Ooredoo has launched the first 4K TV channels in the Middle East using a next-generation Electra video compression solution for all-IP environments. Ooredoo’s new multiscreen channels — called FunBox UHD and C4K360 — offer a combination of 24/7 programming, including live TV, time-shift TV and video-on-demand (VOD) content.
   

“The FunBox UHD channel is available today for all subscribers of Ooredoo tv,” says Fatima Sultan Al Kuwari, community and public relations director, Ooredoo Qatar. “This launch is part of our push to offer leading international and local content to our customers. Harmonic enables us to deliver best-in-class video quality so subscribers can enjoy more breathtaking visual content, detail, contrast dynamics and extended colors than ever before.”

According to SNL Kagan, by 2020 more than 40 million consumers around the world will be watching close to 250 linear UHD channels. At the heart of Ooredoo’s UHD workflow is Harmonic’s Electra VS convergent video system, which supports IPTV delivery, as well as OTT live and VOD streaming, ensuring crystal-clear UHD video for viewers on every screen. The Electra VS system fully supports UHD with HDR, allowing for enhanced video quality in the future and increased monetization.

“Aside from bandwidth concerns in the Middle East, video formats are changing all the time, making the delivery of content to multiple networks a real challenge,” says Ian Graham, vice president of sales, EMEA and LATAM, at Harmonic. “Our Electra VS solution resolves those challenges, supporting OTT and IPTV delivery, with HEVC encoding for both live and file-based content. UHD is the future, and we are helping Ooredoo pave the way toward delivering higher resolution video to any screen in Qatar.”