HD? Old News. Try Super Hi Vision.

Written by R. Scott Raynovich - Light Reading

Tuesday, September 16. 2008 at 10:15 AM EDT Post a comment

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AMSTERDAM -- IBC2008 -- If you thought that HD was a bandwidth hog, the video broadcasting industry is already looking at more advanced, bandwidth-hogging formats that include the super-resolution Hi-Vision, in addition to 3D.

These new formats could likely combine so that five to 10 years down the road, a video transmission to the home could consist of a super high-resolution 3D format that consume gigabits of bandwidth.

Digital 3D was a big topic of the discussion here at the show. But media and technology partners were also test-marketing higher resolution video technologies, including Super Hi-Vision (SHV), which takes the resolution of video up to 16 times that of 1080p HD.

The Broadcast Technology Futures Group, which supports NHK, the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) , RAI, and EBU-UER, was demonstrating Super Hi-Vision here. Super Hi-Vision, which is expected to be deployed commercially in about 10 years, delivers 33 million pixels on the video -- or 7680 X 4320p resolution. The standard also includes 22 channels of sound.

Though the timing isn't really clear, research experts say that the technology is getting cheaper, and it is inevitable that resolution and bit rates of video delivery accelerate.

"I'm not really sure when it goes, but you could imagine a 3D version of Hi Vision... and the bit rates would be horrendous," says John Zubrzycki, a principal research analyst with the BBC.

Uptake of 3D and even super high-resolution HD will depend on how technology "catches the users' imagination," he says.  Zubrzycki believes that 3D films "are taking off," and he thinks that as they're pushed to market by companies such as DreamWorks, Pixar, and Disney, it could increase the public's appetite for more advanced digital video technology.

Even then, says Zubrzycki, there are challenges. For example, the BBC is now looking at how to bring 3D technology to your living room with the the digital TV. The obstacles include the TV technology, whether to go with technology that requires or does not require glasses (Phillips, Mitsubishi Corp. , and Samsung Corp. are among those developing 3D television sets for the home), and how to combine two video channels, which are required for 3D. He imagines there would also be requirements to make the signal backward-compatible with older standards. Keep in mind, this comes just as the industry grapples with the transition from analog to digital and HD TV.

From there, it gets even more demanding.

What kind of bandwidth would it take to delivery Hi Vision or something similar in quality? According to Zubrzycki, SHV consumes about 24 Gbit/sec of bandwidth in uncompressed format. Of course, you must compress it. The BBC research says that after compressing it and IP encapsulating it, you might fit it through a Gigabit Ethernet link.

These advanced formats are already starting to make HD look quite pedestrian. HD appears to have quietly gone mainstream at the show, with technology vendors seizing the day. More bandwidth and larger file sizes mean more demand for their gear.

"You've got everybody from the Food Network to NASCAR creating content in HD." said Greg Nuss, direction of software product management for Quantum Corp. (NYSE: QTM), a storage hardware and software vendor.

"I don't know when it happened, but all of the sudden HD appears to be the norm," said Scott Mirer, director of product management for Espial, an IPTV software vendor.