According to SDVoE Alliance, the soon-to-be-released SDVoE transmitters and receivers will be the world’s first 8K AV-over-IP solution that will deliver 8K video across a standard network and will also be entirely backward compatible with existing 4K SDVoE systems.
SDVoE stated that the HDMI 2.1 defines many 8K formats with varying bit depth, chroma subsampling, frame rate and color space, and the SDVoE 8K AV-over-IP supports all of them without adding compression or latency. SDVoE also mentioned that four independent links on an off-the-shelf 10G Ethernet switch provide 40Gb per 8K endpoint and does not require any special or unusual switches.
“The InfoComm crowd would have loved to see 8K AV-over-IP in person, but at least we got a sneak peak in the lab,” said Chris Chinnock, president of Insight Media and executive director of the 8K Association. He added, “There are huge potential markets for 8K systems in the pro AV space starting with live events that feature massive screens and outdoor signage where we are seeing bigger and bigger canvases. People will also want to use 8K displays in corporate environments, for smaller video walls, in museums and of course medical applications – they actually have 8K endoscopes now.”
The company also announced that the 8K SDVoE products and the technical discussion between Chris Chinnock and Stéphane Tremblay, CTO of AptoVision products in Semtech’s Signal Integrity Products Group, would be available for viewing on the 8K for pro AV with SDVoE page.
Speaking on the magnitude of the launch, Justin Kennington, president of the SDVoE Alliance, emphasized, “We really are the first AVoIP to do 8K at all – and the fact that it’s totally compatible with existing SDVoE systems is important.” He further stated, “Your existing 4K 10G SDVoE transmitter can send signals to your new 8K 4x10G SDVoE receiver. The opposite is also true, assuming you’re sending 4K from the 8K transmitter (obviously you can’t send an 8K signal to a 4K RX). What comes in, goes out without compromise – no added compression or latency.”
According to SDVoE, all AV distribution and processing applications that demand zero-latency and uncompromised video can benefit from SDVoE technology which provides an end-to-end hardware and software platform for AV extension, switching, processing and control through advanced chipset technology, common control APIs, and interoperability.
The SDVoE network architectures are based on off-the-shelf Ethernet switches, thus offering substantial cost savings and greater system flexibility and scalability over traditional approaches such as point-to-point extension and circuit-based AV matrix switching.
