Sky trials ultra-HD broadcasting at Emirates Stadium

Sky used last week's Uefa Champions League clash between Arsenal and Olympiakos to trial technical aspects involved in ultra-high-definition (HD) TV broadcasts.

The pay TV giant took special cameras from Canon and Sony to the Emirates Stadium for the pilot scheme, marking Sky's first major test of 4K technology, reports Broadcast.

Darren Long, Sky's director of operations, said the images produced by the trial looked "stunning", although he expressed his desire to see these 3,840 x 2,160-pixel pictures captured at higher frame rates.

Although Mr Long insisted it is still too early to tell whether 4K will form a part of the company's future plans, he explained the broadcaster is eager to learn more about the technology before the next generation of TV sets come to market.

"We're constantly working with manufacturers to test new products so that we have a good understanding of their capabilities once they become available," he stated.

While Sky has been testing the potential of 4K, the BBC and Japanese broadcaster NHK used the recent Olympic Games to conduct live trials of 8K 'super-hi vision' transmissions.