The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has agreed to draft a new Recommendation on the technical details for ‘Ultra High Definition Television’, but has decided that both 3840 x 2160 and future 7680 x 4320 screens both get the name UHDTV. The resolutions will be known as 4K and 8K respectively, reports The UK Register. The 4K standard packs a resolution of eight megapixels and the 8K version is 32 megapixels.
Christoph Dosch, Chairman of ITU’s R Study Group 6 said in a statement that “This is clearly a major achievement for ITU-R Study Group 6 of which we can be proud. The Recommendation means that organizations around the world can safely begin work to make UHDTV a reality.”
Said David Wood, Chairman of ITU-R Working Party 6C: “This is the dawn of a new age for television that will bring unprecedented levels of realism and viewer enjoyment. It’s a historic moment. Some years will pass before we see these systems in our homes, but come they will. The die is now cast, thanks to the untiring efforts of the international experts participating in WP6C.”
ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré praised the work of ITU-R Study Group 6: “UHDTV is an earth-shaking development in the world of television. Watching UHDTV in the near future will be a breath taking experience, and I look forward to it.”
The recommendations must still be signed off on by other ITU administrators. No details of frame frequency, color depth are mentioned in the statement or offered on the ITU website. However, the video, below, talks about 22.2 channel sound, which offers 360-degree sound reproduction. No word on exactly how many years from now consumers will see TVs on the commercial market supporting either of these resolutions, or how long it would take broadcasters to adopt UHDTV programming.
See more about UHDTV:
See the UK Register story here
This resolution will probably be in place at about the time that Jean Luc Picard retires from starfleet.
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