SES announced today that, together with industry partners, it will be showcasing two Ultra HD demo channels in the new high efficiency video coding (HEVC) standard at the SES stand at IBC 2013. The Ultra HD demo channels will be broadcast via SES’ prime European orbital position of 19.2 degrees East.

For one of the Ultra HD channels, SES partners with Sky Deutschland and Harmonic to deliver an exciting array of Ultra HD content consisting of sports matches, blockbuster movies and documentaries to the first actual Ultra HD consumer set top boxes – from Humax and Technicolor – connected to a Sony 84-inch 4K TV screen.

The other Ultra HD channel is set up by SES and Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute to broadcast Ultra HD content in the new HEVC standard, but at higher frame rates.

SES and Sony were the first to broadcast live Ultra HD content in the H.264 standard at a data rate of 50 Mbit/s at IBC 2012. In April 2013, SES went on to pioneer the first Ultra HD transmission in the new HEVC standard live from an ASTRA satellite at 19.2 degrees East at SES Industry Days 2013 that was attended by over 200 industry experts. At IFA 2013 in early September, SES, also teamed up with five other industry partners — German TV Platform, Fraunhofer HHI, Harmonic, Sky Deutschland and Sony – to demonstrate the current and future potential of Ultra HD.

“By showing these two demo channels at IBC 2013, SES has once again demonstrated how it collaborates with the industry to make Ultra HD a commercial reality. We also have immediate plans to use these Ultra HD transmissions to provide our industry partners with live satellite signals to demonstrate devices with the 50/60 Hz frame rates that the new HDMI 2.0 interface will be capable of,” said Thomas Wrede, Vice President of Reception Systems at SES. “As technologies for Ultra HD mature, SES will continue to work with partners to make Ultra HD the ultimate television experience for consumers, not just with more pixels but with better pixels that also deliver brighter, smoother and more colourful pictures.”