Where’s the Money in 4K?

What markets are poised to be full of crystal-clear 4K displays by the end of this year? And what obstacles to large-scale adoption remain?

Richard Reisbick, president of Avocation Systems in Broomfield, Colo., echoes Srago’s signal transmission concerns, saying HDCP 2.2 and HDMI 2.0 are “totally incompatible with everything that’s been sold to date” and won’t play 4K content.

“Everything in the system will have to be replaced,” Reisbick says. “It’s a con game to get people to buy more equipment. These are the same people who own the content.”

Although Reisbick doesn’t go out of his way to promote 4K displays and installations to his dealers, “It’s truly up to the end user whether they want to take a chance on it. Integrators are getting a lot of pressure about 4K from customers, but the monitors they find in Costco won’t show the content that’s coming a year from now.

“This stuff is not inexpensive and dealers are worried about upsetting their customers,” says Reisbick. “They’re asking them to spend all this money on something that’ll be obsolete in a year. 4K monitors are awesome, but they just won’t work with what’s coming out in a year. It’s deeper than making money on it. I just want people to be educated and make educated choices.”

Gazing Into the Future

Crestron has been lowering prices on some of its 4K digital media systems to the prices it once sold 2K systems, while discontinuing many of its 2K offerings

“There will be a good chunk of time you can be benefiting from 4K distribution,” says Barnett. “The question is about how fast you can move pixels and put a display on the glass. Some clients want the best possible picture and the best possible sound and they’re willing to pay what it costs to get it. In the next year or two, people are going to want displays that can keep up with their mobile devices and laptops and those sorts of things.”

Barnett points to “a very large install base of people who’ve used 4K,” and believes that in 2016, there will be a new video distribution system that can keep up with the content.

Srago cautions 4K early adopters to “slow down.”

“They’re selling 4K displays for $10,000 to people who won’t be able to play it on their Blu-ray in a couple of years,” he says. That’s because HDCP 2.2 requires a direct connection between the display and the content player. Srago wonders how integrators will be able to get the signal from one to the other.

The protection of 4K content and limited availability of content are the other major questions; meanwhile, January’s International CES at least included word that 4K Blu-ray disc players would be arriving toward the end of this year.

“It’s going to be a slow rollout adoption,” Srago says of 4K in general. “I’m not jumping at the chance to sell 4K to a client only to have them be disappointed.”

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