UHD SPAIN CELEBRATES ITS SECOND ANNIVERSARY WITH A 2023 FULL OF CHALLENGES
The UHD Spain Association celebrates today, 26th of January 2023, its second anniversary with 40 members, after 2022 of unstoppable work and with the aim in 2023 to continue “driving together the television of the future”.
Qatar World Cup in UHD-4K
One of the historic moments, not only for the association but for the entire Spanish audiovisual community, was the broadcast by TVE of the Qatar World Cup in UHD-4K, free to air on DTT and in HDR quality, the first broadcast worldwide in DTT in UHD-4K of an event of this complexity and duration.
UHD Spain also joined this worldwide technological victory by projecting in cinema Spain – Japan match in UHD quality, with High Dynamic Range (HDR) and Dolby Atmos sound. More than 200 exclusive guests witnessed a pioneering experience worldwide, in which the free-to-air DTT signals of TVE UHD and the OTT payment platform Gol Mundial were shown and combined.
Renewal of the Board of Directors
On November 14, the General Assembly, held during the eighth edition of the 4K HDR Summit 2022 at the National Digital Content Pole in Malaga, approved the renewal of the Board of Directors of the association, which was unanimously elected.
The new Board of Directors has Pere Vila, Director of Technology Strategy and Digital Innovation of RTVE, as President; Xavier Redón, Product Manager of Cellnex, as Vice President; María Medina, General Manager of Medina Media, as Vocal-Secretary; and Emili Planas, CTO, and Operations Manager of Mediapro; Jorge Rodríguez, Head of Pre-sales and Product Management of Hispasat; Eduardo Valencia, Director of Ametic Barcelona; and Miguel Ángel Cristóbal, CEO of Sapec and coordinator of technical tests in UHD Spain, as a new member.
The association, which was created in January 2021 with 30 founding members, currently has 40 associated companies and according to its president, Pere Vila, “the balance of the year is positive, although we still have a long way to go. We are open to new incorporations to continue the rest of the way together”.
Against this backdrop, the Board of Directors aims to continue working and promoting actions to promote and develop Ultra High Definition in Spain, as well as to bring together all companies in the audiovisual industry in the country to work together in the progress and consensus of the implementation of UHD.
Xavi Redón, vice-president of UHD Spain, emphasizes on this second anniversary that “from UHD Spain we are committed to achieving a common goal, which is none other than improving the quality of television. In Spain, more than 70% of the audience comes from DTT. In other countries, this is not exactly the case. This is the reason why in Spain things are done differently when it comes to the distribution of UHD content on DTT”.
Your UHD Zone, the White Book, the Meetings, and the UHD Course.
Another major milestone of the last year has been the launch of “Your UHD Zone” on the Association’s website for registered users, which allows free access to members and non-members to exclusive documents such as the White Book on Ultra High Definition in Spain, explainers and technical reports and presentations made during the UHD Spain Meetings with national and international experts, among others.
The creation of the UHD Signal Production and Broadcasting Course, in collaboration with the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), which was successfully launched in early October, exceeded the expected number of enrolments, with a total of 28 students, forcing the closing of registrations before the scheduled date.
The second year of implementation with a national and international agenda
During the second year of foundation, UHD Spain has developed an intense institutional activity, both nationally and internationally, to raise awareness of the Association among the authorities.
On one hand, as part of the association’s international promotion objectives, in 2022, Jorge Rodríguez, member of the Board of Directors and executive of Hispasat, attended the 28th edition of the prestigious international telecommunications and convergent technologies fair, Andina Link in Colombia. He also participated in the NAB SHOW in Las Vegas (USA) and IBC in Amsterdam.
Rodriguez stresses the need to insist on the work of the association in Latin America in the coming years. “The technological backwardness that exists in Latin America will allow us not to make the same mistakes we have made previously.”
“2023 is a year in which Ultra High Definition will have the relevance it should have had two or three years ago,” announces Emili Planas, from Mediapro.
The challenge of raising awareness of the UHD Spain Association.
Within the national framework, UHD Spain actively participated in the 5G Forum, the main multidisciplinary meeting on 5G technology in Spain, held in May in Seville. Also noteworthy was the active participation of the association in the eighth edition of the 4K HDR Summit, where the working groups presented their actions and the second edition of the White Book was presented.
During 2022, the Board of Directors of the UHD Spain Association fulfilled an agenda full of institutional appointments, making presentations to different national and international authorities of the audiovisual and telecommunications world, both in Spain and America. It is worth mentioning the delivery of the White Book to the President of the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAING) so that it can be added to the catalog of the prestigious Library and can be consulted by academics; as well as the delivery of a copy to the Director General of Telecommunications, Arturo Azcorra.
In addition, in 2022 the association has carried out a total of six “UHD Spain Meetings”, with private character only for members of the association, with the help of professionals of the sector to introduce the advances of Ultra High Definition in the Spanish audiovisual ecosystem.