Ultra High Defenition Tv coming soon.

Ultra High Definition TV Coming Soon

Sky Sports are already testing the next generation of television pictures, variously known as Ultra High Definition TV or by the rather more geeky moniker of ’4k’.

The system under test creates a picture four times better than HD and on the last day of August, Sky put together a world first: a football ground to studio to TV set ‘end-to-end’ UHDTV test transmission.

In collaboration with Sony, the West Ham v Stoke game was shot on four UHDTV cameras and a special HD camera whose output was electronically converted to UHDTV.

New electronics converted each picture into four streams of data and then sent those digital signals along fibre optic cables to a new, purpose built Outside Broadcast truck in the Upton Park car park.

There, match director Tony Mills was able to switch between them and add some of the usual slow motion replays and scoreline and match-time graphics.

A veteran of moves into both High Def and 3D match coverage Mr Mills reckons he will need fewer cameras than the twenty of more deployed at a big Sky Sports live game for HD coverage.

He explains: “You can stay wider … Because the extra clarity of the picture allows you to see the agony or ecstasy on players faces after a goal or narrow miss … You need fewer really tight close up shots.”

What will need more practice is keeping the new cameras in focus. The new cameras are more sensitive and therefore can be used with lenses that create a very narrow depth of field.

And that means keeping goalmouth action pin sharp can be a quite a challenge for operators in the half-way line gantry.

The signal from West Ham was beamed back over a conventional satellite link to the Sky Studios building in West London where it was reassembled onto one 84″ display to me to enjoy the game along with other Sky executives and engineers.

Front panel of a 4k video recorder

I doubt if many people reading this have already bought such a super size TV, but a helpful room design tip for when you do, you can sit a lot closer to an UHDTV than you might an HD set, so much so it nearly fills your field of view.

The sofa really can be a lot closer to the TV! It’s as if you are in the stands with the faithful, so clear are the pictures. Almost scarily so!

This first generation UHDTV system definitely works, but I can’t give you much guidance as to when it will become commercially available.

There is a lot still to be done. A new compression standard, H265 (high efficiency video coding ) has yet to be internationally agreed, as have standards and protocols surrounding a new generation of HDMI connections.

Both will need to be established before the first UHDTV Sky box can be built and distributed to customers.

There are already signs of interest in the new TVs needed to exploit these better quality signals. Samsung, LG, Panasonic and Sony all have sets you can go out and buy today, if you don’t mind taking the risks and paying the premium associated with being an early adopter.

This autumn’s release of the two great rival games consoles, Microsoft’s XBox One and Sony’s PS4 are both expected to be ’4k ready’.

What’s not known, is how many of the games have been designed with the 3840 pixels (so nearly 4000 or 4k) by 2160 pixels screens in mind. A new improved Blu-ray format may emerge for movie distribution to the home so it’s only logical that broadcast TV will, in time, follow suit.

So Ultra High Definition is coming, offering a warts-and-all view of that bad tackle, the ferocious, looping free kick into the top corner of the net and a new, far too detailed view of players spittle, flying towards the turf.