Recently, a friend of mine called to ask: "What kind of bandwidth is needed for transmitting 4K TV programs? Why do we have 100-megabyte broadband at home, yet watching 4K videos on streaming platforms feels unbearable?"
This question touches on a lot of information. Firstly, some video platforms have already started offering 4K resolution on-demand services. Secondly, 4K video files are massive and demand extremely high network conditions. Currently, most households in China struggle to stream 4K videos smoothly. In other words, the '4K' concept, which has been around for years, is still not practical for most Chinese consumers.
However, in August, the industry announced that Sharp would officially release consumer-grade 8K LCD TVs. While 4K LCD TVs are still not widely adopted, Sharp is already betting on 8K LCDs. Is this bold move crazy?
The challenge of popularizing 8K LCDs is immense. Known as QUHD technology, 8K resolution reaches 7680 × 4320 pixels, four times sharper than 4K and sixteen times clearer than Full HD. For someone with normal vision, 8K TVs provide 4.3 times better visual experience than HD.
Compared to the 4K displays that the industry is pushing forward, 8K's resolution is a step up, but so are the technological and industrial challenges. If the main hurdle for the 4K industry is managing vast amounts of data, then 8K doubles that problem. For instance, a standard 4K movie with compressed audio tracks requires about 200 GB of storage. Smoothly streaming a 4K video requires a speed of 40 Mbps, and even though Chinese households are moving towards 200 Mbps broadband, current speeds average only 25 Mbps. Meanwhile, just one minute of 8K video requires 194 GB of space, and 20 minutes would need 4 TB!
The sheer volume of data remains the core issue of the 4K industry. This has created bottlenecks in shooting equipment, production costs, transmission pressures, imaging technology, and mobile storage and playback devices. As a result, there are very few companies globally that produce exclusive 4K content. Alibaba's 4K Garden is China's sole 4K content production and distribution platform, and it only secured $60 million in Series A funding recently.
Building an ecosystem for 4K is still incomplete, and constructing the much larger ecosystem related to 8K is even farther off.
Besides the ecosystem, 8K LCD playback hardware and technology are also challenging. 8K-resolution playback devices demand exceptionally high standards for LCD panel size and driving technology. Due to production process limitations, the smallest 8K TV starts at 80 inches (compared to 4K TVs, which start at 40 inches). The oversized panels are complex to manufacture. Additionally, the driving technology optimization makes the cost of TPS and IGZO drives in large sizes relatively high. For 8K resolution, there are extremely high demands on driving materials.
Given these hardware manufacturing and software ecosystem gaps, 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 ready for 8K LCD manufacturing technology and ecosystem development?
Sharp's Precision
In an industry where the 8K LCD TV ecosystem and hardware manufacturing are nearly non-existent, Sharp has continued to promote 8K LCD revolutionary breakthroughs over the past six months, culminating in the high-profile launch of consumer-grade 8K TVs. What strategic confidence does Sharp have?
Foxconn Technology Group Vice President and Foxconn University President Chen Zhenguo is the advocate of Sharp's 8K TVs. He stated, "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 pioneering position, what divides are there?
First, let's look at hardware manufacturing. Currently, Sharp's original 10th-generation wire-sinking plant (SDP) has the capacity to mass-produce 8K LCD panels. The 10.5-generation LCD panel production line set to open in Guangzhou in 2019 will also produce 8K LCDs 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 ecosystem level. To quickly establish commercial applications and scale for the 8K industry, Chen Zhenguo disclosed that Foxconn and Sharp are accelerating the construction of the 8K industrial ecosystem, including equipment and players for producing 8K images. Foxconn is investing to ensure the richness of 8K video resources. Foxconn and Sharp have also actively deployed 8K imagery. Sharp collaborated with Japanese video equipment manufacturer ASTRODESIGN to jointly develop an 8K-capable video system, including cameras, image processing devices, and monitors necessary for photography or video production. Additionally, Foxconn has developed a system-on-chip (SoC) for 8K high-definition image processing and plans to enter the filming stage as soon as possible.
Moreover, Sharp has partnered with Vogue Film to apply 8K technology to the world's first fashion video shoot. 8K live broadcasts are also being used in the Super Bowl and WBO championship events.
Looking ahead to the 8K ecosystem, Chen Zhenguo stated that Sharp is discussing broadcasting 8K signals with one of the four major sports leagues in the U.S., and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games has confirmed the adoption of 8K signal broadcasting. Even the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics confirmed the adoption of 8K signal broadcasting. "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's worth noting that Foxconn's summer push can be described as a full-scale attack on building the entire 8K industry. To encourage and foster more 8K video production teams, Foxconn is setting up "training bases" in places like Beijing to attract more talent and resources. The industry generally believes that Foxconn intends to use this to expand its voice and strive for more government incentives.
Moving Forward Amidst Controversy
It seems that the "father of LCD" has made the ultimate production of liquid crystal displays his mission and has taken 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 TVs in the bottleneck of industrial ecology is a great case. According to AVC's omni-channel 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 program source and network transmission environment issues, 4K resolution has become the "standard" for high-end playback terminals. This pattern arose because many color TV companies pushed the 4K product strategy.
Sharp tried to lead the 8K wave but faces a more complex competitive environment than during the 4K period. On one hand, there is still much debate about whether further improving resolution is worthwhile. On the other hand, various display technologies like OLED are also rapidly developing, and even interactive VR displays have entered the scene.
Therefore, Sharp's strategy of releasing consumer-grade 8K LCD TVs is bound to be controversial, but in any case, home 8K LCD TVs are truly coming. (sea blue)
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