In the next chapter of the War Horse story, National Theatre Live in collaboration with Sony, are  pushing the technological boundaries of live entertainment to a new level. For  the first time worldwide, the multi-award winning stage production will be broadcast  live in 4K.

   On February 27th  2014, National Theatre Live (NT Live) will broadcast War Horse live from the New London Theatre to cinemas across the  world. The broadcast will be shown in Sony 4K at the Curzon Cinema in Chelsea,  the theatre production will be projected using a Sony projector, ensuring  cinema-goers enjoy the best possible 4K viewing experience. The recording will  be available as a 4K DCP allowing many 4K enabled cinemas to also show encore  screenings at a later date.

Technical
Creative  Broadcast Solutions (CBS), Technical Producer for NT Live, with NEP Visions, NT  Live’s long-term OB partner will work with Sony, using Sony’s F55 Super  CineAlta cameras equipped with Fujinon  Cabrio lenses to capture the performance. NEP Visions will  provide the technical infrastructure and expertise to take the 4K content from  camera to satellite, as well as recording and broadcasting a simultaneous HD  version.

  The cameras will feed 4K content into Sony BPU4000 fibre adapters which generate 4K and HD signals simultaneously, the feeds are then sent  to a 4K capable vision mixer to create a live mix from the six camera feeds,  adding graphics and subtitles (for the HD version only). Pre-recorded supplementary programme materials have been ingested  onto a Sony media server to play in. The live mix is  passed to the satellite service provider Links Broadcast. The mix feed is  recorded on a Sony MasterDeck, both for archive and the creation of a 4K DCP master  that will be sent to theatres around the world. NEP Visions will also record 4K  ISOs onto two additional Sony MasterDecks for later use. As well as the  groundbreaking 4K presentation, NEP Visions will provide a simultaneous live HD  feed for distribution by Links Broadcast to over 1000 cinemas worldwide in line  with NT Live’s existing programme of broadcasts.
Links Broadcast will  provide the satellite uplink and downlink facilities to enable the delivery of  the War Horse 4K signal from the New  London Theatre in to the Curzon Cinema in Chelsea. The Links Broadcast 4K  uplink will operate alongside Links’ HD uplink facility and will enable the  encoding of the incoming 4K content. Using four synchronous Adtec EN-100  encoders the incoming signal is combined in to a single transport stream via an  Adtec DTA3050 multiplexor for onward transmission via a 1.5m antenna on Links  Broadcast’s 4K uplink vehicle.