WDR, a German broadcaster based in Cologne, has begun airing for the first time some of its sports coverage in HD last weekend (Feb. 13). Its initial programming kicked off with WDR's coverage of its most popular sports franchise--German soccer league matches under the branding of "Sportsschau Bundesliga."
WDR said making the leap to HD was made possible by the broadcaster's deployment of Quantel Enterprise sQ technology server-based production technology to center its new HD sports infrastructure, where all stages of the digital coverage ("from ingest to playout") will now be HD-centric.
Quantel hardware/software is not new to WDR production schemes. Using Quantel's Enterprise sQ technology in SD mode, the broadcasting company had been producing "Sportsschau Bundesliga" for the past six years for Germany's public broadcasting network (ARD) before its jump to HD.
WDR said as its production workflow system was gradually converted to HD throughout the summer of 2009, while production of WDR's sports coverage in SD continued without interruption.
