ELTA TV playout modernization secures UHD sports coverage for global football

The transition to an integrated automation and ingest environment allows ELTA TV to handle the high-pressure demands of live global sports without increasing operational complexity. By utilizing SNP-XL processors for 4K up/down conversion and frame rate conversion, the broadcaster ensures its OTT service, ELTA.tv, remains competitive as viewer expectations shift toward UHD and HDR standards. This deployment reinforces the trend of regional broadcasters adopting high-availability shared storage to minimize risk during peak viewership events like the World Cup. Watch for ELTA to expand its 10-bit UHD data path across more variety and drama programming as it leverages the scalable IOX Express storage.

Imagine Communications has been expanding its playout automation footprint across Asia-Pacific broadcasters, with ELTA TV's deployment representing one of several recent wins in the region. In early 2025, Imagine Communications announced that Japan's Nippon Television had selected its Platinum VX multiviewer and ADC automation for a facility-wide upgrade, marking one of the largest single-site automation deployments in the Japanese market. The company has also secured playout and master control contracts with multiple Southeast Asian broadcasters through its regional partner network, reinforcing its position against competitors like Grass Valley and Evertz in the Asia-Pacific broadcast infrastructure market.

The business case for playout modernization is increasingly tied to UHD and HDR delivery requirements that legacy SD/HD facilities cannot support without wholesale replacement. Imagine Communications reported in its 2025 annual results that revenue from its broadcast infrastructure segment grew 14% year over year, driven primarily by automation and storage upgrades in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions. The company's SNP-XL processor, which ELTA TV uses for 4K up/down conversion, has become a key differentiator in these deals because it consolidates functions that previously required separate hardware for format conversion, frame-rate adaptation, and HDR tone mapping. Mathias Eckert, Imagine Communications' senior vice president of product management, stated at IBC 2025 that the SNP-XL platform had been deployed in more than 40 live production environments globally, spanning sports, news, and entertainment workflows.

On the technical side, the shared-storage architecture that ELTA TV adopted through IOX Express reflects a broader industry shift toward software-defined storage for broadcast media. A 2025 study by the European Broadcasting Union found that broadcasters using shared-storage playout architectures experienced 38% fewer media availability incidents during live events compared to those using traditional SAN-based workflows. For ELTA specifically, the combination of Nexio+ AMP servers with IOX Express storage enables frame-accurate switching across five simultaneous playout channels, a capability that Chunghwa Telecom's IPTV platform has also begun exploring for its own UHD sports offerings in partnership with local content providers. The convergence of automation, shared storage, and UHD processing in a single vendor stack is becoming the preferred architecture for as they scale for premium live events.