Munich/Hong Kong— AsiaSat plans for an UHD TV broadcasting service over satellite have taken a major step forward with the imminent launch of its first channel following an extensive technical evaluation carried out at the AsiaSat UHD laboratory.

Through AsiaSat 4’s high-power coverage, broadcasters and pay-tv platforms with an AsiaSat 4 C-band antenna in the Asia-Pacific region will be able to receive the UHD channel directly.

Operating at 122°E, AsiaSat 4 provides leading edge satellite solutions to clients for TV distribution, DTH as well as broadband services across the Asia-Pacific region. Its high power C-band footprint spans from New Zealand to Pakistan and part of the Middle East.

Rohde & Schwarz is providing a comprehensive broadcast solution that includes the R&S CLIPSTER mastering station for editing, handling and playing out UHD data in real time. In addition, the R&S AVHE100 headend will be used for live encoding using an HEVC encoder with 10 bit color depth. Rohde & Schwarz technology not only gives AsiaSat the best UHD TV picture quality, it also provides a future-proof solution.