Elemental Chosen for Tata Sky’s Latest 4K Video Service

A joint venture between the TATA Group and 21st Century Fox, Tata Sky deployed the latest 4K service and set-top boxes in advance of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 tournament currently underway in Australia and New Zealand. Software-based Elemental® Live systems perform real time processing of Tata Sky 4K content in HEVC at 60/50fps for linear streaming to Tata Sky 4K STBs.

Tata Sky Delivers the Cricket World Cup in 4K
With 42 matches down - including the heart-pounding excitement of  the historic win for South Africa against Sri Lanka – attention to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 is growing as the knock-out rounds continue ahead of the March 29 final on the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Highest scorers in the intense six-week, 49-match global competition include the likes of Kumar Sangakkara, Brendan Taylor and Ab De Villiers with 496, 433 and 417 runs respectively. From an advanced technology and enhanced fan experience perspective, Tata Sky is another champion.

India’s leading direct-to-home (DTH) operator launched the first commercial 4K video service and set-top boxes in the subcontinent just ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. (Tata Sky is a joint venture between the TATA Group and 21st Century Fox.)

As the sole provider of a commercial delivery service for Tata Sky, Elemental is helping to bring lucky Cricket fans equipped with 4K-capable televisions a view of native 4K content. Software-based Elemental® Live systems perform real-time video processing of Tata Sky 4K content in HEVC at 60/50fps for linear streaming to Tata Sky 4K set-top boxes.

While sports fans were also able to watch 4K broadcasts of the 2014 FIFA World Cup last June, the ICC Cricket World Cup broadcasts in 4K have a much broader scope.

We won’t dare to predict a winner, nor suggest a favorite to take home the Cricket World Cup 2015 trophy. But, on behalf of cricket and 4K fans everywhere, we will declare Tata Sky a winner.

“We pride ourselves for being at the forefront of technology and delivering world class TV experiences to our viewers. The Tata Sky 4K service is an example of not only keeping up with changing times, but in fact giving our viewers a pioneering technology that the world would follow,” said Harit Nagpal, CEO & managing director for Tata Sky. “The seamless integration between Ericsson and Elemental HEVC compression technology for live 4K streaming enables us to reinforce our technology and industry leadership positions, further adding to our delighted subscriber base.”

“Tata Sky has selected Elemental video processing to bring 4K content programming to the India market,” said Dan Marshall, senior vice president worldwide sales for Elemental Technologies. “We are proud to provide Tata Sky with our software-defined video solutions to deliver unbeatable picture quality.”

The new generation 4K UHD Tata Sky STB is capable of delivering Ultra HD picture quality and Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 surround sound.  Viewers can enjoy 8.3 megapixel (3840x2160) video, which is approximately four times the pixel count compared to the current HD standard, offering far greater clarity and more vivid colors on screen. In addition to 4K content, the set-top box also showcases standard definition (SD) and HD TV channels.

Elemental will showcase its suite of software-defined video solutions at the NexTV Summit in Mumbai on April 7, 2015.

About Tata Sky
Launched in 2006, Tata Sky is a joint venture between the TATA Group and 21st Century Fox. The company has invested in state-of-the-art digital infrastructure, partnered with global leaders to provide superior technology and set-up high-end 24x7 call centers across the country manned by multi-lingual customer service associates.The Tata Sky brand has achieved significant milestones, industry accolades and is rated as the No 1 DTH brand by the ET Brand Equity 2012 most trusted brand survey. Tata Sky+ HD was rated as the 'Product of the Year', 2013 in the DTH category. The company currently has a presence in more than 36,000 towns with over 13.5 million connections.

About Elemental
Elemental Technologies is the leading supplier of software-defined video solutions for multiscreen content delivery. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Portland, Oregon, the company pioneered the use of software-based video processing to distribute video over IP networks. Solutions from Elemental provide the flexibility, scalability and performance required to deliver high quality video via turnkey, cloud-based and virtualized deployment models. Powering video experiences for more than 600 leading media franchises worldwide, Elemental helps pay TV operators, content programmers, broadcasters and enterprise customers bring video to any screen, anytime – all at once. The company has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, China, Russia, India and Brazil.