In 1960, spectators from all over the world were able to follow the Olympics live for the first time, which that year took place in Rome. For RAI, which had begun its broadcasts only a little over six years earlier, it was an enormous productive effort. This effort (106 hours of broadcasts, 450 technicians, 17 commentators) pushed the company to a technological modernization that would give impetus to all its subsequent production. Furthermore, the interest aroused by the sports show led to a large increase in the purchases of televisions and a historical precedent even outside our country: as explained by Aldo Grasso and Massimo Scaglioni in the book What is television, since then “the electronics industry has always made the launch of technological innovations coincide with sporting events of international importance “.
The first Olympics broadcast in color, on the other hand, was that of Montreal in 1976: in addition to color, they were the games in which technological innovations such as computer graphics, slow motion and shooting from different angles were used for the first time (as in the case of the final of the one hundred meters which was visible from three different points of view). In the second half of the seventies, the spread of satellite and world-view broadcasting greatly increased the number of hours of sport on television schedules. In Italy, more recently, in the nineties, with the introduction of digital technology and the birth of the first pay TV and on demand, the viewer had the opportunity to create their own “personal schedule” and choose the point of view from to watch an event, thus acquiring an interactive role of directing the event.
Television has not only allowed millions of people to be able to attend sporting events that took place even at great distances, but it has also used, and stimulated the development, of technological innovations that guaranteed a higher quality of the broadcasts. But not only. TV, and its technology, have also, in some way, partially modified the same sports, making them more “televised”. As Grasso and Scaglioni further explain, the introduction of the light-colored ball in football, to ensure greater visibility, is an example of this television evolution of sports.
On Friday 11 June the inaugural match of the European football championships, Italy-Turkey, was played at the Olympic Stadium in Rome. The match represented the return of a major international sporting event in Italy: Rome is one of the eleven cities hosting this sixteenth “itinerant” edition of the tournament, initially scheduled for summer 2020 and postponed for 12 months by UEFA to allow clubs to complete the European cups and national championships of the 2019-2020 season, suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic in Europe. And speaking of sport and technology, these Europeans can be seen on TV with 4K technology, also known as “Ultra HD”.
4K allows a resolution about four times higher than the high definition standard (Full HD – 1080p), thus generating a cleaner and more detailed image. 4K indicates, as an approximation, the horizontal resolution of screens of this type, therefore equal to about 4 thousand pixels (the “k” stands for “kilo”, therefore a thousand). It's not such an immediate indication and it can be a bit confusing, because previous formats used vertical to indicate resolution: Full HD 1080p, for example, refers to the number of pixels on the height of the screen. Given the due proportions, therefore, 4K has a vertical resolution of 2160p.
27 of the 51 matches of the European Championships, including all those of Italy and those of the final stages, are visible for free in 4K on Rai 4K, a public TV channel that can only be seen on tivùsat, the satellite platform that broadcasts more than 180 channels including those of Rai, Mediaset, the Vaicom group, Discovery and many others. Of these 180 channels, 60 are in HD and 6 in 4K, while on digital terrestrial there are only 9 channels in high definition and none in Ultra HD.
To see Rai 4K (on channel 210 of tivùsat) you need to have a satellite dish and orient it on Eutelsat Hotbird 13 ° East, and have a 4K Ultra HD TV. It is also necessary to have an external tivùsat 4K ULTRA HD decoder or a smart TV with CAM module and relative smartcard capable of supporting Ultra HD channels. Decoders and CAMs can be purchased in electronics stores, even online, or you can purchase the “Easy Install” package, with satellite dish and decoder or CAM. Once the tivùsat smartcard is activated, which is always included in the decoder or CAM package, there are no other additional costs, no monthly or annual subscription.
Tivùsat was founded in 2009 and is managed by Tivù srl, a company owned by Rai, Mediaset, Telecom Italia, the local TV association and Aeranti Corallo. The idea of transmitting traditional channels through the satellite was born to provide a service even to anyone who has problems with reception, in whole or in part, of the terrestrial signal. In fact, satellite transmission is able to reach all areas of the territory, even those that are difficult to cover for reasons of geographic conformation.
From 1 September 2021, changes will also be introduced to the broadcasts that will concern the digital terrestrial signal. We will move from the current broadcast through the DVB-T1 (Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial 1) system to a later generation and better quality one, called DVB-T2, which however may not be compatible with TVs prior to 2017: many people to continue watching the programs on digital terrestrial, they will therefore have to change their television or install a special decoder. Another solution is to switch to tivùsat.
In addition to the Rai channels, all the free channels of the Discovery group (from Dmax to Real Time, from Giallo to Motor Trend), the Cielo and Tv8 channels of the SKY group and most of the Mediaset channels, with tivùsat it is also possible to see the most important international broadcasters, both all news and generalist such as BBC, CNBC, France24, Euronews broadcast in eight languages, including Russian and Arabic, but also Al Jazeera and Al Jazeera English.
