Timeline Television is delivering the outside broadcast facilities for BBC Sport’s first ever UHD HDR live streaming of the FIFA World Cup on BBC iPlayer.
Timeline’s UHD HDR outside broadcast truck, UHD2, is on site for the duration of the tournament and at the heart of the operation based out of Moscow’s Red Square.
It is delivering the BBC Presentation Studio with a simultaneous UHD Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) output for the BBC iPlayer platform. Viewers with an HDR TV are able to watch the world cup matches in UHD HDR, as well as in HD.
A joint partnership between the BBC and NHK over the last few years has led to the release of HLG (or Hybrid Log Gamma). This form of HDR is royalty free and is essentially backwards compatible with non-HDR UHD TV sets.
In recent weeks, Timeline have partnered with BBC R&D running various trials at York City Rugby Club and The Royal Wedding using the Sony PXW-Z450 camcorders as UHD HDR radio cameras. Timeline and BBC are now able to provide the FIFA World Cup coverage in UHD HDR due to the success of these trials.
Six cameras make up the basis of the studio. This is combined with the world feed from each stadium and brought together at Timeline’s operation in Red Square. This allows the BBC to base its operation onsite and provide a spectacular backdrop to the on-air programmes.
