BT Sport - Launch of BT Sport Ultimate

4K

BT are launching a repeat slot for their UHD content, either a longform or shortform version of their previous weekend's UHD live match will get a Friday evening at 8pm re-run. Additionally during the day occasional shortform UHD material is also to be shown, a sort of return to the 1960's, 1970's Trade Test Transmissions or Windmills in the immediate post Digital era during daytime hours. The first of these went out at 10am today, a cutdown of the O2 Basketball event shot for test purposes in UHD from earlier this year.

I've upgraded this week, and plan to get a 4K receiver in the new year. The UHD material viewed on a normal HD receiver taking in the UHD, 50fps, 10bit output and converting it on the fly to 1080p is brilliant. BT are offering a selection of Red Bull 4K videos (approximately 110mins worth) to view for test purposes.

The first of the UHD repeats was this Friday just gone, with a rerun of the Chelsea v Liverpool game from the 31st.

with it being an international weekend in the footie, BT Sport are doing a Motorsport Weekender - with an OB at the WRC in Wales, and studio presentation covering the various other cars and bikes which are on this weekend.

Saturday:
1515 - 1630: Rally GB
1630 - 2000: Motorsport Weekender

Sunday:
1130 - 1430: Rally GB Power Stage
1430 - 1900: Motorsport Weekender

Thought you might want to see the two different camera angles used, for their channels. by BT today for the Watford - Manchester United game.
Apologies for the reflections on the photographs

UHD


HD


Took a bit of gathering, after planning mid match. The sooner they're able to provide sufficient cameras for full UHD coverage the better, then downscale the UHD to HD for the HD channel.

Although they'll get to that point and move on to 8k Super Hi-Vision and the whole cycle begins again, although NHK believe 8k will be the last step in 2D TV as beyond that the improvements won't be noticeable. Then they'll probably give 3D another try.

Yep - any by then hopefully it will be more than a stereographic 3D system.

I understand tests are in progress to make the, mostly disliked, but thankfully much less used now, 'L' presentation style optional on BT Sport Europe.

Thanks for the pictures above, Mr Cornwall. I'm surprised by the UHD angle, as I thought the point was for the UHD picture to be further away to get more of the pitch in to utilise the additional resolution? If there's no compelling reason for the UHD feed to have different angles (unlike the Sky 3D experiment, where it was of paramount importance that camera 1 was almost at pitch level to emphasise the 3D effect) then I agree, it would be best for all concerned to have one feed and the HD feed as a down convert. It also will avoid the problem of having second-rate commentators on the UHD feed, the alleged premium service.

I'm also surprised by the size of that DOG - what a waste of screen space! But I shouldn't be surprised by the size of BT's DOGs - they are all too big and annoyingly opaque.

That might be the case, but it depends what's actually possible at a particular venue.

I was involved in a BT Sport OB at Old Trafford this year. The HD and UHD cameras were next to each other
on the main gantry, there's not really anywhere else you can place the centre line cameras at that venue. You also
have to consider the permanent SMPTE Fibre connections for the cameras are only present in the regularly routinely used positions, to use other positions means cables have to be rigged to there, time consuming and expensive. (Remember all the money available has been spent on the rights !)

Thanks for this insight. So is the reason for the split UHD and HD feeds purely technical (rather than editorial ambition) at the moment? I had half wondered if there was a compelling reason for the split, like the very valid reasons for providing a 3D feed. But if there isn't then presumably BT will want to get it to the point where the UHD is the main feed and HD a down convert very quickly. Both in terms of economies of scale, and also providing the UHD service with the proper commentary.

One other thing to remember is that UHD coverage may still be using fewer cameras than HD coverage - so may not be suitable as a source for HD broadcasts yet.

Yep, that's what I meant when I referred to technical reasons - i.e. the UHD feed isn't complete enough for the main feed.