While the industry seems to be hypnotised by 'the small 4K step for man,' Japanese public broadcaster NHK is more interested with 'the giant 8K leap for mankind.' Working with Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, it has developed the world's first rack-mounted High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC) encoder and decoder for the transmission of its 8K Super Hi-Vision format.

Super Hi-Vision offer 16 times more pixels (7680 x 4320) than Full HDTV (1950 x 1080) and four time more than Ultra HD's 4K (4096 x 2160) standard. Super Hi-Vision also offer 22.2 multichannel surround sound.

Expected to be recognised as an international standard this year, the NHK/Mitsubishi's HEVC solution is to split the image into 17 horizontal rows of image content (each measuring 7680 x 256 pixels). These 17 rows or bands are then simultaneously encoded in real time, using what is likely to be another industry standard (for both 4K and 8K television) of 120 frames/second.

NHK has been working on this Super Hi-Vision format for almost 20 years and demonstrated the first live 8K transmission from London Olympics venues last year. The broadcaster is now planning experimental 8K broadcasts in Japan in time for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

Next week's 12-day Cannes Film Festival is the venue for the first public screening of the short comedy Beauties à la Carte shot in 8K with 22.2 multi-channel audio (scene pictured).

Directed by Toshio Lee, the film tells the story of a gourmet food critic invited to a new French restaurant where the chef decides what to serve based on his patrons. At the screening, viewers will also be treated to 8K coverage of the Rio de Janeiro Carnival by NHK, as well as wildlife, entertainment, art and sports footage.

NHK says it will be demonstrating the equipment at its upcoming 'open house' showcase at NHK's R&D headquarters on 30 May-2 June in Tokyo.

Story filed 09.05.13