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Amazon's latest stunt is beaming a new Prime Video sci-fi show into outer space
'Night Sky' was the subject of 'the first-ever intergalactic premiere.'
LG gears up for high frame rate 4K sports broadcasts
A few years ago, high frame-rate was a big talking point for movies. Director Peter Jackson bet big on it with his version of The Hobbit, but since then interest has died down mostly due to audience pushback against the unnaturally clear images it presents. While HFR might not work best with film, there's the chance that it'd be a good fit for broadcast TV and sports -- formats where we're already used to watching faster frame-rates. At least that's what LG is hoping for. The electronics company has partnered with satellite operator SES to demo 4K HFR broadcasts this week in Luxembourg.
Verizon plans to test 4K TV for its FiOS customers
Verizon has been relatively late to 4K TV (its competitors hopped aboard a while back), but it's at least making up for lost time. The carrier and its partner SES have confirmed that they'll soon test 4K delivery to FiOS TV customers. There's no mention of when this dry run will begin (an IPTV launch may be coming later in 2017), but it'll include nine channels that will serve more as a proof of concept than anything. NASA TV will be the highlight, but you can also expect 4K Universe, C4K60, Fashion One 4K, Insight, Nature Relaxation, Travelxp 4K, UHD1 and SES' own demonstration channel.
SpaceX to launch SES satellite on a reused Falcon 9 rocket
Satellite operator SES will be the first company to launch a spacecraft on a 'second-hand' SpaceX rocket. The Falcon 9 which travelled to the ISS in April, before landing on a drone ship in open water, will be called upon for the new flight later this year. Blast-off is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2016 and will be used to send an SES-10 satellite into a geostationary orbit over Latin America. Here, it'll deliver "direct-to-home broadcasting, enterprise and mobility services" to people back on the surface.
SpaceX could try its next sea landing on February 24th
The next sea-based landing attempt for SpaceX could be on February 24th, based on an announcement from satellite operator SES. As part of the launch of a new SES-9 satellite, which Elon Musk's company is expected to transport to its orbital slot using a Falcon 9, SpaceX will likely try to touch base at sea -- that's if the rocket doesn't have enough fuel to make it back to land.
SES demos first Ultra HD transmission in more efficient HEVC standard
We're still a bit away from Ultra HD becoming the standard for television. One of the things standing in the way is just how much bandwidth pushing that many pixels demands. SES recently demonstrated an Ultra HD transmission that uses the up and coming HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) standard, as opposed to the more established H.264. It's demonstrated 4K broadcasts before, as seen above at its IBC booth last year, but those were using older codecs. The 3,840 x 2,160 image was broadcast at a data rate of 20 Mbps, roughly a 50-percent improvement in encoding efficiency over H.264-based MPEG-4. The demonstration was performed with support from SES's partners, Harmonic and Broadcom, the latter of which provided the BCM7445-based decoding box used for pulling in the video. The tech still isn't quite ready for prime time, but we'd say a 4K House of Cards stream is probably closer than any of us realized.
Gogo spreads its in-flight WiFi wings further with SES satellite deal
Rejoice frequent-flying lovers of the Interwebs. All systems continue to be a go for in-flight WiFi provider Gogo as the company inks a deal with yet another satellite operator. A new agreement with global satellite company SES puts Gogo closer to providing seamless WiFi for passengers on intercontinental flights that use its service -- SES' coverage area includes the United States, Europe and the Atlantic Ocean region. The agreement comes along the heels of deals signed by Gogo with Inmarsat for Ka-band frequency service and AeroSat to use its HR6400 satellite communication system for Ku-band connections. The company says Ku-band service could be available on commercial flights using Gogo's network as early as the end of this year, providing more options for, say, Airtime video chat hijinks. As long as Internet access prevents bored kids from kicking the back of our airline seats, then it's all good.
SES ASTRA satellite experiences technical anomaly, enters retirement
Satellite failures aren't completely unheard of or anything, but it's always a sad day when a dutiful bird loses its wings. SES ASTRA's ASTRA 5A -- the former SIRIUS 2 operating at 31.5 degrees East -- has experienced a "technical anomaly" which has led to the end of the spacecraft's mission. The outfit has already switched a significant part of its traffic to another ASTRA satellite, with German cable operators specifically mentioned as businesses affected. It's tough to tell at this point what the eventual results from all of this will be, but here's hoping it doesn't set back any potential HD expansion.
Brazil's TV Record network selects SES for satellite distribution
Brazil's longest running television network -- TV Record -- has just announced that it is selecting SES NEW SKIES for satellite distribution of its international and domestic content. The multi-year agreement will also enable the network to launch its first HDTV channel for broadcasting in Brazil, while the Record Internacional channel will be beamed to North America via the NSS-806 bird. There's no mention of a go-live date for the aforementioned HD channel, but we're hoping it won't keep eager Brazilians waiting for too long here -- the teasing is the worst part, you know.
Eutelsat Europe's HD capacity leader?
HDTV is taking off in Europe, enough for quibbling over who can and is delivering the most channels to start. Eutelsat announced it's currently broadcasting 63 HD channels, making SES Astra's 55 channels seem so small and insignificant that they should probably just change schools, since everyone knows what a loser they are now. Of course, Broadband TV News mentions that number is more like 137 if you add in SES's other satellite programs, so who knows, they may stick around and do battle. Beyond the increased revenues for each satellite operator, Euro HD heads, is all this high definition trickling down to your local programming guide yet?
