For some years NHK has been developing the Ultra High Definition System (UHDTV) ‘Super Hi-Vision’ (SHV), which has 33 Mpixels per 60Hz progressive frame. The resolution in the pictures and the sense of viewer involvement are very much greater than they are for 1-2 Mpixel conventional HDTV.
| Two years ago, EBU Members RAI and BBC worked with NHK to test a 22GHz broadcast system for SHV, and also an ultra wide broadband IP SHV connection. The tests were a success, but there has been less news of SHV recently, though NHK has continued to develop the equipment needed for an SHV broadcast chain. | |
Date of Super Hi-Vision to be unveiled next month
The interesting question for SHV is not ‘if’ it will be broadcast, but rather ‘when’. At NAB, NHK was able to give initial details of its time plan for SHV, though this will be officially unveiled at the NHK Open day in May 2010.
Its target is to continue to call for interface standards in the ITU-R. Two milestones will be public viewings at the London Olympics in 2012 and the Rio Olympics four years later. Test broadcasting will begin in Japan in 2020, and by that time there will be PDP SHV displays available of 100 inches and 65 inches, SHV studio camera will be of manageable size using 1,25 inch CMOS sensors. The standardisation of the broadcasting system itself in the ITU is slated for 2016.
The plan is ambitious, but in fact, follows the same kind of next level quality improvement cycle time that has happened with television to-date.