Euro 2008 football championships goes “lightly compressed” HD via Media Links

By Kevin Hilton

SVG Europe editor

Broadcast preparations are underway for the Euro 2008 football
championships, which begin on June 7, with Swiss public broadcaster SRG
SSR id e suisse planning to distribute football coverage in high
definition for the first time, with what it describes as “lightly
compressed” HD using its established standard definition transmission
network.

The European football federation, UEFA, is overseeing
the host broadcast coverage and a spokesman confirmed that the
international feed would be made available in both HD and SD.

SGR
SSR has the exclusive TV rights to Euro 2008 for its regions and will
be transmitting all 31 matches of the tournament, which is being staged
in Switzerland and Austria, on the Schweizer Fernsehen (SF), T l vision
Suisse Romande (TSR) and Televisione svizzera di lingua Italiana (TSI)
channels. The broadcaster also has non-exclusive radio rights for its
Schweizer Radio DRS (SR DRS), Radio Suisse Romande (RSR) and Radio
svizzera di lingua Italiana stations.

High definition coverage
will be on SFR SSR’s new HD Suisse service. These pictures will be
carried over the broadcaster’s existing SD transmission chain using the
Media Links HD270 Coax video transport compression system.

Euro 2008 is due to reach its climax on June 29 with the final in the Ernst Happel stadium, Vienna.