New 8K Cameras and More at IBC
IBC 2025 felt a bit more ‘buzzy’ to this reporter. The broadcast industry has had a difficult time in recent years with the effects of Covid and labor disputes adding to the stresses from the technology shift towards streaming. But there seemed to be a lot of positivity this year.
Panelists in our ‘Integration panel’ at CEDIA emphasized that shifting from 4K to 8K is no longer a major cost issue. Much technology is now available for 8K at prices close to the 4K price. That takes away a barrier to adoption and helps the market to develop. That’s probably why we spotted plenty of 8K technology at the show.
One of the big topics from CEDIA was the progress in using 8K or above scanners to create digital archives from valued content that was originally shot on film. At IBC we were able to talk to three of the key remaining companies in the film scanner business, Lasergraphics (referenced by IMAX and Warner Bros at CEDIA), DFT and Blackmagic Design. Lasergraphics was showing its 13.5K scanner, DFT had its 8K, but Blackmagic was showing its 4K scanner. The company told us that it can use its Resolve software to manually stitch together dual 4K scans, but does not currently support 8K natively. It had a cool demo of its automated process for removing a lot of film artifacts, including dust and scratches.
At CEDIA, Lasergraphics was highly praised by IMAX and Warner Bros for the quality of its Director 13.5K scanner, and the scanner was shown on its own booth but also on the Editshare booth. Editshare has developed a storage system that can allow the real time capture of the data coming from an 8K scan. Given that the scans are in 16 bit color, with no compression, there is a high level of data coming from the scanner and in the past, this would mean some pause in the scanning because of the time needed to clear buffers, but now the company can scan without any pauses. This allows realtime simultaneous processing and that can save time – which means financial savings, too.
DFT was mainly talking about improvements to its 4K Scanity 2 system which has moved to supporting a GPU for processing of the data from the scan rather than fixed hardware. This allows much easier future development because it is being done in software. The 8K Polar system is basically unchanged from last year, but was on display.
NHK is always interesting to talk to. The Japanese broadcaster was the prime mover in developing 8K and has since moved to higher resolutions to better support immersive applications. At IBC 2025, it had a new prototype camera system that used six 9K x 7K cameras (five horizontally and one pointing vertically up) to create 30K 360 degree video. The system was being shown using a headset and it was great to be able look in any direction and get a great image. A cool feature developed by NHK was a ‘region of interest’ extraction system to allow one or more 8K views to be taken from different points in the overall video stream.
“Region of Interest” was also a topic for Astrodesign of Japan which was showing its 8K 120fps camera (also shown at CEDIA) being used to provide multiple views at lower resolution. The system can provide four independent windows for content creators. Astrodesign has already seen interest from broadcasters looking to show concerts using a single fixed camera. The director can choose to show the overall view or ‘zoom in’ to different parts of the orchestra or on the conductor to create dynamic coverage, but with a very simple fixed installation.
Astrodesign also told us that it is working on a 240Hz version of its 8K camera, but is having difficulty finding a display that can properly show the content, so if you have one, get in touch with the company!
NxVi of China also had its Theia E1 ‘8K Extraction system’ which the company told is ‘cheaper than Astrodesign’. The box can provide three separate 4K or HD outputs from a single 8K input image as well as an unscaled or downscaled version of the full image. Each output can be controlled in the same way as a PTZ camera. The firm said that latency is less than one frame. The company plans to add ST2110 support later.
As well as its ‘Region of Interest’ system, NxVi was showing a 4k/8K system for processing images for use in large ‘volumes’ or stereoscopic displays. The firm sees applications in VR and mixed reality.
Plenty of New 8K Cameras
A short while ago, we were able to have a really interesting discussion https://8kassociation.com/grass-valley-sees-value-in-8k-capture/ with Grass Valley about their LX180 video camera, which uses a 10K sensor, but is currently limited to 4K because of the capabilities of the processors in the unit. IBC 2025 was the first chance for broadcasters to have a look at the final unit which provides a more ‘cinematic’ look than the firm’s existing cameras, which use three smaller sensors. It was good to hear Grass Valley endorsing the value of capturing at a higher resolution than the final delivery format. The new camera won an award at IBC as ‘Best of Show’ from TVBEurope, adding to its existing ‘Product of the Year’ award at NAB.
There were other new cameras with 8K capabilities at IBC.
Fujifilm showed its new GFX ETERNA 55 digital cinema camera which uses a large (55mm diagonal – 43.8 x 32.9mm) sensor (about 1.7 times a ‘full frame’ sensor). The firm was emphasizing the 4:3 ‘open gate’ recording, but the camera also supports 8K/30P and 4K/60P standards when used with standard 35mm compatible PL-mount lenses. It supports 8K DCI ‘dot by dot’ (although there is no 8K DCI, yet). Of course, Fujifilm supports a number of film simulation LUTs to bring results similar to film-based cameras. Features include an electronically variable ND filter.
Red Digital was showing its new V-Raptor XE 8K VV camera which is a new more compact unit that uses Red’s existing 8K CC sensor and also supports Nikon’s Z-mount. Niko also exploited its ownership of Red by adding Red’s color technology to its new Nikon ZR cinema camera although its capture is limited to 6K.
Kinefinity of China was very pleased to show us its very small and, it says, easy to use 8K camera. The camera was used to create the 8K movie on the Chinese space mission. The small size and ease of use were two of the key reasons for the choice of the unit for this project. The company highlighted the wide range of lens mounts (PL/LPL/EF and E are all supported) and the support for frame rates up to 70fps in 8K. It directly records in Apple ProRes 4444 XQ, billed by Apple as the highest-quality version of Apple ProRes for 4:4:4:4 image sources (including alpha channels).
Blackmagic Design was demonstrating its 8K stereo cameras for 3D capture and was getting plenty of interest in its existing 12K cameras.
Laowa has been showing its high end 8K 12-120mm lens for some time and told us that although it is ready for shipping, the firm wants to launch it along with a so far unshown 25-600mm version that is under development.
Codecs Under Development
In the codec area of the market, we spoke to Spin Digital, a developer of VVC codecs. The company was showing a multi-layer VVC system which provides 2K/4K and 8K in a single stream. Devices receiving the stream can extract the level that they want, while the broadcaster can send just a single stream. The same technology can be used to include different content – NHK has shown content enhancement layers such as signing or additional subtitles. The firm also had a demo of very low latency VVC encoding. Initially when developing its VVC encoders, the firm concentrated on maximum bitrate efficiency but now it is also working on reducing the latency. By doing that, the firm has got to 30ms encoding and decoding with around 100ms of ‘end to end’ latency’.
Also in the codec area, Interdigital was in the UHD Forum/MCIF booth and demonstrating its implementation of the Fraunhofer Film Grain Analysis & Synthesis technology. (FGS). Staff were highlighting that this was being done with the VVC codec, where FGS is an option. Although FGS is mandatory in AV1, we have heard from multiple sources that the FGS system in AV1 is a bit crude. (Which is probably why there is some new technology that we assume will appear in AV2
Wavelet Beam of Germany was showing its noise reduction technology. Like film grain analysis, noise reduction before compression can significantly improve the efficiency of codecs. We had an interesting chat about the noise in different color channels. Blue is a particular challenge as the typical ‘Bayer’ pattern provides twice as many green sensors, so noise is less of an issue.
Other 8K Developments
In other 8K news, STB maker Marusys of Korea was showing the STB that it has developed for Korea Telecom. The box has voice-enabled AI, so to get users to put the box to the front, particular attention was paid to the design. That avoids the sound being blocked or distorted. Amlogic, which makes the 8K chips that go into the box told us that it has been making 4K chips for quite a few years now, but they are only just becoming mainstream. They expect a similar lag in 8K support.
BZBGear, an 8K Association member and a strong promoter of 8K for several years, was showing its new technology which can compress 8K video down enough to transmit 8K60 over a single 1Gbps network connection. It can support multiview (up to 15 sources) or a video wall for up to 3 x 3 displays. The company also highlighted its matrix switchers (up to 16 x 16).
Asus had an impressive booth that included its color-controlled 8K monitor, the ProArt PA32KCX which is now available although quantities are said to be limited because of issues with limited panel supplies, the firm told us. Initial reports from reviews are very positive.
Colorlight is one of a handful of companies that develop the controllers for large LED walls. Although there are many, many that make the walls themselves, the number that can develop controllers is much smaller. Colorlight was emphasizing its ability to accurately monitor and control the color of the LEDs it is driving. The firm had an 8K processor for video walls, but it also had a full media player that can support the format and directly drive the LED cabinets. That makes installation of straightforward 8K video walls very simple.
Aja was showing its Corvid 8K capture cards. The Corvid range tends to be sold into SIs that put them into complete systems for video processing. Also on the booth was the Kona 4, a ‘do-it-all’ 8K capture and playback card as well as supporting 2110 interfacing. The card incorporates many features, eliminating the need for add-ons, the firm’s staff told us.
Dolby was talking about its Dolby Vision 2 system which allows users to have more control over the picture quality in Dolby Vision content. The company told us that the latest version is particularly good at improving lower end TV sets, so has less relevance to 8K which tends to be in ‘flagship’ sets.
8K Association Executive DIrector, Juan Reyes, took part in a panel session that considered future technologies for TV and we are planning a report on that session.
In conclusion, there was lots of activity in 8K at IBC (and we missed a couple that we will follow up on), so we really enjoyed our two days there.
