Tata Sky, India's direct-to-home (DTH) operator, has engaged Ericsson to launch the first commercial 4K video service in the subcontinent.
With the launch of the 4K Tata Sky Video Service, customers subscribing to this service can watch videos of up to four times the resolution of standard high-definition (HD) videos.
The high-efficiency video codec (HEVC) compression technology integrated by Ericsson enables Tata Sky to achieve cost-effective and crucial bandwidth efficiencies while deploying new video services to meet increasing network and consumer demands.
Tata Sky has launched its 4K set top box just ahead of the ongoing cricket World Cup. The company said this would ensure that cricket and sports enthusiasts can witness the event for the first time in 4K resolution.
Ericsson predicts that there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2020, and more than 15 billion of these are expected to be video-enabled.
With availability of more content for an ever-increasing number of video-enabled devices, it added that it is critical to maximize video delivery over available bandwidth and multiple networks.