NHK To Give Yankees-Mariners 8K Super Hi-Vision Treatment

Major League Baseball will go 8K this month. The league will team with Japanese public broadcaster NHK to produce the New York Yankees-Seattle Mariners series (July 17-19) in Super Hi-Vision. NHK will use six 8K cameras to record the game, which will also be shown live exclusively on 8K television screens in a Yankee Stadium suite.

Ultra-high-definition TV is 7,680 pixels wide by 4,320 pixels tall (33.18 megapixels), 16 times the resolution of HD and four times that of 4K. NHK’s Super-Hi Vision experience also features powerful 22.2-multichannel sound.

With trial 8K broadcasts set for next year in Japan and plans for a full Super Hi-Vision broadcasting service in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, NHK has ramped up its live-production tests. After high-profile demos at the 2012 London Olympic Games, the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, and the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, this is shaping up to be the summer of Super Hi-Vision, with live productions at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada, Wimbledon, and, now, Yankee Stadium. In addition, Super Bowl 50 in February will receive the Super Hi-Vision treatment.

Watch for continuing coverage of this story on SportsVideo.org next week.