction of a 4K regular operation. In principle, however, the distribution of the corresponding programs would also be possible for other telecom providers such as Cablecom and Sunrise. Both SRG and Swisscom deny that the cooperation is related to the new Admeira advertising alliance between SRG, Swisscom and Ringier.

Thrust for new technology

4K, also called UHD (Ultra High Definition), is the successor technology to Full HD. Instead of a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, the latest TV generation conjures up 3840 x 2160 pixels on the screen. The sharpness of detail is doubled, and the images look even more real. Corresponding TVs that can resolve such sharp images have been on the market for years. Until now, however, TV broadcasters have failed to offer them. This should now change. Even though regular operation in 4K has not yet been officially determined at SRG, the trial balloon at EURO 2016 is strongly reminiscent of the launch of the HD suisse channel in the run-up to EURO 2008 in Switzerland and Austria. The broadcasting of the games in HD quality resulted in a push for the new technology. And for SRG, the new channel served as preparation for the switchover of all programs to the new technical standard in 2012.

Only a question of time

In Switzerland, only the streaming provider Netflix offers movies and series in 4K resolution that are available to everyone. Last year, however, small shopping and fashion channels also launched programs in the new standard. More and more videos can also be streamed in 4K on the Internet platform YouTube. So it should only be a matter of time before the technology also catches on with the larger TV broadcasters. At the beginning of April, the German-French culture and information broadcaster Arte already launched a test operation in 4K resolution. Swisscom expects the first live TV channels in 4K to be available to its customers from the end of May. With the launch of the first 4K-capable TV box, the telecom giant is currently ahead of the competition. But competitor Sunrise also wants to launch a comparable box in the coming weeks, as it explained on request. The hardware is already ready for the market, only the software is currently being optimized. Cablecom is even less specific. Cablecom wrote on request that it will continue to follow the 4K trend and make the technology available to customers in due course - when the content and corresponding demand are available. However, the network infrastructure is already equipped for the transmission of 4K content, it added. (SDA)