Dr. Yumita, the Executive Engineering Director of NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai, in English, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation) was a panel member in the last session of the ITU World Telecom 2009 Conference. During the panel discussion he outlined his vision for the next generation of TV currently in development. He explained that Japan is working extremely hard to develop the world’s first 3D television broadcasting system capable of running across the new generation of UHDTV or “super high vision” TV planned for introduction in the next couple of years in the country and around the world. The new broadcasting system would allow ultra HDTV (the next generation of HDTV) to display 3D video that will not require the cumbersome yet traditional red-blue glasses.

He explained how the broadcasting system will require enormous amounts of digital bandwidth between the broadcaster and the TV receiver and will be based on existing IP protocols but requiring next generation digital networks.  Dr Yumita also cited the significant progress made on “wide field” TV imagery, a display system which allows TV pictures with a 100-degree field of vision or more to be broadcast and displayed. Today’s widescreen TV typically displays a field of vision less than 30-degrees or so but humans often depend on at least 100-degrees of view. He explained that the new broadcast protocol is being designed to prepare for wall and ultra-large screen TV formats.