Landry Fevre, NBN Co's general manager media highlighted some of the recent developments in super high resolution video at an NBN Co Forum 'Capitalising on the Changing Landscape of Media' last week
4k and 8k video have much greater resolution than today' HD format and requires correspondingly higher bandwidth to transmit. Their entry into the mainstream market might make the difference between financial success and financial failure for NBN Co. According to Fevre, "Video will make or break the business case for the NBN."
4K video is already a commercial reality. According to Fevre, "4K TVs are already on sale in Japan, for about $10,000." He says that, just as with HDTV sets, the price will come down and he suggests that the first sets could be available in Australia next year.
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The standard 4K version is compressed using the MPEG4 codec. It weighs in at 21GB and is available on a USB stick for $US99.95. A version compressed using the Cineform codec is also available. It has the same resolution but weighs in at a massive 120GB and ships on a hard drive for $US299.95. It is described as "the ultimate videophile version...only suitable for displays with a 4K resolution."
A standard HD version with 2560 x 1440 resolution suitable for today's 30 inch displays is a 6.2GB download and a 2880 x 1620 version for the iPad Retina display takes up 5.9GB.
According to its web site "TimeScapes was shot in 5K resolution on Red Epic and Canon DLSR cameras, edited in 4K in Adobe Premiere and After Effects, and graded at 16-bit 4K at Light Iron Hollywood on a Quantel Pablo system." There is also a strong local connection: Timescapes was funded by New Zealand composer and entrepreneur Nigel (John) Stanford.
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