Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) has carried out a number of live 4k terrestrial broadcasts of three major sports events in 2014, based on earlier terrestrial UHD experimental broadcasts. Transmissions covered the KBL (Korean Basketball League) finals, the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.
At NAB, KBS researcher Sansung Kim described plans for the production and delivery of sports events with remote live production, HEVC encoding, SFN (Single Frequency Network) transmission, and experimental IP transmission of uncompressed 4k video over Kreonet, a national R&D network.
For live public viewing of the Asian games in Incheon, UHDTVs were installed in the KBS main office and the IBC (International Broadcasting Center) , where the public could view directly received terrestrial signals. Also, 4k UHDTVs with built-in DVB-T2 tuners and HEVC decoders were already in the market in Korea, so anyone who owned a UHDTV in the capital area was able to watch live 4k coverage of the Games at home.
The UHDTV roadmap includes terrestrial broadcasting to major cities by 2019, including coverage of the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeong-Chang, Korea. Nationwide broadcasts are expected to be in place by 2025. – Aldo Cugnini
KBS UHD Roadmap
