RAI, BBC and NHK to develop Ultra-HDTV
March 4, 2008
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Italian public broadcaster RAI has signed an agreement with its counterparts from the UK (BBC) and Japan (NHK) for joint research towards the development of the Ultra–HDTV technology.
Talks between the three partners initiated in February 2007, but no agreement was reached on a common business plan. After several meetings, the state broadcasters agreed that NHK and BBC will continue with research on the picture compression technologies in “super high definition”, which offers 16 times higher video quality than the current HD 1080p.
Meanwhile, RAI and NHK will work on the satellite transmissions of the ultra HDTV signal in the 21 GHz band. The Japanese public broadcaster will also cooperate with Germany's IRT institute on developing technologies for those who have communications difficulties.
The three public broadcasters will also exchange researchers and jointly organise events, with the goal of achieving the first results within six months to one year.