Day 5 of the Malaga 4K HDR Summit heard Antonio Fernández-Paniagua, Deputy Director of Planning and Management of the Radioelectric Spectrum confirm that “experimental broadcasts in UHD have been authorised in practically all the provincial capitals”.

He told delegates that under Spain’s existing regulations all TV channels, whether local, regional or national, have to upgrade their HD broadcasts before January 2024.

With regard to experimental broadcasts in UHD in Spain, Fernández-Paniagua anticipates that “[UHD broadcasts] have been authorised in practically all the provincial capitals and in some additional important cities. All this is aimed at making an evolution to high definition on the established dates and to prepare a future evolution both to UHD and to more efficient transmission technologies such as DVB-T2”.

His comments were echoed by the UHD Spain Association which took over a large part of this last day. Pere Vila, President of UHD Spain, admitted that there were several important challenges remaining, among which are “for the industry to play in the 4K Champions League” in order to “present ourselves at national and international events with the face very high”.

One of those challenges has been “UHD streaming”, something that makes it clear that the move to higher definition has gone beyond “a single technology”, according to Vila.

Looking forward to 2023 and delegates heard from Emili Planas, Member of the Board of Directors of UHD Spain. Planas said: “2023 is a year in which UHD is going to have the relevance that it should have had 2 or 3 years ago”.

Despite this, the intention to learn from other markets in order to cover their own needs has always been present. Planas has also left another interesting reflection for this coming year, adding: “The market is going to begin to value in a much more massive way what the UHD concept means. The viewer already gives importance to the increase in quality and to the parameters of the UHD concept”.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, UHD