Led by Orange Labs, the 4EVER consortium will undertake a major challenge from June 1st to June 9th during the French Tennis Open: the live broadcasting of the tournament in HD using the new HEVC codec end-to-end.
A technical feat: live HD HEVC broadcasting for delivery to multiple screens
At Roland-Garros 2013, 4EVER will provide demonstrations of multi-screen delivery (TV, PC and tablet) using the new video encoding standard HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding). Published in January 2013, this standard is intended to replace the current MPEG-4 AVC standard. It allows the delivery of an equivalent quality of experience with half the bandwidth, thus offering prospects of HD delivery to more terminals.
From June 1st to June 9th, the daily schedule of televised games will be fed to an HEVC live experimental end-to-end delivery chain including encoding, streaming, decoding, and display. Using IPTV, DVB-T2 and internet delivery networks, the matches will be broadcast to PCs, TVs and tablets, in high-definition, for viewing in France Télévisions’ public spaces (RGLab),and in the technical area of Orange and in a showroom in Rennes.
This will be the first public demonstration of an end-to-end HEVC delivery chain, incorporating both the encoding and decoding in real time. It is also an opportunity to highlight the technological benefits brought by HEVC for the viewing of sports events in high-definition on multiple devices, including tablets.
4EVER: a collaborative research project
The 4EVER consortium (for Enhanced Video ExpeRience), initiated in 2012, includes nine industrial and academic French partners. Organized as a collaborative project, it is supported by the French Ministry of Industry, three competitiveness clusters, local authorities and the European Regional Development Fund. A three-year project (2012-2015), 4EVER’s purpose is to advance French research in the fields of HEVC and Ultra High Definition TV.
For more information about the 4EVER project:http://www.4ever-project.com/
About Orange
France Telecom-Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with sales of 43.5 billion euros in 2012 and has 170,000 employees worldwide at 31 March 2013, including 104 000 employees in France. Present in 32 countries, the Group has a total customer base close to 230 million customers at 31 March 2013, including 172 million mobile customers and 15 million broadband internet (ADSL, fibre) customers worldwide. Orange is one of the main European operators for mobile and broadband internet services and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.
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