With the advent of Ultra High Definition (UHD), questions have been raised about the imminent increase in bandwidth consumption. In a presentation at CommunicAsia, Deepak Mathur, Senior Vice President, Commercial, Asia Pacific and the Middle East at SES, explained how bandwidth efficiency can be improved by Highly Efficient Video Coding (HEVC). HEVC allows UHD to be transmitted at 20 Mbits/s, as compared to MPEG-2 coding, which requires more bandwidth at 80 Mbits/s.

SES’ satellite service, however, is only one piece in the ecosystem of UHD adoption, according to Mathur. The entire process will involve, firstly, the upgrade of television sets – today, a five-year cycle, secondly, the production, editing and delivering of content in the right format, and in addition to these, key global sporting events to drive purchase and adoption of the new technology, said Mathur.

Mathur went on to explain that UHD will not be a replacement for SD and HD. Rather, he predicted an environment where SD, HD and UHD coexist in one ecosystem, with different regions using what is most suited to them.