8K TV will be the limit

NHK Executive Research Engineer Masayuki Sugawara, from NHK’s Science & Technology Research Laboratories, has stated that NHK would start experimental transmissions of 8K/Super HiVision (7680 x 4320 pixels) and which would be “ultimate television”.

Sugawara, as reported by Large Display Monitor’s Chris Chinnock, in a response to a question from an audience member as to whether something bigger and better might follow on from 8K, said “No, it’s really the ultimate, there won’t be [anything] beyond that.”

The 4K/8K UHDTV broadcast roadmap laid out by the Japanese government and the Next Generation Television & Broadcasting Promotion Forum (NexTV-F) includes conducting 8K test broadcasting via satellite in 2016, leading to commercial broadcasting services starting in 2018.The UHD standardisation process has been underway at the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB), in cooperation with the Telecommunications Council, Japan.

There will be 8K test transmissions next year from the Rio Olympics, and the 2018 World Cup from Russia, and all ahead of 2020 Tokyo Olympics by which time full-scale transmissions will be on air.