8K to go commercial in 2020, says CableLabs CEO

Phil McKinney

8K is “on track to go commercial in 2020,” according to CableLabs president and CEO, Phil McKinney.

Speaking at Cable Congress in Brussels this week, McKinney said that J:COM (Jupiter Telecommunications), CableLabs’ biggest member in Japan, is on course to support 8K as part of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“8K has some unique characteristics, because if you stand three feet away from a 16-inch 8K set, the resolution on that is almost as good as printed page. You’re north of 180, 200, 225 dots per inch,” said McKinney.

Speaking about the broad shift to ultra high definition, McKinney said that consumers would move from HD to 4K TV sets as part of the natural TV replacement cycle, but claimed that people are not “beating the doors down” to make the upgrade.

He said that the improved resolution afforded by 4K, coupled with deeper colours from high dynamic range, was noticeable to consumers, but said this step-up in quality was “not enough” to make them go out and replace their HD TV sets.