Advanced Television

NHK brings forward Ultra-HD start date

August 2, 2012

By Chris Forrester

Japan’s public broadcaster is targeting to start test transmissions of its advanced Ultra-HDTV format by 2016, some four years earlier than originally planned.

NHK’s director general for engineering, Dr Keiichi Kubota, delivered the news at a London demonstration of Super-HDTV held at London’s Olympic Park.

NHK, along with the BBC and other partners, are using the 2012 Olympics to capture and transmit test footage to viewers at the park and at other UK locations as well as to Tokyo and the USA.

There has been some considerable comment, and anticipation, that European viewers will be amongst the first to experience U-HDTV transmission by about 2015-16 when pay-TV broadcasters embrace the technology. In a similar fashion, DirecTV in the USA has expressed enthusiasm for U-HDTV.

What Kubota was able to demonstrate at the Olympic Park were the cameras and other ancillary equipment which was also being developed at a rapid pace.

Categories: Articles, UHD