Why are cricket matches like the World cup T20 not telecast in 4k?

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4K is becoming common nowadays.. I am disappointed that T20 world cup is not telecast in 4k.. The Euro cup, Olympics were all telecast in 4k, so what ails cricket?
This would have encouraged 4k tv sales further... We just had IPL and now the T20 World cup all unfortunately only in full hd.
 
Its not full HD either btw. If you’re using DTH, then it’s only 1080i. True Full HD is 1080p.
 
Not enough bandwidth for that. Even CDN edge nodes will choke if we stream 4x the bandwidth. At peak the bandwidth throughout CDNs cross 4-5 Tbps in current T20 world cup. World Cup goes till 10-12 Tbps and this is for 1080p stream.

This will need a major revamp in the way live streams are done today.
A high amount of investment in terms of equipment is needed at the stadium end also.
 
Stadiums already record in 4K. Camera crew carry around 4K cameras and the feeds are processed in 4K as well. CDNs can handle 4K with current infrastructure. The issue is the cost incurred by distribution companies for 4K feeds. India as a market can’t afford to pay for 4K transmission at current rates.
 
They should focus first on providing 1080p at 50fps, that will make a much bigger difference in quality for sports compared to a resolution increase
 
CDNs cannot handle 4k streaming. There is just not enough bandwidth at edge locations. After a point you will start directing your users to locations as far away as a different country altogether which defeats the total purpose of a CDN
You can read up about it akamai supports 16Tbps max allowed transmission.
With cricket in India at 1080p things have already crossed 10-12Tbps as I said. CDNs as a total (not edge locations) can handle 4k stream but cricket in India is much more bandwidth heavy than what you think.

Agreed they need to first figure out how to handle 1080p good quality stream at high FPS. Before we think about moving to 4k.
 

I don't think this CDNs/ISPs can't handle the traffic theory checks out, 1080p streams are AVC whereas all of 4K streams encoded with way efficient compression algorithms, bandwidth is not the problem here. No demand, expensive encoders, proprietary media codecs gang politics and no incentive for broadcasters are the reason imo.
 
a.c said:
At peak the bandwidth throughout CDNs cross 4-5 Tbps in current T20 world cup. World Cup goes till 10-12 Tbps and this is for 1080p stream.
This will need a major revamp in the way live streams are done today.
Click to expand...
Broadcast and multicast are the only way 4K can come sooner without having to upscale CDN infrastructure. You’re talking about millions of unicast streams simultaneously; not going to happen unless 1Gbps becomes the norm and OLTs are all wired with 100Gbps drops. It’s going to take over a decade or more.

The way forward I think is for the industry to work towards making multicast over IP a reality. Multicast over IP can be easily utilised by both FTTH providers and cable TV operators. Satellite DTH, I’m afraid, will be then at a loss.

LTE/5G broadcast is also a useful feature here. The technology exists since 2015 but smartphones nor telecoms have adopted it. If we adopt LTE broadcast, a single macro tower could beam a 4K stream to 10k+ devices in a 1-2 sq km area.
 

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