content marketing for Rhode Schwarz
At the beginning of December 2018, the world’s first regular
broadcasts in 8K begin, the climax of a 23-year development programme for Japanese
broadcaster NHK. The question is whether it is truly the start of something
that will eventually sweep the industry or will remain niche. Let’s not forget
that it is NHK boffins who led development and implementation of High
Definition.
While 8K began life as an exotic science project and was
given renewed impetus by the Japanese government following Tokyo’s award of the
2020 Olympics, the Ultra HD standard is being cherry picked for application by
creatives and broadcasters and promoted by vendors worldwide.
The exceptionally high-resolution raw material is being used
with some regularity by cinematographers making top end Netflix and Amazon
drama, with Lost in Space (shot 7K on a Red Helium 8K chipped camera) one
example. Even downscaled for a HD or 4K delivery the additional super-sampled
data provides headroom in post to zoom into the shot or add VFX.
Las Vegas’ consumer electronics show in January promises yet
more 8K consumer displays, including a remarkable wallpaper thin and rollable
8K OLED from LG despite the fact that outside of Japan there is literally no
content to watch at the full fat 8K 120p HDR which is what NHK plan to air.
Meanwhile Turkey’s satellite operator Türksat recently test
broadcast 8K pictures of Istanbul’s “historical and natural beauties” to
showcase the prowess of the country’s broadcast and tech business.
Astronauts and cosmonauts are even wielding an 8K camera
onboard the International Space Station with footage downscaled for NASA’s
video channel.
Kit manufacturers have developed an ecosystem of products
that can support Super Hi-Vision in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. This
includes a series of 8K capable systems cameras from Sony and a camcorder from
Sharp.
IntoPix, the Belgium compression experts, have worked with
NHK to devise a version of the TICO codec which makes it possible to transport
8K 4:2:2 60p 10-bits on a single 12G-SDI cable.
Even compressing 8K video by a factor of 4 to 1 is going to
require some serious storage management. 4K UHD has taken a while to take-off
in part because of the premium cost in both time and equipment in handling the
larger data volumes.
NHK has amassed the world’s largest library of 8K content
including games from FIFA Russia 2018 and landscapes of Yellowstone national
park but knows full well its limited programming cycle from December isn’t
about to kick-start an 8K viewing revolution. Like elsewhere, most Japanese are
HD viewing only.
The content budgets of Netflix, Amazon or Apple may be in
the billions but even they won’t be subsidising internet bandwidth capacity to
get 8K content into homes.
So, 8K is a slow burn but has its application today and come
the hi-tech shop window of Tokyo
2020, the insatiable business imperative to get us to
upgrade and, crucially, the arrival of the 5G communications network and 8K
will become a fixture sooner than you think.
After all, the Tokyo Games is less than 1000 days away.
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