Vizrt helps China’s CCTV go HD

CCTV-5 Sports, China Central Television’s
24-hour sports channel, is upgrading its graphics look with a new system from Vizrt. The $750,000 deal includes a mixture of standard-definition graphics system for live broadcasts of
domestic and foreign sports events and news as well as China’s first
high-definition graphics system for an HD studio.

The new graphics installation will be
used for all major sports events for this year including the World
Soccer Championships and the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar. The early
adoption of live HDTV sports production and transmission is generally
acknowledged to be an excellent way for CCTV5 to acquire the necessary
know-how and experience to cover the 2008 Olympics in HD format.

CCTV-5 broadcasts more than 1,000 live programs each year, and
reaches more than 300 million viewers throughout China. The deal is also the latest in a number of deals Vizrt has reached with Chinese broadcasters (its
first sale of a graphics system to CCTV’s national 24-hour News network
in May last year). Earlier this year, CMA, the Chinese Meteorological
Administration, bought Vizrt graphics for the launch of a
24-hour Weather channel within the CCTV network in May.
The CCTV network includes 19 public
channels and a further eleven digital channels.