Audio 7 News. Super Hi Vision

We had “HD screens”, then “Full HD screens” and now you will find it difficult to find a screen that is not  “3D Ready” but what’s next? How far can all this go?

Super HD

Super Hi Vision, also sometimes referred to as Super HD has been around a while. The first trials were back in 2008, but cameras were large and cumbersome and work has been taking place to reduce their size. New lenses have been developed because existing lenses were unable to capture the level of detail Super Hi Vis is capable of, and of course their's the question of braodcasting such a massive amount of data.

Super Hi Vision broadcasting was tested in September last year showing a live stream of a concert from UK to Japan. It represents a not insignificant investment in new technology by Japanese public broadcaster NHK with involvement from the BBC's R&D department, and is hoped will be ready in time for the Olympics in 2012. Super Hi Vision is capable of displaying a collosal 7682 by 4320 pixels and is 16 times sharper than current Full HD at just 1920 by 1080.

It’s not quite time to hold off buying that new screen though in the hope of getting a “Super HD” screen instead. There are currently no displays that can display the amount of pixels and as the data at full resolution is transferred at a whopping 24Gb/second, yes that’s Gigabits, your average domestic  broadband connection is going to struggle. But you can be sure it's just a matter of time before domestic screens hit the market. The phenominal increase in resolution will surely encourage more home cinema users to purchase bigger screens and invest in projector based home cinema on large format screens.

There is talk of having huge public display screens capable of displaying Super Hi Vision  for the London Olympics and NHK hope to be broadcasting in the format by 2020. But for now we will have to make do with that grainy, pixel-ated blurred 1080p image. Grrr!