In August, Sky began showing football, movies and TV shows in Ultra HD (UHD) for the first time to Sky Q customers. Ahead of the start of this weekend's F1 season, the broadcaster announced plans to extend this trial.
Starting with the F1 2017 season opener in Australia on Sunday (March 26), all 20 of this season's races until the closer in Abu Dhabi in November, will be available in UHD.
If you want to watch Sky F1 in UHD go to Home, select Sports, click Ultra HD and record the series. Scroll down the full F1 race calendar.
Read more: Buying a 4K TV? Here's what all the high-definition jargon means
Sky said the broadcasts will be the first time the sport has been broadcast in UHD and is only the second sport it has transmitted using the technology.
UHD is one of a number of emerging broadcast standards being adopted by different television and streaming providers. The standard has a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels – twice the Full 1080p HD resolution. The standard for UHD is just short of the 4K resolution, which has 4,000 pixels along its longest side. Streaming services, such as Netflix and Google, use the 4K term in marketing when they are using the UHD standard.
In a professional context, True 4K displays have a resolution of 4,096 x 2,160 pixels. WIRED explains what each standard means in more detail here. Read more: In pursuit of the podium: inside Romain Grosjean's F1 tech bunker
Elsewhere, Virgin's 4K box has been designed to record six shows at once and in October 2016 Google added 4K streaming to its Chromecast Ultra device.
The next format being pushed by broadcasters is high-dynamic range (HDR) where creators are able to control the brightness and contrast of individual areas within footage's frame. Netflix's latest Marvel creation, Iron Fist, was filmed in 4K HDR.
With the UHD broadcasting of this year's F1, there is a catch – you have to be a customer of its Sky Q package.
The premium TV package launched last year. It has new controllers, a re-designed interface, and its flagship model comes with a 2TB UHD-ready Sky Q Silver box. There is also a standard 1TB box. Sky has called its box a reimagining of how TV systems should work.
Sky has also committed to broadcasting 124 live premier league football games in UHD.
At the final test broadcast in 2016 Keith Lane, director of Sky Sports operations, told WIRED 70 people are involved in a live broadcast using the technology and the firm had to be careful what appears in the background of each shot as the greater detail lets those watching see more.
March 29: Australia (Podium places: Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas) April 9: China (Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen) April 16: Bahrain (Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas) April 30: Russia (Valtteri Bottas, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen) May 14: Spain (Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo) May 28: Monaco (Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen, Daniel Ricciardo) June 11: Canada June 25: Azerbaijan July 9: Austria July 16: Great Britain July 30: Hungary August 27: Belgium September 3: Italy September 17: Singapore October 1: Malaysia October 8: Japan October 22: USA October 29: Mexico November 12: Brazil November 26: Abu Dhabi
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
