Strategy in TECH...
TCL, a leading global TV brand out of China, launched several new A/V products at CES 2019, including new higher end 8K QLED¹ TVs with AI, a whole new range of headphone products, and new home theater soundbars. These products not only expand their assortment, they expand their market position with higher end solutions and advanced technologies.
Are you ready for this? LG shows the “world’s first” 8K OLED TV at the IFA 2018 show taking place in Berlin right now. Noting that their are a leader in advance TV technologies with OLED, LG pushes the technological envelope again with 88-inch 8K OLED TV being shown to consumers for the very first time.
A consortium of companies in Japan, including large public broadcaster NHK, this month began testing a broadcast system of 8K TV signals via broadcast satellite (BS) channels. This test of an 8K broadcast system has been in the works for a couple of years now, as the country races to prepare for Ultra High Definition broadcasting of the upcoming Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
But promoters of the system admit they are getting significant pushback. Why? Read on to see what the detractors are saying.
We first told you about 8K, called UHDTV then, way back in this report in 2012. Now known as Super Hi-Vision or UHD-2, 8K is looking more like a reality than ever before. Two of Japan’s three largest mobile carriers say they are on track to deliver 8K signal delivery by the 2020 Olympics, scheduled to take place in Tokyo. Both KDDI and NTT Docomo have successfully tested 8K signal delivery systems as part of their preparations for 8K video broadcasting in association with the Olympics.
Sharp Corp. announced this week that it will begin to ship 8K ultra high-definition flat panel TVs and monitors by the end of October. Initially, sales are targeted at certain industrial and commercial markets – with the company saying the very first shipments are headed for broadcast stations and movie studios. This is the first step in commercializing the technology that the company has been working on for years now.
Sharp Corporation has announced in Japan that it intends to be the first company in the world to bring 8K LCD TVs to market – and says it will begin making them in 2015. Sharp made the comments at CEATEC, a major trade show for the IT and CE industries taking place right now in Japan.
Japan’s public broadcaster, Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) announced today that it has successfully completed the test of a long-range terrestrial broadcast of a high quality 8K video signal – a system that they call Super Hi-Vision. The news is seen as significant, as previous tests had only achieved reliable broadcasting over much shorter distances.
Japan takes its television business very seriously. A while back, we told you that a consortium of manufacturers and broadcasters were testing a new broadcast system based on 8K…no, not 4K…8K resolution that they called Ultra HDTV. I guess they’ll have to come up with a new name for that, now that it’s been used for current 4K systems here in the U.S.
Now word comes out of Japan of another new broadcasting test to start sometime next year – an all-new interactive TV system that goes well beyond what we know as “smart” TVs.
