No 4K for Rio Olympics
February 23, 2015
By Chris Forrester
The International Olympics Committee says it has no plans to cover the upcoming 2016 Rio Games in 4K. The decision does not cover further tests on 8K ‘Full’ UHD which will be carried out to link Rio with Japan’s public broadcaster NHK.
Yiannis Exarchos, CEO of Olympic Broadcast Services says it has taken its cue from its major broadcasting clients. Most of these are public broadcasters and few – if any – have any specific plans to transmit 4K signals.
NHK encouraged trials of 8K transmission at the 2012 London Olympic Games, and again at the Sochi winter games.
“In my opinion 8K is much more of a game-changer than 4K,” Exarchos said. “You can really see a huge difference in experience whereas the gap between HD and 4K is far less,” he told the Hollywood Reporter.