Japanese public broadcaster NHK is once more demonstrating its 8k Super Hi-Vision television system, including the latest enhancements such as high frame rate resolution.
8k Super Hi-Vision is a dramatic leap forward in video and audio technologies, featuring 16 times the resolution of today’s HD, and 22.2 channel audio. NHK has been leading its development, and first brought a theatre demonstration of the system to IBC in 2006. Since then IBC has seen many milestones in 8k, including the first international links – from London and Torino to Amsterdam – at IBC2008.
In 2008 NHK won an IBC Special Award for its work on 8k, and in 2012 NHK Science and Technology Research Laboratories were the recipients of IBC’s highest award, the International Honour for Excellence.
This year the milestone is an end to end high frame rate system. Cameras, video processing and displays all provide 8k resolution – 7680 x 4320 pixels – at 120 progressive frames a second, resulting in an unprecedented sense of ‘being there’.
Highlights from the FIFA World Cup will be shown on the NHK stand in the IBC Future Zone, located in the Park Foyer near Hall 8 of the IBC Exhibition. The presentation will also feature recordings made at the National Palace Museum in Taiwan, emphasising the use of 8k video in galleries and installations.
“This is a really important moment in the development of 8k,” said Dr Sugawara, deputy head of NHK Science and Technology Research Laboratories. “Our live public screening trial at the FIFA World Cup was extremely successful. I believe implementation of our new high frame rate system will make fast-moving content like sport look sensational. We have always shown our latest developments at IBC, and we look forward to discussing progress with our worldwide peers once again this year.”
“We are delighted to welcome NHK to the IBC Future Zone once more, as we continue our close relationship around 8k,” said Michael Crimp, CEO of IBC. “We have followed NHK’s work with great interest, and are very pleased that NHK has chosen IBC as the venue to show its latest advances in 8k. At IBC we partner with those at the leading edge who want to show and debate game-changing innovations, and there are few more transformative ideas at present than high resolution, high frame-rate systems like 8k.”
8K (Super Hi-Vision) is a very high resolution video system, designed for transmission to the home, to theatres and in specialist applications such as museums and art galleries. Its screen resolution is 16 times that of HD: 7680 pixels on 4320 lines. The latest version of the system, being shown at the IBC Future Zone, has a high frame rate of 120 progressive frames a second. The picture resolution is complemented with a 3D surround system, including 22 audio channels on three levels, plus two sub-woofer channels.
The system is now close to practical implementation: NHK is proposing 8k test satellite broadcasting in 2016, with the launch of public services in Japan in 2020. The latest developments in communications technology allow the full resolution 144 Gb/s signal to be carried in real time over a single fibre cable. NHK is using the HEVC codec to process native 8k video and audio for satellite transmission in a single 100 Mb/s channel.
