Engineering a Live UHD Program from the International Space Station

The first-ever live downlink of ultrahigh-definition (UHD) video from the International Space Station (ISS) was the highlight of a Super Session at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in April 2017. UHD is four times the resolution of Full HD or 1080P video. Also referred to as 4K, the UHD video downlink from the ISS all the way to the Las Vegas Convention Center required considerable planning, pushed the limits of conventional video distribution from a spacecraft, and was the first use of High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) from a spacecraft. The live event at NAB serves as a pathfinder for more routine downlinks of UHD as well as the use of HEVC for conventional HD downlinks to save bandwidth. A similar demonstration was conducted in 2006 with the Discovery Channel to demonstrate the ability to stream HDTV from the ISS. This paper describes the overall workflow and routing of the UHD video, how audio was synchronized even though the video and audio were received many seconds apart from each other, and how the demonstration paves the way for not only more efficient video distribution from the ISS but also serves as a pathfinder for more complex video distribution from deep space. The paper also describes how a live event was staged when the UHD video coming from the ISS had a latency of 10+ s. In addition, this paper touches on the unique collaboration between the inherently governmental aspects of the ISS, commercial partners Amazon and Elemental, and NAB.