Recently, a friend of mine called to ask me, "How much bandwidth do you need for transmitting 4K TV programs? Why is the broadband in my home 100 megabytes, yet I can't play 4K videos smoothly on the video platform?" This question encapsulates a wealth of information. Firstly, some video platforms already offer 4K resolution on-demand services. Secondly, 4K video demands immense storage capacity and requires excellent network conditions. At present, most households in China still struggle to play 4K videos smoothly online. In other words, the "4K" concept that has been around for years remains unattainable for most Chinese consumers.
However, in August, the industry announced that Sharp would officially launch consumer-grade 8K LCD TVs. While 4K LCD TVs are still struggling to meet expectations, Sharp has already moved on to 8K LCDs. Is this bold move reckless?
8K LCD technology is hard to popularize. The industry knows that 8K, also known as QUHD technology, boasts a resolution of 7680 × 4320, four times that of 4K displays and sixteen times the mainstream Full HD resolution. With normal eyesight, an 8K TV can provide 4.3 times the HD visual experience.
Compared to the 4K LCDs that the industry is currently pushing, 8K's resolution increase brings along technical and industrial ecological construction challenges that are exponentially greater. If the core challenge for the 4K industry is dealing with excessive data, then 8K doubles the problem. For instance, a standard 4K movie with audio track compression requires about 200 GB of storage space, and the smooth online streaming of 4K videos requires a speed of 40 m/s. The theoretical speed of China's 200m optical broadband is currently only 25 m/s. However, even if a 1-minute 8K video requires 194GB of space, a 20-minute video would require 4TB!
The vast amount of data remains the core issue for the 4K industry. This has led to challenges in shooting equipment, production costs, transmission pressure, imaging technology, mobile storage, and playback equipment, resulting in a lack of 4K program sources being the main ecological bottleneck that hasn’t been broken. Currently, there are very few companies worldwide that specialize in producing 4K content. Alibaba’s 4K Garden is China's only 4K content production and distribution platform, and it only received a $60 million A-round investment recently.
The construction of the 4K ecosystem is still incomplete, and the related massive ecological chain for 8K is even further away. Besides the ecosystem, the playback hardware and technology for 8K LCDs are also challenging. 8K-resolution playback devices demand extremely high standards in terms of LCD panel size and drive technology. Due to production process limitations, the lower limit for 8K TVs is 80 inches (compared to 40 inches for 4K TVs). The oversized panels have an extremely complex production process; additionally, the drive technology optimization is costly. For large sizes, the cost of TPS and IGZO drives is relatively high. In response to 8K resolution, extremely high requirements will be placed on the drive materials.
Therefore, given the severe shortage of hardware manufacturing technologies and software ecosystems, brands like Hisense, LG, and Changhong have all released 8K LCD TVs, but they remain concept machines. Now, Foxconn's new Sharp has released consumer-grade 8K LCD TVs. Is Sharp already prepared for 8K LCD manufacturing technology and ecological construction?
Sharp's Precision
In the nearly non-existent 8K LCD TV industry's ecosystem and hardware manufacturing, Sharp has continuously preached the 8K LCD revolutionary breakthroughs over the past six months and recently made a high-profile release of consumer-grade 8K TVs. Where does this strategic confidence come from?
Foxconn Technology Group Vice President and Foxconn University President Chen Zhenuo is the evangelist of Sharp's 8K TV. He said, "The market may bypass the 4K bottleneck and directly popularize 8K TVs! This requires Sharp as a pioneer to guide the industry."
From now on, with Foxconn empowering Sharp in the 8K pioneer position, what divides into several colors?
First, let's look at hardware manufacturing. Currently, Sharp's original tenth-generation wire-sinking plant (SDP) has the capacity to mass-produce 8K LCD panels; the tenth-generation LCD panel production line opened in Guangzhou will also produce 8K LCDs after its completion in 2019. Panels and related products; Foxconn has invested more than $10 billion in building a state-of-the-art LCD panel manufacturing facility in Wisconsin, USA, focusing on 8K displays.
Second, let's look at the level of ecological construction. In order to rapidly establish commercial applications and scale for the 8K industry, Chen Zhenguo revealed that Foxconn and Sharp are spurring the construction of the 8K industrial ecosystem, including related equipment and players for producing 8K images. Foxconn will invest to ensure the richness of 8K video resources. Foxconn and Sharp have also actively deployed 8K imagery. Sharp collaborated with ASTRODESIGN, a Japanese video equipment manufacturer, to jointly develop an 8K-capable video system, including cameras, image processing devices, and monitors necessary for photography or video production. Additionally, Foxconn has completed a system-on-chip (SoC) for 8K high-definition image processing and plans to enter the filming stage as soon as possible.
Furthermore, Sharp has partnered with Vogue Film to apply 8K technology to the world's first fashion video shooting. At the same time, 8K live broadcasts are also used in the Super Bowl and WBO championships.
In the 8K ecological construction that can be expected in the future, Chen Zhenguo stated that Sharp is discussing the broadcasting of 8K signals with one of the four major sports leagues in the United States, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games has also confirmed the adoption of 8K signal broadcast. Even the 2018 Korean Winter Olympics confirmed the adoption of 8K signal broadcast. "At the closing ceremony, there will be a link between China and the 2022 Winter Olympics. The person in charge of the design of this link has already communicated with us regarding the display effect under the 8K signal."
It is worth noting that Foxconn's summer initiatives can be described as an all-around attack on the construction of the entire 8K industry. In order to encourage and foster more 8K video production teams, Foxconn is popularizing the establishment of "training bases" in Beijing and other places to attract more talent and resources. The industry generally believes that Foxconn intends to use this to expand its right to speak and strive for more incentives at the government level.
Forward in Controversy
It seems that the "father of LCD" has made the ultimate product of liquid crystal production a mission and has launched a series of actions under the energizing of "modern factories". But even so, the industrialization of 8K LCD TVs is still far away. To some extent, Sharp's release of consumer-grade 8K LCD TVs is an active strategy to stimulate market gaps.
The popularity of 4K TV in the bottleneck of industrial ecology is a very good case. According to AVC's omnichannel push total data: From January to July 2017, 4K TV sales accounted for 57% of sales in China's flat-panel TV market, and sales accounted for 77% - in the absence of solutions to the 4K program source and network transmission environment issues, 4K resolution has become the "standard" for high-end playback terminals. The reason for this pattern is that many color TV companies push the 4K product strategy.
Sharp tried to lead the 8K wave but faced a more complex competitive environment than the 4K period. On the one hand, there is still a lot of controversy about whether or not the resolution should be further improved. On the other hand, various display technologies such as OLED are also rapidly developing in dispute, and even interactive displays like VR have entered the air.
Therefore, Sharp's strategy of popularizing consumer-grade 8K LCD TVs is bound to be controversial, but in any case, home 8K LCD TVs are truly coming.
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