FOM have today announced that they managed to achieve the first ever live 4K broadcast over fibre optic networks with Tata Communications last weekend, during Practice One of the 2014 Singapore Grand Prix. The new quality standard which has just started to become available to consumers around the world, allows viewers to watch whats known as “Ultra HD” content at 4096×2160 as opposed to the regular 1920×1080 that HD outputs.

According to Tata Communications, they were able to achieve the first ever 4K broadcast through fibre networks over the companies Global Video Connect Network platform. The exercise was done in front of a number of F1 broadcasters at FOM Technical HQ in Biggin Hill, where they were shown what the future of sports broadcasting would look like. According to FOM, they had to use 500mbps for a single feed in order to achieve this milestone, whereas they normally use 120mbps for their JPEG 2000 HD broadcast.

Talks of bringing 4K broadcasts to consumers have been lingering for around a year now, since 4K TV sets have started to be introduced to the masses. With TV companies seemingly bringing the price of 4K TVs down considerably in the last three years to put them on par with the price of early HD TV sets, it won’t be long before consumer demand starts to get high for this type of content.

But even if consumers start to demand it, the infrastructure needed to produce 4K content is something broadcasting engineers say could be one of the major drawbacks to bringing it to the masses. Ted Kravitz did an interesting piece in his Notebook feature last year at the Korean Grand Prix, where he looked at the servers and equipment that Sky Sports F1 typically take to a race weekend, in order to serve us HD content. 4K would need two – possibly three – times that amount in order for it to be possible.