Panasonic confirms 8K Ultra HD for 2020 Olympics

Panasonic’s 8K Ultra HD cameras will be used to broadcast the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo.
Panasonic says it will be working closely alongside fellow Japanese company NHK, which first mooted the Tokyo games as the world’s first 8K Olympics last year and more recently recorded the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi in 8K Ultra HD.

The 8K picture quality is four times the definition of ultra-high definition, which is itself four times the definition of the HD standard that has yet to become prevalent in the UK. Up to now it has only been demonstrated with specially shot, recorded footage, by a number of manufacturers including Korean rival Samsung.

Shiro Nishiguchi, a Panasonic Senior Vice President, said “Japanese broadcaster NHK is really committed to introducing 8K; we are working very closely with them.” He added “The difficulty rather than shooting in 8K is distributing, especially when it comes to broadcast. But the fact is that we have been working on 8K with NHK for years already and every year we are reducing the size of the equipment and reducing the cost. So that’s why 2020, with the speed of technology improvement, at least experimental broadcasts are going to be possible. And it could be available [more widely].”

Mr Nishiguchi also said that he thought encouraging users to upgrade to ultra-high definition would not be difficult as prices came down. “I think it will be easy to encourage people to make the step up because seeing is believing. But it’s about reducing the cost difference.” He said a 50” Panasonic ultra-high definition television would be available for less than £2,000 soon.”