The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has finalized standards that promise to revolutionize television viewing with ‘ultra high-definition’ pictures of stupendous clarity and size in the coming years. ITU’s Radio-communication Sector (ITU-R) has developed the standard – or Recommendation – in collaboration with experts from the television industry, broadcasting organizations and regulatory institutions.

The resolution of a picture depends on the number of dot-like pixels squeezed into a given area and ‘standard definition’ TV, which has been in use for long, usually delivers pictures of a resolution of 704 or 720 of these pixels across 480 scanning lines. High-definition TV, or HDTV, which has been replacing standard definition TV comes in two formats — 1280 x 720 pixels and 1920 x 1080 pixels, the latter being often called ‘full HD.’ 

As compared with HTDV pictures that are about 1-2 mega pixels in size, the first level of UHDTV picture sizes will be of the order of 8 mega pixels (3840 x 2160 pixels). And at the second level, the pictures will be 32 mega pixels in size (7680 x 4320 pixels). These are called ‘4K’ and ‘8K’ UHDTV systems. TV sets capable of displaying 3840x2160 pixels and 7680x4320 pixels will carry the UHDTV monitor. Ultra high definition picture quality is accompanied by improved colour fidelity, and options for higher numbers of pictures per second than for today’s television systems.

The ‘founding father’ of UHDTV was the Japanese broadcaster NHK. A number of companies are developing ‘4k’ level equipment, which include Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Dolby and others.