On Wednesday the 7th May, the Wiener Staatsoper will provide a groundbreaking world première in TV area: For the first time, viewers will be able to watch live pictures in UHD (“Ultra High Definition”) over the internet.
Since October 2013, the Wiener Staatsoper offers live broadcasts of selected performances in Full HD, a better picture quality than most of the available TV programmes. By the end of next year, more than two thirds of all household TV sets will be larger than 45’’ and screens are constantly getting bigger so that manufacturers are taking a step further for the television experience * UHD, “Ultra High Definition”. With its 3840 by 2160 pixels, UHD brings four times as many pixels in comparison to Full HD, and at the same time a significantly higher purity and sharpness of the picture with an extraordinary vividness and perfect flow. A wide range of TV sets at reasonable prices is already available. Thanks to the upscaling performance of these devices, viewers can also experience Full-HD or lower resolution content in unprecedented detail. Real UHD content is hardly seen now-a-days, neither through the internet nor on TV.
The Vienna State Opera and Samsung are together the first to broadcast premium content in UHD live over the internet. Both of the institutions are opening new dimensions for TV: from today, Monday 5th May, the Wiener Staatsoper Samsung SmartTV App will have a fully integrated “UHD” menu section, where on Wednesday viewers will be able to next see a live performance of Verdi’s Nabucco with Plácido Domingo in excellent sound quality and breakthrough picture quality and then with time zone delayed broadcasts throughout the world always at the primetime. In this way, the Wiener Staatsoper has been technically upgraded: A UHD camera as well as several separately installed cables ensure that the high resolution images arrive sharply into the living room. Directly behind the camera, a UHD live encoder converts the TV signal using the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standards into compressed data packets, and is then unpacked again after the broadcast on the SmartTV * and all that without a loss of quality. For this reason, Samsung has developed its own UHD category into the Staatsoper SmartTV App.
*With Wiener Staatsoper Live at home in HD, which has been successfully running for a few months, we have achieved a lot. When we show our intensive and efficient work together with Samsung on the 7th May, that it is also possible to broadcast premium content on TV sets worldwide in UHD, we will have reached a new stage. The UHD broadcasts are four times as clear and precise as HD. We are very happy * and I admit: we are also proud that the world’s first UHD live stream will come from the Wiener Staatsoper. It is not so natural that in such a revolutionary step in the fields of TV and IT, an Opera House is taking charge.” *
Dominique Meyer, Director.
*UHD is the answer to ever growing TV screen sizes, which require a much higher resolution. Samsung offers not only the devices for this new standard, but also together with the Vienna State Opera the premium content. The UHD live streaming of *Nabucco‘ is a historical milestone on the way to the best TV experience for our customers.“, Seong Cho, President of Samsung Electronics.
To begin the first world-wide UHD live broadcast, on the 7th May 2014 Samsung invites all SmartTV users, whose devices are supported by the HEVC Standard 2014, to view the UHD live streaming of Nabucco, free of charge (Pre-Program from 18:30 pm). From the 2014/2015 season, live streams of WIENER STAATSOPER live at home will be presented in UHD as a compliment on top of the regular HD offer.