NHK brings forward Ultra-HD start date

Japan’s public broadcaster is targeting to start test transmissions of its advanced Ultra-HDTV format by 2016, some four years earlier than originally planned, trustedreviews.com reports

NHK’s director general for engineering, Dr Keiichi Kubota, delivered the news at a London demonstration of Super-HDTV held at London’s Olympic Park.

As previously reported in the ABU news letter, NHK, along with the BBC and other partners, are using the 2012 Olympics to capture and transmit test footage to viewers at Olympic park and other UK locations as well as to Tokyo and the USA.

There has been some considerable comment, and anticipation, that European viewers will be amongst the first to experience U-HDTV transmission by about 2015-16 when pay-TV broadcasters embrace the technology. In a similar fashion, DirecTV in the USA has expressed enthusiasm for U-HDTV.