London 2012 Recorded in Super Hi-Vision 8K HD

I was in London for the Men's Marathon, one of the last events of the Olympic games, and fortunately was early enough to secure a good spot near St Paul's Cathedral.

As the athletes ran 3 laps of a course through the city's streets, there was plenty of time to become accustomed to proceedings. First, the "Forward Command Vehicle" drove through, with another car close behind. Then, after a slight interval, the media truck with the official timing display.

Behind that, however, and slightly ahead of the athletes and their camera bike entourage, was another vehicle, carrying some rather interesting equipment, and on one of the passes I managed to see a logo "Super Hi-Vision" and remembered that there was a plan to record and broadcast in 8K High Definition.

I was lucky enough to see examples of the future of High Definition at Essex University a couple of years ago. On the third lap, I managed to catch the vehicle on a video I took of the leaders running through.

Currently, our HD TVs at home have a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, which is referred to as "2K". 8K HD has a resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels. The Olympics project is a joint venture between the BBC and NHK.





You can find out more about these developments and how the future of TV might evolve on the BBC R&D Blog (including a great picture of Super Hi-Vision installed in the Broadcasting House Radio Theatre), and in these articles on Pocket-lint and techradar.