Nihon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) Brings You the Future of Television

By Earl Hunsinger

Nihon Hoso Kyokai, or NHK, is Japan’s public broadcaster. Yet it is much more. For the last 50 years, NHK has been at the forefront of television research and development. During those years, television has gone from a low resolution black and white format to color, satellite, high definition (HDTV), and digital formats. By looking years ahead at what television might be like in the future, NHK has been instrumental in many of these advances. Even if you have never heard of NHK, you are probably familiar with its work. As an example, Hi-Vision, which is a high definition television format developed by NHK’s Science and Technical Research Laboratories (STRL), has been adopted as the international standard for high definition television.

NHK continues to be a world leader, looking as much as 20 years ahead when planning new lines of research and development. Their goal is not only to develop products and services that are user friendly, but that fulfill the dreams of consumers. Consider just a few examples of what NHK is doing now, and what the future of television holds if their vision becomes a reality.

Although high definition television has been around for a few years, for various reasons it has been slower to take over the consumer market in some countries than in others. Even so, with twice the scanning lines of conventional or standard television, most would agree that HDTV is a better product and will eventually become the new standard. Not content to wait until this happens, NHK has already made considerable progress on the next step in resolution, what they are calling super high vision or ultra definition television. This product will have four times the scanning lines, and therefore four times the resolution, of HDTV.

They are working concurrently on what for some is even more of a dream television system, three dimensional television. Unlike the old experimental 3D movies, which required viewers to where special glasses to get the full effect, with NHK’s 3D system, you will be able to enjoy high quality presentations without the need for special glasses. Since no 3D video presentation would be complete without a good sound system, they are also developing a 3D audio system. Like surround sound, this system will present audio programs with a sensation of reality that gives a listener the impression that a specific sound is in front, behind, or to the side. In addition however, this system will also allow the sensation of sounds that are above or below the listener.

Sports fans might appreciate the high speed, high sensitivity video camera that they recently developed. Because this camera has a high sensitivity, it can be used in normal light, unlike other high speed cameras. This allows it to be used for sporting events. For instance, it has already been used to capture the moment of impact between a baseball and a bat, or between a golf ball and a club. Its high sensitivity also allows it to be used for various types of educational programming. While the focus of NHK is primarily on the broadcasting and communication fields, many of the technologies that they develop have additional applications in other fields. This camera is an example. With the ability to shoot in normal light at a speed of up to one million frames per second, it has numerous scientific applications.

So then, even if you have never heard of NHK, the next time you are amazed by the clear picture of HDTV or watch a particularly impressive piece of slow motion video, perhaps it will be NHK that you are referring to when you say: "What will they think of next?"