London 2012 in Super Hi-Vision

Some of the events of the London 2012 Olympic Games can be seen on giant screens, for the first time, in Ultra High Definition thanks to an agreement between broadcasters NHK and BBC. At IBC 2011, NHK will announce the first Super Hi-Vision display project to be developed by Sharp.

The BBC has closed a collaboration agreement with the Japanese company NHK to carry out, for the first time in the history of the Olympics, broadcasts of some London 2012 events in Super Hi-Vision.

The British public broadcaster is planning a series of public screenings in Super Hi-Vision at various points in the country on 15-metre-high screens: Pacific Quay, Glasgow (Scotland), the BBC headquarters at Broadcasting House in London and the National Media Museum in Bradford.

One of the events that has already been decided will be broadcast in this spectacular format will be the opening ceremony.

Super Hi-Vision, also known as ultra high definition video, Ultra High Definition Television (UHDTV), Ultra HDTV, 4320p, and Ultra High Definition Video (UHDV) is a digital video format, currently proposed by Japan's NHK.

UHDV technology provides an image whose resolution is 16 times higher than high definition (1920×1080), and up to 75 times higher than the PAL system (768×576). UHDTV technology has more than 4000 horizontal scanning lines, and a resolution of 7680x4320, that is, 33 million pixels, compared to HDTV's 1080 lines and 2 million pixels, which significantly improves the sharpness of the image and also the visual experience.
At IBC 2011, NHK will announce an agreement with Sharp for the development of the first screens capable of reproducing this format, whose launch would not occur before 2020.