PHOENIX—DS Broadcast has announced that it recently conducted an over-the-air broadcast of High Frame Rate 120 Hz video, working with the Phoenix Model Market project to do so. The company says the video was encoded by its BGE9300 encoder, received by its BGD4100 integrated receiver decoder, transmitted via a NEXTGEN TV transmitter from the Phoenix Model Market and displayed on UHDTV screens in the Phoenix area.
Typical TV video is transmitted at 30 frames per second, which DS Broadcast says can create a blur for high-motion activity like sports or scenes of waterfalls and ocean surf. NEXTGEN TV is expected to deliver 60 frames per second, but Dave Folsom, consulting engineer for the Phoenix Model Market project, says that 120 Hz is the “holy grail” for sports fans.
“This combination creates an exceptionally immersive experience, even with 2K video sources,” Folsom said. “It’s even more impressive than 4K video to the average viewer. And the combination of High Frame Rate with High Dynamic Range is also very efficient for broadcasters, consuming little additional bandwidth.”
DS Broadcast is touting its BGE9300 for such purposes, highlighting its features that include ATSC 3.0 or MPEG-2 TS multiplex, HEVC Main/Main10 encoding at multiple frame rates (100/120/119.88), as well as support for HDR, wide color gamut, IEEE 1588v2 PTP synchronization and Dolby AC-4. The system has inputs that include SDI or SMPTE ST 2110 with embedded 16x audio channels and is designed to fit into a 1U 19-inch equipment rack.
DS Broadcast showcased the BGE9300 at the recent NAB Show New York conference.
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