Toshiba and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) are working the challenging transmition of high amounts of image data required by 8K resolution video content, as the companies want to be ready for the 2020's broadcasts of the Olympic games.
Toshiba has developed an inexpensive compression software solution for the real-time transmission of 8K video, allowing live sporting events to be displayed smoothly on screen. Toshiba says that the software is "light" enough to run on a personal computer and that it costs much less than today's hardware solutions.
Toshiba plans to commercialize the compression software for 4K broadcasts first, and later expand to a version capable of feeding 8K broadcasts on the giant screens at 2020 Olympic venues, as well as a version for smartphones.
NTT has also developed 8K software that seperates the foreground scenery from the background scenery, allowing for fast image processing without sacrificing image quality.