The 8K content broadcast via ASTRA 28.2 degrees East orbital slot is unveiled at the invite-only two-day event that is held in Luxembourg, with Spin Digital providing the expertise to encode high quality 8K signals, SES the bandwidth to broadcast the signal, and Samsung the 8K flat screen TV to receive and decode the broadcast signal directly.
The 8K content, with 7680x4320 pixels at 50 frames/s, is encoded by Spin Digital using its HEVC encoder at a bit rate of 70 Mbps for broadcast-grade quality, while the transmission is carried out by SES on a single 33 MHz transponder using DTH broadcast parameters. The 82” Samsung 8K Q950RB QLED production model TV receives this signal directly, and is using DVB-S2 transmission parameters specifically for this demo. This Samsung flagship TV features a 4000 Nits peak luminance, an 8K-compatible HEVC 50/60 fps video decoder, the latest HDMI interface and is capable of displaying High Dynamic Range (HDR) content. The TV will soon be available across Europe.
Transmitting broadcast-quality 8K content across multiple video formats calls for both efficient video coding and reliable infrastructure technology. While compression technology will become more efficient in the next few years, the demo underlines how satellite is already capable of reliably providing the transmission bitrates necessary to distribute 8K signals across continents.