ITU establishes new technical specifications for UHDTV

The Study Group on Broadcasting Services of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has outlined new technical specifications for Ultra High Definition Television (UHDTV).

A group of global experts that is part of Study Group 6 of the OUT on ITU-R Broadcasting Services, have reached agreement on most of the relevant technical features of the new television standard, representing an advance on current high-definition television standards, with resolutions up to 8K and beyond.

Japanese public broadcaster NHK has demonstrated UHDTV (dubbed 'Super Hi-Vision') at a number of trade shows, including the IBC Show in Amsterdam in September. The screen features a resolution of 33 million pixels, compared to the maximum of 2 million pixels on the highest quality HDTV screens available today.

In September, a live UHDTV link test was carried out between London and Amsterdam (which worked perfectly) and plans are underway to cover part of the London 2012 Olympic Games on UHDTV and have the images projected in public locations around the world.

David Wood, Chairman of the ITU Working Group on the Broadcasting Service Study Group, said: “The extremely high quality of UHDTV will have a definitive impact on our lifestyle and our relationship with the programs we watch.”

For his part, Christoph Dosch, president of the ITU Broadcasting Service Study Group, commented that "UHDTV is going to represent one of the biggest changes in audiovisual and broadcast communications in recent decades. The technology is really at the cusp of transforming how people will experience audiovisual communication from now on."

Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of the ITU, already assured that UHDTV would create an immersive experience for viewers and generate a wealth of new business and marketing opportunities.

Consumer products using this technology will take years to become generally available, but an important application of the extra pixels available in UHDTV displays could be to avoid having to use 3D glasses. 3D without glasses is very difficult to achieve due to the large number of pixels required on the screen to accommodate different viewing angles.