Tata Sky Selects Elemental for 4K

Elemental Technologies has announced that a major Indian direct-to-home satellite provider Tata Sky has deployed the vendor’s software to process 4K video.

Elemental is the sole provider of video processing for what will be India’s first commercial 4K service delivered to end-users, the vendor reported.

To save bandwidth, the Elemental software uses HEVC compression.

Tata Sky is a joint venture between the Tata Group and 21st Century Fox. Launched in 2006, the satellite service currently has a presence in more than 36,000 towns with over 13.5 million connections.

Software-based Elemental Live product is doing real-time processing of Tata Sky 4K content in HEVC at 60/50 frames per second for linear streaming to Tata Sky 4K STBs.

Harit Nagpal, CEO and managing director for Tata Sky, noted in a statement that “We pride ourselves for being at the forefront of technology and delivering world class TV experiences to our viewers. The Tata Sky 4K service is an example of not only keeping up with changing times, but in fact giving our viewers a pioneering technology that the world would follow. The seamless integration between Ericsson and Elemental HEVC compression technology for live 4K streaming enables us to reinforce our technology and industry leadership positions, further adding to our delighted subscriber base.”

The new 4K UHD Tata Sky settop box is capable of delivering Ultra HD picture quality and Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 surround sound, the companies said.