InterBEE REVIEW2016

33/71

35NHK started 4K/8K Super Hi-Vision test broadcasting on August 1st and this broadcasting will fully get underway in 2018. Expressing his enthusiasm, Chief Engineer of NHK, Mr. Koki Morinaga’s opening comment was, “To spread the use of 4K/8K Super Hi-Vision, we have to work to coordinate software and hardware developments. NHK will strengthen content production work and activities that fully relay the attractiveness of 4K/8K to viewers.” In addition, it is said that over 200,000 people were able to see 4K/8K broadcasts of the Rio Olympics and Paralympics at six public viewing venues in Tokyo and Osaka and NHK broadcasting stations all over Japan receiving this content. Mr. Morinaga stated that “such Olympic trials will be a big step toward achieving success at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.”Amid an increasingly changing broadcasting environment, such as video distribution, NHK has responded to such changes. However, Mr. Morinaga said the most pressing issue to be faced in the future is “how we should develop services that link Internet services targeting individual smartphone and tablet PC users with broadcasts that instantaneously send information to viewers. That will be the key to develop-ing future broadcasting services.”Mr. Tadahisa Kawaguchi, Chairman of the Special Technical Committee of the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association (JBA), commented about the “Technical Report Conference of Commercial Broadcasting” that the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association hosts in combination with Inter BEE every year. He said, “Over the next three days, on the third floor of the Makuhari Messe Interna-tional Conference Hall, we will be hosting an event that introduces the latest activities of commercial broadcasters. At this year’s (2016) conference there was a greater than average 111 reports, and tomorrow on the 17th November, we are due to hold panel discussions on TV program leading-edge image technology such as CG.”He then declared his hopes for technology to progress toward 2020. He stated, “This year’s (2016) Rio Olympics and Paralympics ended without incident. In anticipation of the Tokyo Olympics, I have a feeling that new technology such as the start of actual BS 4K/8K broadcasts and the distribution of Internet content will advance rapidly.” Finally, he gave a toast saying “I hope that broadcasting organizations and broadcasting equipment and household appliance manufacturers join forces with people gathered here from associated industries, and do their utmost to drive broadcasting development. I raise a toast to the success of Inter BEE 2016, the development of JEITA and related industries, and to everyone’s future success and good health.”“Realizing a world-class broadcasting service for 2020”“Hopes for technology that have a synergistic effect on video distribution and broadcasting”“Feeling that new technology such as 4K/8K and Internet distribution will progress rapidly”Mr. Tadahisa KawaguchiChairman of Special Technical CommitteeJapan Commercial Broadcasters Association (JBA)Mr. Koki MorinagaExecutive Director and Chief of Engineering,NHKMr. Matsui gave high praise to the number of exhibitors at Inter BEE 2016 exceeding 1,000, stressing “Broadcasting is believed to be a very wide-ranging field. This exhibition not only has a great impact on Japanese broadcasting promotion, but also economic promotion and development.”Looking back on his inspection of the exhibition venue, Mr. Matsui stated, “Although we have 4K/8K, HDR and IP, I wasn’t able to see 3D stereoscopic vision, which underwent a major boom several years ago. You could say that the emergence of 4K/8K, which allows users to easily view high-definition images and images with a feeling of depth, has put a damper on 3D stereoscopic vision. Rather than a toss-up between both, I feel that we should examine how we can combine both to produce a synergistic effect.” In addition, Mr. Matsui questioned the focus on video distribution, “surely it is down to whether we view by broadcast or radio waves or we choose to broadcast on the Internet. Providing an environment where we can view in 3D or 2D has opened up a different path. Rather than thinking about which will survive, if we can skillfully fuse the Internet, radio waves and ground waves, there is a possibility of each developing together by producing a synergistic effect. I hope that Japan’s leading-edge technol-ogy will create such a synergistic effect.”Mr. Fusaki MatsuiSenior Managing DirectorAssociation of Radio Industries and Business (ARIB)