DETROIT, MICHIGAN - As billions of viewers tuned into the World Cup this summer on 4K screens, they carried an expectation of premium quality to everything they watch next. However, many may not realize that a significant portion of the "4K" content they see is actually upscaled from lower-resolution sources, often processed inside their television sets without the broadcaster's control. Beamr (NASDAQ: BMR) is addressing this gap with a new stack that turns lower-resolution feeds into the 4K viewers expect, while also providing a method to verify the improvement.
The challenge is rooted in the fact that a large share of premium live sports still leaves the venue as a lower-resolution feed. Rebuilding contribution infrastructure to native 4K is a multi-year process, leaving broadcasters with a pressing need to close the gap between what leaves the venue and what viewers expect. Beamr's solution operates on existing infrastructure, using AI super resolution to upscale lower-resolution feeds to 4K. This is followed by Beamr's Emmy® Award-winning content-adaptive bitrate (CABR) technology, which maintains the resulting stream at up to 50% lower bitrate than a standard solution. This is crucial because HD to 4K can mean up to nine times the pixels, and CABR prevents that from translating into nine times the bandwidth, making 4K streams economically viable for broadcasters.
But visual improvement is only half the story. Whether an upscaled stream actually looks better to viewers depends on the source content, including motion, lighting, and on-screen graphics. To address this, Beamr introduces VISTA, a subjective quality-testing platform that compares two versions using real viewers rather than algorithms. VISTA runs on the broadcaster's own footage and returns confirmation in days, unlike traditional testing that can take weeks. This allows broadcasters to validate that their upscaled content indeed meets viewer expectations.
The full workflow, including AI upscaling, CABR compression, and VISTA verification, will be demonstrated live at IBC 2026 in Amsterdam, September 11-14, at Stand 1.D22 (Hall 1). Broadcasters, rights holders, and streaming platforms can arrange private meetings and demonstrations at beamr.com/ibc26. This announcement is significant for the broadcasting industry as it offers a practical path to deliver true 4K quality without the prohibitive costs typically associated with native 4K infrastructure and bandwidth.
Beamr, a leader in content-adaptive video compression, is trusted by top media companies including Netflix and Paramount. Its perceptual optimization technology is backed by 53 patents and has won an Emmy® Award for Technology and Engineering. The company's solutions reduce video file sizes by up to 50% while preserving quality, and they are deployed across various markets, including media, user-generated content, machine learning, and autonomous vehicles. For more information, visit www.beamr.com or the investors' website at www.investors.beamr.com.
As live sports continue to drive consumer demand for 4K, Beamr's solution offers a timely answer, ensuring that viewers receive the quality they expect while allowing broadcasters to maintain control over their content delivery and economics.
