CCTV-5 Sports, China Central Television's 24-hour sports channel, said it will employ the next-gen graphics system from Vizrt. The package includes a mixture of SD graphics for live broadcasts of domestic and overseas sports events and news, as well as China's first graphics system for an HD studio.
Bergen, Norway-based Vizrt said plans call for the new graphics installation to be used by the Chinese for all major sports events this year, including this spring's World Cup soccer championship to be held throughout Germany and the Asia Games in the nation of Qatar. Early adoption of live HD sports production and transmission also is expected to provide Chinese broadcasters with some hands-on experience for eventually covering the 2008 Olympics in HD in Beijing.
Vizrt said that CCTV-5 Sports now airs more than a 1,000 live programs annually, and reaches more than 300 million viewers throughout China (out of a population of 1.3 billion). This is not the first deal between Vizrt and China; a few months ago the Chinese Meteorological Administration secured its own Vizrt graphics package in order to launch a 24-hour weather channel in May (also within the CCTV network).
