the future of video production
It’s holiday time, and the newest electronics are on store shelves beckoning you to become the first of your friends to have the next-generation game console, television, Bluetooth stereo or home security system. You also may have noticed the sudden appearance of 4K televisions that are now available with a whopping $5,000 to $6,000 sticker price. I hate to say it, but by this time in 2015, our current standard of high-definition video (1080) is likely going to be viewed as the ugly stepchild of ultra-high-definition video.
4K is just what it sounds like: roughly 4,000 pixels of moving-image bliss. Chances are, you’ve already witnessed a full view of 4K goodness at the movie theater. Most cineplexes are now outfitted with digital 4K screens and projectors that show vivid, wickedly sharp and detailed images at 3840 x 2160. Why not exactly 4,000 pixels? It comes down to aspect ratio. Depending on the output format of the film or video, you can have resolutions ranging from 4096 x 3072 to 3840 x 2160, and anything in between. But I digress.
So what does this mean to you (the TV owner), you (the photographer) and you (the video producer)? In short, it means: Brace yourself.
The TV owner should expect to see some serious 4K content rollout over the next two years. Sony is rumored to be working on a new optical media format similar to Blu-ray that will accommodate 4K playable discs, and content producers will begin offering 4K digital downloads with relative ease. That new HD-enabled 4K TV will eventually be able to download and play 4K content over your high-speed Internet connection too.
