Experts at the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union say they have reached agreement on most of the pertinent technical characteristics of the Ultra High Definition Television (UHDTV) format, bringing the new format “an important step towards becoming reality.”

The experts, which include scientists and engineers from around the world, have been working together for several years in the ITU Study Group on Broadcasting Service (ITU-R Study Group 6) to jointly develop and agree on the technical specifications that will create the UHDTV, a TV format made up of 7680 x 4320 lines combined with a 22.2 multichannel sound system.

A demonstration of UHDTV was organised by the format progenitor, Japanese public service broadcaster NHK at the ITU headquarters earlier this month. The 85-inch LCD screen displayed 33 million pixels, compared to a maximum 2 million pixels for the “regular” HDTV screens on offer today.

In September 2011, a trial UHDTV link was arranged between London and Amsterdam and plans are under way to cover part of the 2012 London Olympic Games in UHDTV for screening at public venues around the world.

David Wood, Chairman of the relevant ITU Working Party in the Broadcasting Service Study Group, said, “The 'relationship' that a viewer has with television viewing is linked to the overall experience of the picture and quality of sound. The extremely high quality of UHDTV will have a definite impact on our lifestyle and on our engagement with the programmes we watch.”

As for Christoph Dosch, Chairman of the Broadcasting Service Study Group, he stated, “UHDTV promises to bring about one of the greatest changes to audio-visual communications and broadcasting in recent decades. Technology is truly at the cusp of transforming how people experience audio-visual communications.”

Story filed 17.10.11