UHD Spain cumple dos años y renueva su junta directiva

The Asociation UHD Spain celebrates its second anniversary with 40 members, after a 2022 of unstoppable activity and with the goal in 2023 of continuing to “promote the television of the future together.”

One of the historic moments, not only for the association but for the entire Spanish audiovisual community, was the broadcast by TVE of the Qatar Football World Cup in UHD-4K, open on DTT and with HDR quality, being the first worldwide broadcast of DTT in UHD-4K of an event of this complexity and duration.

UHD Spain also signed up for this global technological victory by projecting the Spain-Japan match on film in UHD quality, with High Dynamic Range (HDR) and with Dolby Atmos sound. More than 200 exclusive guests witnessed a pioneering experience worldwide, in which the free-to-air DTT signals of TVE UHD and that of the OTT payment platform Gol Mundial were shown and combined.

The association, which was created in January 2021 with 30 founding partners, currently has 40 associated companies and according to its president, Pere Vila, “the balance of the year is positive, although we still have some ground to cover. And we are open to new additions to make the rest of the journey together.”

Against this backdrop, the Board of Directors aims to continue working and promoting actions to promote and develop Ultra High Definition in Spain, as well as bringing together all the companies in the country's audiovisual industry to work together on the advancement and consensus of the implementation of UHD.

For his part, vice president Xavi Redón highlights on this second anniversary that “at UHD Spain we are committed to achieving a common objective which is none other than improving the quality of television. In Spain, more than 70% of the audience comes from DTT. In other countries, this is not exactly the case. This is the reason why in Spain things are done differently when it comes to the distribution of UHD content on DTT.”

Another of the great milestones of the last year has been the launch of There Zone UHD on the Association's website for registered users, which allows members and non-members to have free access to exclusive documents such as the Ultra High Definition White Paper in Spain, explainers and technical reports and presentations made during the UHD Spain Meetings with national and international experts, among others.

The creation of UHD Signal Production and Emission Course, in collaboration with the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), which started successfully at the beginning of October, exceeded the expected number of registered students, with a total of 28 students, which forced registration to close before the scheduled date.

International activity

During the second year of its existence, UHD Spain has developed intense activity both nationally and internationally, to publicize the Association among authorities.

On the one hand, within the international promotion objectives of the association, in 2022, Jorge Rodríguez, member of the Board of Directors and director of Hispasat, attended the 28th edition of the prestigious international telecommunications and convergent technologies fair, Andina Link in Colombia. In addition, participation in the NAB SHOW fairs in Las Vegas (USA) and IBC in Amsterdam.

Rodríguez highlights the need to insist on the association's work in Latin America in the coming years. “The technological backwardness that exists in Latin America will prevent the same mistakes that we have made before from being made,” he says.

“2023 is a year in which Ultra High Definition will have the relevance that it should have had two or three years ago,” predicts Emili Planas.

Renewal of the Board of Directors

On November 14, the General Assembly, held within the framework of the eighth edition of the 4K HDR Summit 2022, held at the National Digital Content Pole in Malaga, approved the renewal of the association's Board of Directors. which was elected unanimously.

The renewed Board of Directors has Pere Vila, director of Technological Strategy and Digital Innovation at RTVE, as president; Xavier Redón, Product Manager of Cellnex, as vice president; María Medina, General Manager of Medina Media, as Member-Secretary; and as vowels Emily Planas, CTO and Operations Manager de Mediapro; Jorge Rodriguez, head of pre-sales and product management at Hispasat; Eduardo Valencia, director of AMETIC Barcelona; and as a novelty it was incorporated Miguel Ángel Cristobal, CEO of Sapec and coordinator of technical tests at UHD Spain.

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