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think. “4K TVs currently do a great job of
upscaling traditional HD to a high quality,
watchable 4K picture. Of course, having this
option available may stall the demand and
uptake but eventually satellite and TV
providers will need to assess their
transponder bandwidth and capacity – at
this point the level of 4K content available
“The use of the
spectrum needs to be
regulated at an
international level.”
Alex Pannell, Arqiva
will have a significant impact on
transponders and strain the ability to
maintain a high quality service. As the
amount of 4K/UHD content increases, in
line with demand, it will be a race for
satellite providers to adapt and compete for
the higher capacity,” he suggests.
“Even with the latest HEVC compression
ratios, UHD bandwidth requirements are
considerable, so linear delivery will place a
significant burden on transponder capacity,”
agrees Ericsson’s Plunkett. “However, this
will only be a problem if the number of UHD
channel launches in the short term is high
(which seems unlikely). As other forms of
distribution increase, reducing bandwi