Sony and Univision teamed up to provide a select group of soccer fans a look into the possible future of live sports broadcasting, when they streamed a match in real time, in 4K Ultra High Definition. Although the scale of this event was very small, it is a step forward in the push towards live 4K television.
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Univision Deportes streamed a friendly match between Mexico’s senior national team and Senegal, which took place in Miami, on February 10th 2016. This marked “the first live North American soccer broadcast in 4K.” The live stream was made available to an exclusive audience in California, New York, and Florida. The 4K live stream was made possible with NeuLion’s, over-the-top (OTT) service, which delivered the game coverage to Sony’s 4K HDR Ultra HD TVs.
Univision and Sony’s trial run was streamed to the select set of fans on their Sony 4k Ultra HD televisions through their internet connected Android TV App. More than 20 Sony 4K HDC-4300 cameras were used at Marlin’s Stadium to film the game in 4K. The technological challenge was that the content then had to be encoded and condensed, in order for it to be streamed over the Internet, in as close to real time as possible.
Mexico vs Senegal #soccer friendly is a test for #4K #poweredbyNeuLion and @UnivisionDeport https://t.co/E3jOQRdzDU via @techradar
— NeuLion Inc (@NeuLionInc) February 10, 2016
Fans were then able to watch the game in 4K UHD, providing them with more pixels and greater resolution, which creates a much more vivid picture of the action on and off the field. 4K televisions generate about 8 millions pixels, which is roughly four times more than 1080p HD; which is the current standard for most broadcast television and streaming services. This higher resolution allows users to sit closer to their televisions, while seeing more colors, in greater detail than ever before.
Univision Deportes is planning on delivering more 4K live sports content during 2016, including the final of the Copa America Centerio. However live 4K is still in its infancy.
As of now there are more than a fews ways to watch 4K, but mostly as video on demand. Netflix, Amazon TV, Hulu, and other streaming services provide a small amount of their content in 4k UHD. New Blu-Ray players are offering 4K as well. But even as 4K TV purchases are on the rise, there is still very limited content – especially live – available, as the costs of producing and delivering 4K are still very high. This is not to say that content providers are not fighting to be on the forefront of 4K.
The NBA has conducted a couple of trial runs with live streaming 4K, most recently in January 2016, as we covered here. AT&T and DirectTV will be giving fans a glimpse of 4K during the 2016 Masters Tournament at August National. Customers who have a 4K television and have paid for the new DirectTV 4K channel, will be able to watch live coverage of the Amen Corner (The second shot at the 11th, all of the 12th, and the first two shots at the 13th hole at Augusta) over the four-day event.
As 4K televisions become cheaper and more readily available, the content is lagging behind. Networks are still most likely years away from broadcasting live sporting events in 4K, as viewers are accustom to today with HD. There a few factors that currently make it hard to provide this content. 4K video is very complex to encode and condense at this time, which makes it very expensive. Another large factor is user’s Internet speed, as well as the overall infrastructure of the internet in many areas around the world, including the United States.
The trial run between Univision and Sony however is an indication that there will be a push towards providing 4K to sports fans. As the proliferation of 4k televisions expands, the monetization possibilities that will be available to the companies that start providing fans with live 4K television will be a powerful incentive to do so.
Even though a mainstream adoption of live streams and broadcasts in 4K may be some years away, the small doses of live content should tide sports fans over for now, as networks and providers figure out ways to make live 4K more quality, affordable, and profitable.