4K is being tentatively adopted by clients of live event and corporate film producers, where large format screenings, digital signage and specialist military, meteorological or energy industry applications will fuel demand for higher clarity images.
“When we went to ISE 2013 we were amazed by the volume of 4K displays and shocked by how many houses of worship and conference facilities were already considering 4K as applicable,” said Stuart Ashton, general manager, EMEA, Blackmagic Design (pictured).
Corporate film and event producer Jack Morton Worldwide has being making 4K content for some time to fuel large format projections.
“It used to be a set design, or a live act or on-stage spectacular, but increasingly it is the moving image that is the point of difference for clients,” said Jack Morton Worldwide’s director of Moving Image, Adam Norris. “Whether that is LED flooring, Musion, moving projection maps, 360º projection, or 4K content for large canvas formats made in CGI or shot natively on Red cameras.”
“There’s an inevitability about the move up to 2K and then 4K, the speed of which depends on the price of screens and availability of source material to run on them,” added Nick Canner, head of creative development, The Edge Picture Company which has finished a 5K project for the visitor’s centre of an architectural practice.
“It will be a slow process in the way that HD has taken a while to normalise. People can get hung up on resolution, but it’s not a substitute for better quality. It will only make something bad look worse.”
Large format projects will all be 4K in the next 12 months said Stuart Holmes, CEO at videowall specialist PSCo. “Delivery of 4K content on a single panel large format display is a big thing and the race is on as the likes of LG and Sony release their first 4K TV screens,” he said.
Gefen president Hagai Gefen (pictured) believes that 4K is ideal for high level surveillance and military applications as well as high-end entertainment venues or airports.
In July, Gefen introduced three signal splitters for Ultra HD that can really benefit broadcasters or anyone who is monitoring or testing 4K resolutions (see our previous story).
“The demand will come from those industries that see the value of a crystal clear image and have the budget to implement it,” said Gefen. “Just now, unless you are fortunate enough to work for a customer with a very large budget, you are most likely implementing HD content, which, let’s face it, is still pretty good on its own. 4K content is still pretty cutting-edge.”
By Adrian Pennington
www.blackmagicdesign.com
www.edgepicture.com
www.gefen.com
www.jackmorton.com
www.psco.co.uk
