Nevion, award-winning provider of virtualized media production solutions, has revealed that its flagship software-defined media node Virtuoso was used in the world’s first large-scale application of TICO video compression during the China Media Group’s (CMG) live coverage of the recent celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Nevion Virtuoso’s TICO media function enables encoding and decoding of UHD/4K video for transport over 10GE/IP or 3G-SDI links, with a visually lossless 4:1 compression ratio and a latency of a few milliseconds. For this event, more than 120 Nevion Virtuosos were used for the live 4K broadcast to billions of viewers via CMG’s China Central Television’s (CCTV) television station and website, as well as 70 4K movie theaters.
Nevion Virtuosos ensured the reliable TICO encoding and decoding of all 4K/UHD signals in Tiananmen Square from OB vans, on-site cameras in buildings and microwave links from vehicles and helicopters. The compressed signals were then transported between two master control rooms, four 4K studios and CCTV’s 4K playout system at different sites as 3G-SDI TICO streams using Nevion’s fiber transmitters and receivers.
4K PGM signals were also encoded by Nevion Virtuoso using lightweight TICO compression technology and sent back to two ultra-large LED screens in Tiananmen Square to provide real-time pictures for the audience on site.
The flow of production of this event required three encoding-decoding cycles for each 4K/UHD signal. Nevion Virtuoso TICO delivered a reliable performance achieving low latency for the repeated coding and decoding, and ensured that an outstanding picture quality was maintained despite the complex flow of production.
Hans Hasselbach, Chief Commercial Officer, Nevion, commented: “We are proud to have been part of the world’s first large-scale TICO application and to have facilitated CMG’s broadcast of the celebrations from the momentous day across China. The low-latency and interoperability of our technology meant signals were seamlessly sent between multiple locations so people all over the country could enjoy watching the festivities in real-time.”
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