
8K Continues Carving a Niche posted: 29/07/2020
by Michael Goldman
At one point not so long ago, certain elements of the broadcast industry were hoping that 2020 would be the big year for 8K, because of [Japanese broadcaster NHK's] plan to broadcast the Summer Olympics in 8K, recalls Chris Chinnock, president of Insight Media and executive director of the 8K Association. That was going to be the premier event, all kinds of new equipment was going to be announced, and there was going to be some hype and pomp and circumstance around 8K, certainly in Japan. Now, all that is postponed at least a year, so we will have to wait and see what happens.
Chinnock, of course, is referring to the rapid hit that nailed the entire industry-indeed, the entire world-due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. That crisis, among other things, pushed back the 2020 Summer Olympic Games to next year, and also had numerous repercussions across the broadcast industry, such as the cancellation or postponement of most production, live events, trade shows such as NAB and IBC, and numerous other in-person industry activities. In the case of the development, implementation, and practicality of weaving 8K-capable broadcast content, equipment, and workflows into the equation, however, Chinnock remains optimistic that the 8K broadcast push will keep moving forward.
Although [the pandemic] took a lot of wind out of the balloon, in talking to a number of vendors who were at NAB last year, and folks who were planning to go to IBC this year, I'm being told that many of the [8K-related] products they were planning to release are pretty much going to come out as scheduled, Chinnock explains. So, product-wise, there is not that much of a delay. The delay has been more related to production. But that said, whenever you are doing production, 8K capture continues to make sense in many areas. The phenomenon of over-sampling-capturing in 8K and delivering in 4K or 2K or some other lower resolution-offers the same benefits that we got when 4K cameras came out several years ago. There remains a great benefit in terms of capturing at higher resolution, even if delivery will be lower resolution. If you capture at the higher resolution and downscale the whole image, you create a better fidelity image than you would have captured at a native lower resolution. This also allows you to do panning-and-scanning and cropping, meaning you can manipulate the image in more flexible ways.
On the sports side, we have interesting applications with two, three, or more 8K cameras looking at a whole field of play. They now have software that can pull out one to four crops within that, so a full 8K image can give you four UHD images or four HD images. They can be tracked to an individual player or object, and the windows can move around this 8K canvas and become camera feeds if you do it right. In other words, one 8K camera can potentially do the job of two to four standalone cameras. That is pretty powerful stuff.
He adds that at this point in time, we basically have all the equipment we need for live and file-based 8K capture, production, and distribution. NHK has led that for more than 20 years, and now we have other vendors jumping in across the field with a full range of cameras, switchers, converters, and software, and people are doing up-conversion, down-conversion, high dynamic range, standard dynamic range-you name it.
Chinnock also emphasizes that the current media landscape offers all sorts of opportunities for 8K capture, archiving, and eventual viewing when one considers that, for the foreseeable future, at-home consumer entertainment via broadcast or OTT streaming is pretty much the center of the entertainment universe. Indeed, many of the key aspects of the 8K paradigm were discussed in May of this year in a pair of remote video panels that Chinnock and other industry experts participated in for the NAB Express program on two important 8K topics-one on the issue of creating 8K content and another on delivering 8K content to consumer homes.
One reason he is so optimistic is the fact that high quality content has never been in greater demand by consumers. He points out we are in the middle of a streaming war, after all, and therefore this is a golden age of content creation. Thus, with seemingly unlimited viewing platforms available, the creation of high-quality imagery that can be down-sampled from the aforementioned, information-filled 8K canvas, simply makes a lot of sense in his view.
Additionally, he continues, the business mechanics of the television manufacturing industry have placed 8K panels at the tip of the spear of the imaging ecosystem, even long before there will be significant volumes of 8K content available to illustrate everything that those televisions can do.
All the improvements we always talk about arrive nicely in an 8K picture, he states. I'm sure most 8K televisions will have higher dynamic range and better color gamut and luminance levels, he says. That goes to the point of why would a consumer want to buy an 8K TV today. The answer is that 8K sits on top of the pyramid with all these other things. If you want to buy a new Smart TV, you want the best processing, the best picture, the best audio, the best interface, and so on-that is an 8K TV with higher dynamic range. You get a better 4K or even 2K experience if you have an 8K TV, because you have the best processing available in it. People have to understand the upscaling capabilities of such televisions today. It's a whole different ballgame than even a few years ago, as now we are entering the era of AI-assisted upscaling capabilities. That means 2K, even standard definition content, can be upscaled to look decent on an 8K display. So the point is, people talk about the fact that 8K content is not really here yet,
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
09/10/2026
September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026
New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
24/09/2026
Broadcast Management Group (BMG) is supporting Virginia Public Media (VPM), the ...
24/09/2026
RED Digital Cinema's RED V-RAPTOR [X] and RED V-RAPTOR XL [X] cameras with the Phantom Track feature are the first cameras to receive GhostFrame Pro Certifi...
24/09/2026
Bringing together the full family of networks, FOX Sports is also adding Tubi, F...
24/09/2026
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) has unveiled...
24/09/2026
The blog collects SVG's reporting on AI across U.S. and European sports broadcasting
Since SVG launched the AI Innovation Lab in April to advance the devel...
24/09/2026
SVG's annual TranSPORT conference, which will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 20 in...
24/09/2026
The self-built Master Control Room has cut streaming operations incident-respo...
24/09/2026
Ortana Media Group, the software systems integrator behind the Cubix workflow platform, has connected AudioShake's audio separation models to ScorePlay thro...
24/09/2026
AudioShake has released Multi-Speaker 2.0, the company's newest Multi-Speaker model, which removes 75% more noise and offers 32% better separation of overla...
24/09/2026
By Jon Morgan, Founder and Executive Producer, Ryval Studios
For Major League B...
24/09/2026
Spectrum SportsNet has revealed its comprehensive programming and live game broa...
24/09/2026
The Charlotte Hornets has unveiled new broadcast partnerships with Gray Media an...
24/09/2026
DAZN will be the exclusive direct-to-consumer streaming partner for the Detroit Pistons beginning with the 2026-27 season. Subscriptions are available at DAZN.c...
24/09/2026
The National Hockey League (NHL) has made an agreement with Spectrum that will allow Spectrum TV customers in the Minnesota Wild local broadcast territory to wa...
24/09/2026
The Carolina Hurricanes has reached a multi-year distribution agreement to provi...
24/09/2026
The St. Louis Blues has introduced Blue Note as the name of the new, exclusive ...
24/09/2026
Blue Jackets Hockey Network, the television home for Blue Jackets hockey, is coming to Spectrum TV under a new carriage agreement between the National Hockey Le...
24/09/2026
The next generation of multitrack recording for live sound
The latest version of Waves' dedicated live multitrack recording software delivers an array ...
24/09/2026
An idea machine for musicians
Described as an idea machine for musicians , the latest addition to Polyend's growing collection of guitar pedals combin...
24/09/2026
Alignment tool gains multitrack layout
Synchro Arts have just launched the latest version of their renowned time-alignment plug-in, and it's said to be ...
24/09/2026
Synth gains DAW Control & Ctrl-e integration
Expressive E have just released a major firmware update that brings some interesting new features to the Osmose...
24/09/2026
Rohde & Schwarz expands its system amplifier portfolio with the R&S SAM200 for a...
24/09/2026
September 24, 2026
The Hitachi Startup Challenge FY26 invites innovative startu...
24/09/2026
Download Now!
To receive a short case study showcasing NHK Technologies, Inc. (NT) s audio setup, please enter the following details:
--
First Name* Fir...
24/09/2026
Manifold Technologies Appoints Ryhaan Williams as CCO for North America
Brie Clayton September 24, 2026
0 Comments
Brings three decades of broadcast e...
24/09/2026
UNIFACHA Expands Educational Program with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton September 24, 2026
0 Comments
Brazilian university empowers next generat...
24/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
24/09/2026
Viewers watching videos from the Austrian Parliament online will soon find it easier to verify the authenticity of the content. Big Blue Marble, an internationa...
24/09/2026
nsign, the digital signage SaaS platform built around its Simplify Complexity principle, is now officially certified for BRAVIA Professional Displays from Son...
24/09/2026
Encompass Digital Media today announced the successful migration of multiple Viaplay free-to-air channels, including TV3, TV6, TV8 and TV10, to its Altitude Sch...
24/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
24/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
24/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
24/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
24/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
24/09/2026
Music Supervisor, Composer, and Mixing Engineer Santiago Uribe has built a career around producing music for film and television, contributing to more than 40 p...
24/09/2026
The North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) will hold a full-day cybersecurity summit focused on defending against growing cyber threats facing the broad...
24/09/2026
London, 24th September 2026: UKTV has commissioned an eighth series of Canal Boat Diaries (8x60') for U (u.co.uk) and U&YESTERDAY, with waterways explorer R...
24/09/2026
September 24th, 2026 TRIBECA FESTIVAL AND AT&T OPEN SUBMISSIONS FOR 10TH ANNIVE...
24/09/2026
Reinaldo Marcus Green, director of six-time Academy Award-nominated King Richard...
24/09/2026
From the buzz of your phone when a message arrives to surgeons being able to feel' the patients they are examining from hundreds of kilometres away, these ...
24/09/2026
As Q4 approaches, retailers enter the most critical sales window of the year the golden quarter.
Stretching from October through December, this period encomp...
24/09/2026
Key Takeaways
Harmonic's cOS virtualized platform enables Lightcurve to de...
24/09/2026
COLD Launches Insider Club on Supercast, Giving True Crime Fans Ad-Free Listenin...
24/09/2026
The home interiors retailer signs up for third year as sponsor
RT Commercial today announced that Harry Corry has signed up to a third year as sponsor of Live...
24/09/2026
When COVID-19 emerged, scientists had a crucial advantage: Decades of prior research on coronaviruses meant they understood the virus' key proteins well eno...
24/09/2026
RT Radio 1 Folk Awards Tickets on Sale
Dolores Keane to be inducted into the...