Sony has showcased a prototype satellite tranmission system for 4K (3,840 x 2,160-pixel) video at IBC 2012 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Sony demonstrated the video transmission in cooperation with satellite operator SES S.A.

The protected video channel is uplinked from the SES headquarters in Luxembourg via the ASTRA Satellite System.

The 4K content was played out in Quad Full HD format encoded in the H.264 standard (DVB-S2) at a data rate of 50 Mbit/s. Sony decoded the signals with a receiver set up at the IBC and was delivered on Sony Bravia 84" 4K displays at a pixel resolution of 3840 x 2160.

In order to make transmission easier, Sony aims to further increase the compression rate to realize a transmission rate of 10M to 20Mbps.

Sony said that the system that can drastically compress original 4k signals without lowering the quality of 4k video.

"This live demonstration with SES on our new 4K TV demonstrates that 4K satellite transmission may arrive in the home sooner than predicted by the industry" said Olivier Bovis, Head of AV media, Professional Solutions Europe, Sony Europe.

At the same show, Sony also showed how video can be created with its F65 professional camcorder that shoots 4K video in the "SRMASTER (F65 RAW) format.

Sony is also considering applying the next-generation "High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), which uses a more efficient compression rate compared to H.264.

Earlier this year Japan public broadcaster NHK had also succesfully transmitted 7,680 x 4,320 video using terrestrial transmission technology.

NHK has developed a high-capacity transmission technology for the next-generation broadcasting system and conducted successful field tests in which the signal was transmitted using two channels (UHF31, 34) at a bit rate of 183.6Mbps and it was correctly received at a distance of 4.2km.