PHILADELPHIA— Comcast has unveiled new details of its plans for offering enhanced 4K from Xfinity and said that its first enhanced 4K feeds will be available as part of USA Network’s 24/7 coverage of the Paris Olympics. 

Enhanced 4K combines 4K video delivered via Comcast’s network, Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range and Dolby Atmos immersive audio with ultra-low latency ensuring on-screen action lags live action from Paris by only seconds, it said.

“The Olympics is the best example of how Comcast can bring together its fantastic sports content, entertainment platforms, and innovative technology and connectivity offerings to deliver one-of-a-kind experiences to customers,” said Vito Forlenza, vice president of Sports Entertainment at Comcast. “By premiering enhanced 4K during Paris 2024, fans of the Olympics will be among the first to experience this new innovation and enjoy all the live action in stunning picture and audio quality, with significantly less delay compared to anything else in the market.”

The launch of enhanced 4K follows a successful trial of the technology during the 2024 Super Bowl.

X1 customers can find the enhanced 4K feed within X1’s Olympics destination, which features curated and personalized access to every minute of coverage across the networks of NBCUniversal, including NBC, USA Network, E!, CNBC, GOLF Channel, Telemundo, Universo, two new Paris Extra channels featuring 24/7 Olympics programming, as well as streaming on Peacock. Accessible by saying “Olympics” into the voice remote, the destination features new capabilities that make enjoying coverage of the games simple, easy and intuitive. 

The Comcast described the new capabilities as follows: 

• Personalized experience across devices. Customers can choose their favorite sports to build a custom destination that makes it simple to find live coverage, event replays and a personalized playlist of highlights. Favorites carry over to the Xfinity Stream app for viewing on the go.
• Comprehensive and interactive schedule of events. An interactive daily schedule, giving customers one comprehensive guide of all live and upcoming events airing across NBCUniversal’s cable and broadcast networks and streaming on Peacock. 
• Catch-Up Highlights on X1 enable customers to jump to top moments in recorded primetime and daytime coverage on NBC as well as men’s and women’s basketball, soccer, and golf.
• 4K, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos on Xfinity Stream. Watching via the Xfinity Stream app enables customers to view 4K picture quality while watching USA Network’s 24/7 coverage. For the first time they also will be able to unlock Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos immersive sound via the Xfinity Stream app on compatible streaming devices and TVs.
• Team Comcast Profiles of 16 Olympians and Paralympians.
• Venue Tours.
• Xfinity Sports Zone App, featuring Odds Zone, a new sports betting experience that makes it easy for customers to follow live odds and initiate wagers on the DraftKings Sportsbook mobile app.

More information is available on the company’s website.

LOS ANGELES—Hollywood Blvd. is lined with the names of TV and film stars, but from Oct. 26-29 the stars that occupied the famous street were those who attended SMPTE 2015. Broadcast industry professionals were on hand to discuss many of the biggest trends in the industry, and TVT was on hand to gauge what caught attendees’ attention. Here are the top five trends from SMPTE 2015.

Immersive Audio
Also known as object audio, immersive audio is designed to put the listener into the middle of the action. Multiple panels were held on this emerging technology, but perhaps the big buzz about it was the ITU’s recent approval of object-audio broadcast standards, new standards designed to facilitate the production and exchange of advanced audio files. This allows immersive audio to be paired with UHDTV.

Enhanced TV
This is not your old version of “enhanced TV.” What was talked about at SMPTE deals with UHDTV, 4K, 8K and beyond, including factors like high dynamic range, high frame rate and wider color gamut. A number of panels discussed how it takes more than just more pixels or a higher frame rate to achieve a superior look.

IP Transition
A lot of experimenting and trials are still occurring in regards to the IP transition. Just prior to SMPTE 2015 getting underway, the Video Services Forum, whose membership overlaps with SMPTE’s, released its Technical Recommendation for Studio Video over IP; it is expected to go to a SMPTE committee for standardization. SMPTE 2015 talked about IP in detail during its two part panel “IP and Networking of the Media Facility.”

ATSC 3.0
Should it really come as any surprise? ATSC 3.0 seeks to dramatically change the broadcast industry as we know it, so anytime it is talked about it will draw a large number of eyes and ears. The final day of the conference provided an overview of the next-gen standard and its advantages over legendary TV delivery systems, as well as an update on its development status.

Virtual and Augmented Reality
Could this be the next content revolution? SMPTE certainly had a number of demonstrations of what virtual reality and augmented reality can do, including a VR short from the Reese Witherspoon movie ‘Wild,’ and apps from the designers in the department of Film & Digital Media at Baylor University. You can check out some of videos here.