ATEME Leads UltraHD Charge at French Open

ATEME’s digital compression technology was used by the French Tennis Federation (FFT) and France Télévisions, the official broadcaster and executive producer of the French Tennis Open, to inaugurate the new UltraHD television format during the 2013 event.

The tennis world’s first application of this innovative technology took place during the second week of the French Open, with the live multi-camera capture of the competition on the Philippe Chatrier court, as
was the case seven years ago for High Definition.

“We are very proud to once again be at the forefront of the latest technological developments in television,” said Bernard Fontaine, innovation tech director, France Télévisions Digital Editions. “Through the dedicated efforts of our partners, we were able to successfully provide visitors with a look at the future of broadcast television during one of the largest tennis events in the world.”

This major step for live television production was visible in a showroom of France Télévisions RG LAB. Visitors were able to experience the quality of 4K images in either live viewing or replay.

“ATEME is honored to be a contributor in the innovation that was showcased at this major event,” said Michel Artières, founder, president and CEO, ATEME. “This is a great example of how the combined efforts of dedicated professionals can result in driving innovation in the broadcast industry.”

FFT and France Télévisions joined forces with AMP VISUAL TV for image capture, ATEME for the digital compression of the signal and EUTELSAT for satellite broadcasting for this project. Additionally, another world premiere presentation at the French Open included a live experimental end-to-end delivery chain for High Definition HEVC. This trial, conducted by the 4EVER consortium that includes Orange and ATEME, used the new codec also known as H.265 to encode, stream over the Orange fiber network, broadcast over the air using DVB-T2, decode and display the live competition on PC, TV and tablet.