LUXEMBOURG—In preparation for UHD subscriber trials that SES plans to launch later this year, four U.S. cable operators have signed up to test 4K content delivery across SES’ UHD platform. That brings the total to eight operators after four stations in Missouri, South Dakota, New York and Minnesota began trials over the summer.
The four new cable operators running UHD trials are Marquette-Adams in Wisconsin, Buckeye Broadband in Ohio and Southeast Michigan, Service Electric Cable TV in Pennsylvania, and enTouch Systems in Texas. These operators will use the SES UHD system to leverage the scalability of satellite and delivery options, using either managed IP multicast DOCSIS 3.0 streams or traditional digital QAM transport streams.
The pre-packaged UHD platform combines UHD channel, 4K set top boxes and reception gear in a single service for small and medium tier cable operators. The system is delivered over dedicated bandwidth, compared to internet-delivered 4K offerings. SES offers 30 UHD channels worldwide, including seven channels hosted on two SES satellites.
“SES’ innovative and simplified platform solution has really allowed us to leap ahead to reliable and scalable technologies that have made the transition to Ultra HD much faster and more efficient,” said Shane McCann, network engineer for Marquette-Adams.
