At NAB in Las Vegas, Japanese broadcaster NHK demonstrated its real-time, over-the-air transmission and reception of 8K for the first time outside of Japan. 8K technology is considered Ultra High-Definition — touting resolution 16 times that of HDTV. The U.S. and U.K. are currently exploring the possibilities of 4K technology, which seems more realistically applicable within the market at this point.

8K broadcasting is more difficult to introduce and implement, for a number of reasons, but NHK is still pushing forward.

“The broadcaster plans to record its ‘Super Hi-Vision’ 8K coverage of the figure skating and opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics from Sochi, Russia, in 2014 and to begin domestic 8K satellite tests to coincide with the 2016 Summer Games hosted in Rio,” writes The Hollywood Reporter.

NHK also aims to launch an 8K broadcast service in Japan by 2020, reports the article. The NAB presentation “featured the latest iteration of NHK’s Super Hi-Vision system, which supports 8K video and 22.2-multichannel sound. The broadcast was of an 8K recorded program compressed in H.264 (MPEG4) and transmitted using two UHF television channels.”

There are some other companies already on board with 8K technology as well. “Both Sharp and Panasonic have publicly showed prototype 8K TVs. An 84-inch 8K LCD display from Sharp was used for the 8K broadcasting demonstration,” writes THR.

Inside the NAB Labs Future Park of the Las Vegas Convention Center (N231), NHK is demonstrating a range of equipment, including a 300-inch screen, 8K camera and a sound producing system. “NHK will also showcase a television compatible with Hybridcast (pictured above)… a sharable broadcasting platform that fuses broadcast transmission with broadcast streaming,” according to the press release.