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ITU unveils new TV standard

ITU has announced an Ultra High Definition Television Recommendation that will see televisions start at an eight-megapixel resolution instead of the one or two currently used today.
ITU has announced a new Recommendationnthat represents a major advance in television broadcasting that will create annentirely new television broadcast environment with the advent of ‘Ultra HighnDefinition Television’ or UHDTV. ITU’s Radio communication Sector (ITU-R) hasndeveloped the standard – or Recommendation – in collaboration with experts fromnthe television industry, broadcasting organizations and regulatory institutionsnin its Study Group 6.

Ultra High Definition Television: Anmore defined future
The quality ofntelevision pictures that viewers see has improved dramatically since it wasninvented in the 1930s. A dim black and white screen in the corner of the roomnhas become the sparkling ‘high definition’ colour picture that we see onntoday’s large ‘flat panel displays’.
But technologyndoes not stand still. ITU-R Study Group 6 has now agreed a draft newnRecommendation on the technical details for ‘Ultra High Definition Television’nor UHDTV which is now being submitted to Administrations for approval.

The ITU-RnRecommendation lays out the quality standards for UHDTV in two steps. Thenadvances made with each of these quality steps are roughly similar to the stepnfrom the old ‘standard definition television’ to ‘high definition televisionn(HDTV)’. HDTV pictures today have the equivalent of between 1-2 megapixels. Thenfirst level of UHDTV picture levels has the equivalent of about 8 megapixels (3n840 x 2 160 image system), and the next level comes with the equivalent ofnabout 32 megapixels (7 680 x 4 320 image system).  As a shorthand way ofndescribing them, they are sometimes called the ‘4K’ and ‘8K’ UHDTV systems.

Ultra highndefinition picture quality is accompanied by improved colour fidelity, andnoptions for higher numbers of pictures per second than for today’s televisionnsystems.

ITUnSecretary-General Hamadoun Touré praised the work of ITU-R Study Group 6.n“UHDTV is an earth-shaking development in the world of television,” Dr Tourénsaid. “Watching UHDTV in the near future will be a breath taking experience,nand I look forward to it.”

David Wood,nChairman of ITU-R Working Party 6C (WP 6C), which developed the draft newnRecommendation, said, “This is the dawn of a new age for television that willnbring unprecedented levels of realism and viewer enjoyment. It’s a historicnmoment.  Some years will pass before we see these systems in our homes,nbut come they will.  The die is now cast, thanks to the untiring effortsnof the international experts participating in WP6C.”

Chairman of ITUnR Study Group 6 Christoph Dosch added, “This is clearly a major achievement fornITU-R Study Group 6 of which we can be proud. The Recommendation means thatnorganizations around the world can safely begin work to make UHDTV a reality.”

Director of ITU’s RadiocommunicationnBureau François Rancy said, “I’ve personally seen the pictures with 8K UHDTVnsystem, and it’s absolutely stunning – the sense of being there is superb. Thisnagreement shows the great and continuing strength of the ITU-R and Study Groupn6.”

A video onnUHDTV development is at http://youtu.be/hT2XluvAjwQ

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