The first Ultra HD broadcasts of a Commonwealth...

The first Ultra HD broadcasts of a Commonwealth Games will highlight a series of new trials and public demonstrations announced Friday by the BBC as part of its Games “showcase” opening Thursday and running through Aug. 3 in Glasgow. All of the trials and demonstrations are open to the public in the Glasgow Science Centre’s Clyde Suite, the BBC said. It’s also trumpeting coverage of the Commonwealth Games as the first major live event to be produced and delivered entirely over the Internet and the U.K.’s first live broadcast trials over 4G mobile networks. Visitors to the showcase will be able to see how the BBC tackles “some of the technical challenges” of Ultra HD production, such as using higher frame rates and higher dynamic range, it said. It will also demonstrate how viewers “could benefit from an Ultra HD production using standard definition devices,” it said. For example, a fixed wide-angle Ultra HD camera will provide a live feed of all the track and field action, allowing users to use a standard tablet to pan around and zoom into the events they're interested in, it said. “The audio will automatically adjust to match the view and, as it’s powered by an Ultra HD feed, the resolution never drops below standard HD,” it said. “Interactive graphics overlaid on the video will provide additional information relevant to the scene.” The 4G mobile broadcasting of the Games is a U.K. first, the BBC said. The BBC will collaborate with wireless carrier EE, Huawei and Qualcomm on a trial to broadcast live footage from the Games over EE’s 4G mobile network, it said. “Handheld devices are an increasingly popular way of consuming BBC programmes but conventional streaming over mobile networks can buffer or freeze at times of heavy congestion, as content needs to be sent individually to every user.” However, 4G broadcasting “offers an alternative to this, allowing live streams to be transmitted once over the mobile network to a large number of users simultaneously,” it said. It said the service offers “increased quality and reliability,” and also is “a more efficient way to deliver popular shows and live events to audiences.” At the showcase, the BBC also will demonstrate the use of TV white spaces to “provide live and on-demand IP streaming of multimedia content to user devices in a home environment,” it said.