External view of NHK’s compact receiver system. Photo: NHK

[Via Satellite 10-04-2016] NHK, in collaboration with KDDI Corporation, Jupiter Telecommunications, and Japan Digital Serve Corporation, has developed a prototype compact receiver system for 4K and 8K broadcasts on cable TV. The broadcaster started testing satellite 4K and 8K broadcasting in August and is actively producing content in these formats.

The prototype receiving system is the first to use channel-bonding technology NHK developed for splitting 4K/8K signals into multiple cable TV channels. According to the company, this technology can use existing cable TV facilities and transmission infrastructure in their present form. NHK attributes the successful miniaturization of this 4K/8K cable TV reception equipment to the development of a demodulation Large Scale Integration (LSI) from Socionext that converts cable TV signals into video and audio signals. NHK says that all the main modules for 4K/8K reception on cable TV are now ready for the launch of practical 8K broadcasts in two years time.