8K Live Streaming at the World Digital Economy Conference, Ningbo

The brief

The 2019 World Digital Economy Conference in Ningbo, held alongside the China Smart City and Smart Economy Expo, needed a live broadcast that matched its subject: a genuine 8K ultra-high-definition feed, not upscaled 4K. As a government and industry conference about the digital economy itself, the production had to demonstrate the technology it was discussing, carrying keynote stages and expo exhibits in true 8K from start to finish.

What we did

We delivered the conference as a live 8K ultra-high-definition broadcast, deploying 8K cameras across the main stage and the smart-city expo floor. The 8K signals were encoded in real time and carried live, with a technical director cutting the program feed and engineers holding redundant encoding and transport paths ready throughout. The same feed was down-converted simultaneously to 4K and HD so every distribution channel received the best picture it could show. Every camera position and every link was tested before the conference opened, because a live conference of this profile leaves no room for a second take. The setup covered both the formal conference sessions and the surrounding expo, giving a single production that spanned the whole event.

The result

A stable, genuine 8K live broadcast that presented the World Digital Economy Conference and its smart-city expo in ultra-high definition — a fitting demonstration for an event centred on the digital economy. Multi-camera 8K coverage brought the keynote stage and the expo exhibits into one program, while simultaneous 4K and HD down-conversion served every screen. The 8K masters were retained for on-demand and large-format display use. For a conference about the future of digital technology, the broadcast put that technology to work on the event itself.