BBC Trials to Livestream World Cup Matches in 4K With HLG HDR and in VR

BBC will offer two live “cutting-edge” trials of next month's World Cup from Russia, one in Ultra HD with hybrid log-gamma HDR, the other in virtual reality, said the broadcaster Wednesday. The Ultra HD trial will stream all 29 of BBC One’s World Cup matches over the BBC iPlayer, it said. The trial will be available "to watch on a first-come, first-served basis,” it said. The trial will help the BBC “and wider industry prepare for a time when delivering such large-scale events in such high quality, for larger audiences, over the open Internet is normal,” it said. It recommends a connection of at least 40 Mbps to view the matches in 4K resolution. BBC "can only confirm that each game can support tens of thousands of people," emailed spokesman David Turnbull. "The combination of the BBC and the World Cup can drive massive audiences, and right now there is limited bandwidth available to deliver live Ultra HD content to such large audiences over the open Internet," he said. "We’re making our Ultra HD trial available to as many people as possible within those limitations, while testing our systems on the largest scale yet. The experience and data we gather from performing these trials will help us to optimise and scale up UHD delivery in the future." The VR trial will be viewable through a dedicated BBC app available for free soon on Apple, Android, Gear VR, Oculus Go and PlayStation VR devices, it said. The monthlong World Cup opens June 14.