Telstra boost for Fox Sports 4K cricket
December 21, 2018
Australian pay-TV operator Fox Sports’ 2019 cricket coverage in 4K is being delivered by Telstra Broadcast Services’ 4K fibre contribution transmission, making it the first Australian telco to offer 4K delivery capability in the country.
Telstra Broadcast Services utilises mature third generation dedicated 4K hardware encoding. For Fox Sports, Telstra is supplying a full suite of services calling on its Distributed Production Network – an end-to-end IP network with a standard capacity of up to 100Gbps into 31 sporting venues nationally – Digital Video Network, satellite trucks, teleports and state of the art Broadcast Operations Centre.
“We have pioneered this new approach with Fox Sports to ensure Australians can get a superior entertainment experience,” commented Telstra’s Head of Telstra Broadcast Services, Trevor Boal. “We’re excited to see where our 4K capability will take the future of broadcast and look forward to providing our comprehensive suite of broadcast services to customers around the world.”
Fox Sports’ Director of Technology & Infrastructure, Stephen Edwards, said the delivery of Australian sports in 4K was “an historic step in Australian broadcasting,” suggesting that the Fox Sports production and technical teams have set an unparalleled quality benchmark for its 4K outside broadcast productions, with the Telstra 4K delivery solution is a vital part of ensuring this quality is maintained when delivering live feeds back to Fox Sports and onto its customers.
Telstra’s 4K capability has been available to international partners and customers across Telstra’s GMN since its launch in 2016 – a worldwide highly resilient network built on a four fibre path system. The service is specifically designed for the seamless delivery of video content and is monitored 24×7 to guarantee the highest levels of service and minimise any interruptions.