Panasonic to test 8K during 2020 Tokyo Olympics
March 26, 2014
Olympic sponsor Panasonic will use the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as a guinea pig for its new 8K high definition broadcast.
Panasonic Senior Vice President Shiro Nishiguchi said, “Japanese broadcaster NHK is really committed to introducing 8K; we are working very closely with them.” Adding that, “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 in 2020, with the speed of technology improvement, at least experimental broadcasts are going to be possible. And it could be available [more widely].”
With prices of TVs decreasing, Nishiguchi believes that persuading consumers to switch to new levels of HD would not be difficult anymore. “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 noted. Buyers can now expect Panasonic 50” ultra-high definition to be available at less than $3,300 soon, according to Nishiguchi. With the curved TV competition close between Korea’s LG and Samsung, Panasonic’s concave and convex displays are targeting businesses rather consumers.
“We are developing curved displays and we are studying it, but one negative comment I’ve been hearing from the market is that if a family purchases a curved television, family members have to fight for the best place for good TV viewing, in the center. That’s probably a good argument about questioning the benefit of curved,” he said. “I personally think the curved panel is effective for big screen,” noted Nishiguchi.