TEA London News & Views

Happy New Year everyone… yes.. it’s a bit late bit hey it’s still my first post for 2012. Besides, it’s not February yet. And to start the year(so to speak), this bunny is actually going to be doing something out of character- a review on a TV show/movie (I’m not sure what it is)

Black Mirror 1- National Anthem

First of all, I have to admit I haven’t got a clue who Charlie Brooker was (I do not own a TV and I only read books with pictures) and basically choose to watch it ‘cos everyone around me told me to (the TEA London crew included). And you know what they say, if you can’t beat them, join them. Besides, I seriously need to write something before the end of the month to fulfil my contract so hey, why not. So I sat down and turn Black Mirror 1 on as I enjoy my supper of pita bread, organic houmous, ham and cucumber.

The verdict:

Ahem.. am I the only person who think it’s shit (yes, that bad)? I am sorry but seriously? If it’s meant to be thought provoking and challenging, then it failed miserably. The only thing that was challenged was my patience. I think I understand what it is trying to do but is way off the mark. Yes, I get the ‘what if’ question, but in order for the ‘what if’ question to challenge our cerebellum, it needs to as grounded as possible i.e. to imitate life. But the real problem I have is not the question, but the answer. I couldn’t care less if the Prime Minister has to have sex with a pig, a toad or a unicorn, but the fact remain there is only one answer to the question. And it’s definitely not the one Mr. Brooker picked.

And when a solution is totally far fetched, the story becomes a mere fantasy. In this case, a fantasy with no action. Imagine LOTR(the trilogy) and Star Wars(all six) with no action at all, and now imagine having to watch them back-to-back. Need I say more?

Honestly, I think the show it’s just an exercise of vanity. Most of us are sensible enough to keep our dirty dark fantasy in our head where it would remain what it is- a fantasy. But Mr. Brooker on the other hand decided to turn it into a show and call it a dark drama. I think he even wrote himself a character in the show but that’s for you to decide.

Notes:

• TEA London totally disagree with me
• I made a comment likening the show to reading The Sun and apparently, that’s the point. But really, if I want to read The Sun, I would buy it. And if I don’t want to read it, why would I suddenly want to watch it on TV?
• What about the effect of Twitter, YouTube etc. ? Err.. is that not common knowledge? It’s 2012 for Pete’s sake!
• Someone said ‘Perhaps you are not the target audience”. I say, “ Perhaps, you are right”

BE

Disclaimer: The views of Bunny Ears is not necessarily that of TEA London’s; or that of anyone else’s for that matter.

James Hock, a valued design consultant for Tea London helped us create the first window display for 2012. It is our aim to change the display at least once a month – where we have had three other displays before this one. This one definitely being the best so far and worthy of publishing.

Enjoy the pictures

Beyond 1080p

For most of us HD (1080p) TV picture resolutions is something we have only just adopted in the last few years. Broadcasters only seriously started broadcasting in HD in the last two years and Blu-Ray as a replacement to DVD is not exactly in everyone’s front room.  It can be a little worrying to some that the next two generations of TV resolution (or definition) have already been developed, tested and is a proven technology.

This brief article is not so much a view of future technologies, but a view on technologies that already exists, but we won’t see in our high streets for at least another 8 years, as broadcasters and Hollywood are nowhere near ready to produce content for these new standards. When they finally do launch these products for the mass market, like with 3D, it is likely there will not be that much choice or content available for some time after.

Sharp showed off the world’s first 8K, or ultra high definition, or super hi-vision TV (yes already there are several names out there to describe this tech). They showed it to the public at this year’s CES. What is significant about this showing is they demonstrated that it is possible to manufacture an LCD TV in a relatively small form factor of 85 Inches, that is capable of displaying images at 16 times the resolution of current high-definition displays.

Japanese broadcaster NHK have been spearheading 8K technology for some time now, and have already made test broadcasts, working with other broadcaster like our very own BBC. Up until now it has only been possible to project these massive resolutions, with Sharp showing the first video display capable of achieving this amazing high resolution. No other content producer is currently make video at this resolution. NHK had to develop special cameras and crucially very special lenses capable of filming at these very high resolutions. Yes, it has got to a stage where the level of detail is so fine that standard broadcast quality lenses are simply not good enough to capture this staggeringly high resolution.

NHK are working on a development roadmap to start broadcasting this standard as early as 2020. NHK do the occasional Ultra High Definition special event broadcast, they intend broadcasting the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics – but this obviously won;t be over their airwaves, so only a select few will be able to experience a live 8K TV broadcast over the coming years.

So is 8K the next technological step for our front room TV’s? Actually no, the next step is 4K/2K. This is a video display standard that give 4 times the resolution of the current 1080p standard currently available to the typical consumer. Imagine 4 high definition TV sets in a 2 x 2 arrangment and you will get an idea of the resolution of 4k/2k. Now imagine an arrangement of 16 TV’s in a 4 x 4 arrangement and you will have an idea of how massively detailed the 8K video standard is.

4K/2K is currently used in mainstream (non-Imax) commercial cinemas – so odd are you have likely already seen and experienced 4K/2K clarity and quality. For your cinema going experience I am sure most of you must be impressed by how by the quality and detail of 4K/2K is from your cinema going experience.

Although 4K/2K is used extensively in commercial cinemas it is not a mainstream consumer standard yet. During the latter half of 2011 the first 4K/2K consumer devices started appearing on the market. The first we were aware of is Panasonic’s massive 153″ plasma monitor, the other is Sony’s recently launched 4K/2k consumer grade home cinema projectors. All of the main Japanese home cinema amplifier manufacturers have added 4K/2K compatibility, some have also added video scalers that will upsample 1080p video to 4K/2K.

Of course buying displays and projectors capable of 4K/2K is pointless… as yet there are no movie titles you can buy or rent that have been encoded to this resolution. So although you can get 4K/2K installed in your home today, it will be some time before you will have any content capable of using this fine quality to the maximum. Likewise when 8K does appear as a consumer product, it is unlikely it will be of much use for several years as you will have nothing to playback.

A final though on this is, clearly we are going to need more bandwidth or headroom over the internet and airwaves, further the storage capacities of the currently blu-ray standard  is probably woefully inadequate for 4K/2K, let alone 8K. So it is clear there are a lot of complimentary technologies that need to be developed first, and the likes of Hollywood need to start remastering a whole new set of 4K/2K titles before 4K/2K will be the ‘norm’ or the mainstream TV resolution standard.

So there is no need yet to panic and throw out your 1080p HD TV, not yet anyway.