NCAA Final Four Contributes First US Sport Event Footage Shown in 4K Ultra HD Technology

Photo Source: LG Electronics

Averaging almost 16 million television viewers, the 2013 NCAA Basketball tournament's 'Final Four' match-ups proved to be the most popular since 2005. While standard definition television were the predominant means for viewing the 2005 college basketball games, the 2013 broadcasts would have been watched on a considerably higher number of high-definition sets.

Much less expensive than 8 years ago, the HD television sets have been regularly feeding sharp pictures of movies, television series and, of course, sporting events. While many United States sport fans believed they were enjoying the game with the second-best view to actually being in attendance, LG Electronics has been testing what is touted as the next-generation of television technology.

Fed to several private viewing location in Atlanta's Georgia Dome, a first-of-its-kind demonstration of 4K resolution recording was successfully attempted at the 2013 NCAA Final Four basketball games. In cooperation with the NCAA, CBS and Turner Sports, game highlights of college basketball action was shown on LG's newest televisions in ultra high resolution. LG Electronics USA senior vice president of marketing James Fishler says, "The Final Four is the perfect place to demonstrate this next frontier in picture quality as LG continues to drive the Ultra HD market. LG touts itself as the first company to bring Ultra HD TV technology to the marketplace."

Delivering motion picture more than three times more defined than 1080p resolution, LG supplied their 84-inch class Ultra HD TV sets for the inaugural broadcast of a United States sporting event. Capturing dunks and three-point shots in 3,840 X 2,160 resolution, the LG 84-inch class Ultra HD TV's 4K picture consisting of eight million pixels gave images detailing determination of players with vivid realness. Senior vice president and general manager of sports operations of Turner Sports Matt Hong looked at the 4K broadcasting experiment as a wave of the future. "We continue to embrace innovation and look at this test of next-generation television technology as a way to potentially share fans for decades to come", said Hong.

As for when typical households can expect to see a majority of college and professional level sports through 4K technology, it might several more Final Four matches before we see in super high resolution. The $20,000 a piece price tag in the United States for LG's current 84-inch class Ultra HD TV will be the first obstacle for the new picture technology. The upcoming release of a 55-inch and 65-inch LG Ultra HD TVs should be the first step to making the screens more accessible to well-off, early adopters. The next hurdle will be to have television program providers such as CBS and Turner Sports make the move to higher-resolution video capture equipment. It may be so time before ultra high definition viewing will be ready for the pros.