As billions of viewers watched the World Cup this summer on 4K screens, they carry that expectation to all subsequent content. However, much of the '4K' they see is not native 4K but upscaled from lower-resolution feeds. The jump to 4K often occurs inside the television set itself, without production control, creating a gap between what leaves the venue and what viewers expect. Rebuilding contribution infrastructure to native 4K is a multi-year process, so broadcasters need an immediate solution.
Beamr (NASDAQ: BMR) addresses this challenge with a workflow that combines AI super resolution, content-adaptive bitrate (CABR) technology, and subjective quality verification. The AI super resolution upscales lower-resolution feeds to 4K, while CABR holds the result at up to 50% lower bitrate than standard solutions. This is critical because HD to 4K can mean up to nine times the pixels, and without CABR, the bandwidth would be nine times higher, breaking delivery economics. The technology enables broadcasters to ship 4K streams without prohibitive costs.
Visual improvement is only half the story. Whether an upscaled stream actually looks better depends on the source content's motion, lighting, and graphics. Beamr VISTA, a subjective quality-testing platform, answers this by comparing two versions using real viewers rather than algorithms. It runs on the broadcaster's own footage and returns results in days, unlike traditional testing that takes weeks.
The full workflow - 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 a private meeting and demonstration at beamr.com/ibc26.
Beamr is a world leader in content-adaptive video compression, trusted by top media companies including Netflix and Paramount. Its perceptual optimization technology (CABR) is backed by 53 patents and has won an Emmy Award for Technology and Engineering. The technology reduces video file sizes by up to 50% while preserving quality and enabling AI-powered enhancements.
