The next major technical advance for television may not be 3D TV, as was being widely predicted a year ago, but UHDTV, or Ultra High Definition Television. Japanese broadcaster NHK is demonstrating the technology, which it calls "Super Hi-Vision" at a number of industry events, displaying a picture with a resolution of 33 million pixels (versus 2 million pixels for the top HDTV screens currently on the market. According to industry reports, a group assigned by the International Telecommunications Union to work out global standards for the technology have settled on the key ones. Christoph Dosch, chairman of the group, was quoted by Broadcast Engineering magazine as saying that it "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." Current plans call for UHDTV monitors to be installed in various public venues around the world in time for next year's Olympic Games.

20/10/2011