Yesterday during the HPA Tech Retreat, NEC Corporation executive engineer Dr. Masayuki Sugawara, who chairs the digital broadcasting experts group (DiBEG) and is vice president of the Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers (ITE), described the world’s first 8K regular broadcast. In Japan, the broadcast starts at 10:00 am and is transmitted all over the country for seven hours via satellite. “It’s in the test phase, aimed at moving to a commercial phase next year,” said Sugawara, who notes that NHK had its first public demonstration of 8K in 2002.
Continue reading HPA Tech Retreat: NEC Exec Details Progress of 8K Broadcast

At the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam, high dynamic range was a focus of conversation: how to define it, standardize it and distribute it. Broadcasters and purveyors of cameras, post production gear and theatrical exhibition all showed off their own versions of HDR. The key to success, say experts, however, is to come up with a single standard, a feat that both the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) are busily working on. Continue reading Industry Places Spotlight on High Dynamic Range at IBC 2015

Journalist Adrian Pennington forwarded us news that NHK is expected to be at Wimbledon in June for behind closed doors testing of 8K Super Hi-Vision. The tests will be conducted with IMG and the All England Lawn Tennis Club. Wimbledon host broadcaster BBC worked previously with NHK on Super Hi-Vision, including transmissions to Washington and Japan during the London 2012 Summer Olympics. “8K broadcasting is on the verge of becoming a reality, and it will undoubtedly become the mainstream past 2020,” predicts Hitachi COO Sean Moran. Continue reading NHK Plans to Perform 8K Super Hi-Vision Tests at Wimbledon

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. Continue reading NAB 2013: NHK Demos Super Hi-Vision 8K Technology

Sharp announced it has built the first 85-inch LCD panel with resolution it claims is 16 times that of current HDTV panels. The prototype was developed for Super Hi-Vision, a next-generation television system being developed primarily by Japan Broadcasting Corporation, NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai). Super Hi-Vision expects to provide four times as much detail horizontally and vertically (7,680 by 4,320 pixels) than today’s HDTV images.

According to Network World, the first public trials of Super Hi-Vision are expected to begin around 2020 (although Engadget reports there is a possibility of early demonstrations taking place during the 2012 Olympics). Each frame of a Super Hi-Vision image is equivalent to a 33-megapixel picture; therefore, as Network World points out: “…highly complex cameras, mixing and switching systems, and recorders and transmission equipment need to be made to handle the huge bandwidth of the video image.” Sharp’s prototype is the next step toward the realization of the next-gen system.

Sharp’s 85-inch LCD, which was not formally demonstrated in Los Angeles at SID Display Week 2011, will be unveiled to the public for the first time later this month at NHK’s Science & Technology Research Laboratories in Tokyo.

Related Network World article: “Sharp develops super high-def screen for future TV” (5/18/11)

Related Sharp press release: “Sharp and NHK Successfully Develop 85-Inch Direct-View LCD Compatible with Super Hi-Vision, a World First” (5/19/11)