:  Piksel develops proof-of-concept UHD 4K streaming solution with Discovery Communications

:  Cloud-based Piksel Palette™ enabled the wholly in-house product design and demo availability in under three weeks

AMSTERDAM, NL, September 11, 2015 – Piksel, a global leader in building successful online video businesses, has developed a proof-of-concept (POC) solution that can deliver UHD 4K content to consumers.  The solution, which will be shown at IBC 2015 (Piksel stand 14.C34), and was developed in partnership with Discovery Communications, sets new boundaries in providing viewers with more lifelike and immersive content through connected TVs.

In an increasingly saturated market, content providers must identify new ways to differentiate their services and stay abreast of rapidly changing viewer expectations. The need for service providers to deliver UHD 4K content to the home is growing, driven by consumer desire for more detailed and richer television experiences that are not available via traditional broadcast methods, and as a valuable way to attract new audiences and keep existing customers loyal.

Fabrice Hamaide, President at Piksel, says: “We understand the pressures on content providers to evolve a service in response to rapidly changing consumer demands, which is why our Piksel Palette infrastructure is specifically designed to support these developments. In our UHD 4K POC, our partner Discovery has witnessed our ability to go to market quickly, adding new delivery services. With our modular technology structure and our award-winning Piksel team, we were able to deliver this proof-of-concept within three weeks, which indicates the level of agility that global brands like Discovery rely upon.”

The solution allows consumers to watch UHD 4K through an OTT streaming or playback service that is delivered to a connected TV app. Key design features include:

• An end-to-end 4K workflow that allows playback with a highly efficient UHD encoding profile (MP4 – h265) to deliver premium quality content to a branded device.
• Delivery to Samsung and LG connected TV apps with a branded approach to bring in elements of a providers visual style.
• Extreme increase in the detail and definition of both black and white and color picture quality.
• Highly agile system allows customers to make changes to the design as desired.
• Integration with Piksel Palette’s processing pipeline to enable streamlined delivery of content across connected devices.