Electrical Equipment / Components & Telecoms

"Everything is changing with each passing day." Wang Runqi, vice president of BOE and general manager of TVSBU of display business, described the upgrading of the ultra-high-definition display industry in recent years.

China Unicom recently obtained the "License for Production and Operation of Radio and Television Programs." So far, the three major telecom operators have all obtained the license. The UHD industry chain is long and the investment is large. Among them, ultra-high-definition video will be an important application field of 5G, and the industrial scale is expected to exceed 4 trillion yuan in 2022.

A reporter from China Securities News found that 4K display products have basically completed the replacement of the previous generation products, and 8K products have the conditions for rapid increase in volume. The ultra-high-definition display industry hardware has matured, but insufficient content has become an important factor affecting the rapid development of the industry.

8K product shipments accelerate

Wang Runqi told a reporter from China Securities Journal that 5 years ago, BOE’s 4K and above resolution display products accounted for only 9% of internal shipments, while domestic shipments accounted for more than 70% in the first quarter of this year, especially those with 55 inches and above. The resolution of size products is basically 4K and above, "the growth rate is amazing, 4K has basically completed the replacement of 2K and 1K."

Since BOE assisted partners to release 110-inch 8K ultra-high-definition LCD TVs at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2015, all links in the ultra-high-definition industry chain have gradually matured, and 4K and 8K ultra-high-definition display products have entered thousands of households.

8K display product shipments have entered an accelerated period. "8K panel shipments are growing very fast. In 2020, TCL Huaxing's global 8K panel market share is less than 1%, and this year is expected to be close to 8%." TCL Huaxing Optoelectronics Panel Technology Development Director Xiao Juncheng told a reporter from China Securities News. Huaxing has completed the large-scale shipment of 55-inch, 65-inch, and 75-inch 60Hz 8K products to first-line brand customers at home and abroad in April 2020.

In the upstream of the display panel industry, Chipone North provides display driver chips and other components. The company's CTO Li Zhuo believes that the increase in resolution will double the demand for chips. "Ultra HD is not only the resolution increase, but the refresh rate, wide color gamut, etc. have been correspondingly improved. For the chip level, the amount of data that needs to be processed has doubled, and it needs to be carried out at the level of interface transmission and power consumption control. Technological innovation to meet the needs of display panels. In addition to display driver chips, power management chips, TCON chips, TVSOC, etc. all need to be upgraded." Li Zhuo told a reporter from China Securities Journal.

As each link in the UHD display industry chain matures, the cost is gradually decreasing. According to Wang Runqi, according to the iterative law of display panels, when the cost enters the 1.5 times range of the previous-generation product, the rate of uptake will be greatly accelerated.

It is understood that the current 8K panels of BOE and China Star Optoelectronics have entered the range of 1.5 times the cost of 4K panels, which was two to three times the previous cost. The 8K panel already has the conditions for fast volume up. "I hope that by the end of 2021, the cost of 8K panel products will be reduced to 1.2 times that of 4K products." Xiao Juncheng said.

Wang Runqi predicts that global shipments of 8K products may exceed 1 million units this year. "This is an important threshold, after which it will enter a period of accelerated growth. Global 8K product shipments are expected to exceed 15 million units in 2025."

The ultra-high-definition video industry chain is accelerating the upgrading and upgrading, and promoting the innovative development of video production and broadcasting, network transmission and other links. In terms of video production and broadcasting, companies such as Mango SuperMedia, Oriental Pearl (invested in Sobey Digital), Haobai Holdings (invested in 4K Garden) and other companies have carried out related businesses, while Danghong Technology and Digital Video are providers of ultra-high-definition codec products.

In terms of ultra-high-definition display terminals, home appliance companies such as Sichuan Changhong, Hisense Video, and Shenzhen Konka, as well as upstream display panel companies such as BOE and TCL (China Star Optoelectronics) are the main manufacturers. In terms of core components, companies such as Howe and Geke Micro, which are subsidiaries of Weir, are working hard in the CMOS field.

Content construction is at the right time

From the perspective of consumer terminals, 4K products have completed the replacement of the previous generation products. The head of the TV business of Xiaomi Group introduced to a reporter from China Securities News that the sales of 1080P resolution TV products accounted for a decline and gradually replaced by 4K resolution TVs. Except for a small number of small-size products, Xiaomi TVs basically use 4K resolution panels, and all products sold on Xiaomi boxes also support 4K resolution decoding.

The head of the TV business of Xiaomi Group also admitted that the current 8K TV sales accounted for a low proportion. In 2020, Xiaomi will launch its first 8K+5G TV, the 82-inch Extreme Commemorative Edition of Xiaomi TV Master, priced at up to 49,999 yuan.

A reporter from China Securities News visited Gome’s store in Nanshan District, Shenzhen and found that 8K TVs from home appliance manufacturers such as TCL and Samsung are already on sale. A certain 65-inch 8K ultra-high-definition TV from Samsung is priced at 18,999 yuan. "8K products are expensive, and there is no content. I can only watch 4K content when I buy it back." The store staff said.

"The lack of content will affect the development of the ultra-high-definition industry. In addition to the reduction of hardware costs, it is necessary to establish standards and directions that lead the picture quality." Xiao Juncheng introduced that their 8K panel products are mainly sold to Samsung and Sony, and their applications are mainly in the North American market. "Many domestic consumers paid more attention to size in the early days, and now they are also starting to pay attention to image quality and experience."

Li Zhuo believes that chips are no longer a bottleneck in the development of the ultra-high-definition industry chain. "Many chip manufacturers have already made corresponding technology accumulation and layout. Judging from the current situation, content production is behind, affecting the pace of industry promotion. Although 60% of domestic TVs are 4K displays, they are still watching most of the time. 2K content."

The popularization of UHD content is inseparable from production, transmission, storage, and distribution. Transmission is no longer an obstacle. Wang Xue, the vice president of Digital Video, told the China Securities Journal that 4K and 8K content needs to be compressed during transmission. 10G content can be compressed to 20M-30M under the CCTV main station image quality standard. If it is required for small screens such as new media, it can be compressed. The compression is lower and the picture quality is strictly guaranteed.

Wang Xue introduced that AVS3 is a domestic self-developed 8K ultra-high-definition video coding and decoding technology standard, which is benchmarked against the foreign H.266 coding standard. Under the same conditions, the compression effect of domestic standards is even better. At the same time, digital video is also based on the neural network algorithm of deep learning, and introduced the perceptual coding technology for dynamic processing of the picture. In the case of limited bandwidth resources and computing resources, it can concentrate the superior resources to process the part of the picture focused by the human eye. it is good.

Danghong Technology provides ultra-high-definition video compression, low-code and high-quality technology, which can save 30%-50% bandwidth under the same definition. The company’s secretary of the board Tan Ya introduced to a reporter from the China Securities Journal that the hardware of the ultra-high-definition industry chain is developing rapidly, and the constraint lies in content production. “It will take time to produce a large amount of high-quality ultra-high-definition content.”

According to information released by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, as of the end of March 2021, broadcasting organizations at all levels across the country have been approved to open 7 4K ultra-high-definition channels. But only CCTV Ultra HD channels can be received nationwide.

Tan Ya said that the 7 ultra-high-definition channels that have been opened have not much broadcast, and the pace is much slower than the plan proposed in 2019. Regarding how to enrich ultra-high-definition video content, Wang Runqi believes that exploring the integration of TV and network content and finding a suitable profit model may be one of the choices.

Innovation space is beyond imagination

The production cost of ultra-high-definition content is usually at least 1.5 times that of ordinary high-definition works, the production cycle is more than 1.5 times, and the storage space is more than 8 times.

"Take a camera as an example. The rental cost of a 4K camera is about 1,000 yuan per day. An ordinary high-definition camera only costs a few hundred yuan per day, while the rental cost of an 8K camera is 20,000 yuan per day." Wang Xue said that the business model and copyright protection are also Need to be perfected. "The production cost is too high, and if copyright protection is not in place, it will discourage the producers."

Wu Yi, who has served as an executive in the broadcasting system and Youku for many years, founded 4K Garden in 2016, specializing in the production and distribution of ultra-high-definition content. Wu Yi told a reporter from China Securities News that 4K Garden has accumulated 15,000 hours of 4K content. "Ultra HD is a trend, but content production is very complicated."

Although there are many difficulties, the industry has great potential for development. The "Ultra HD Video Industry Development White Paper (2021)" issued by the China Electronics Information Industry Research Institute shows that the total scale of my country's UHD video industry will reach 1.8 trillion yuan in 2020, and the overall scale of the industry is expected to exceed 4 trillion yuan in 2022.

Tan Ya believes that large-scale sports events can provide an opportunity for the development of the ultra-high-definition industry. "2021 and 2022 are the key nodes. The Tokyo Olympics, the Beijing Winter Olympics, and the Asian Games in Hangzhou will have a lot of ultra-high-definition content landing, not only at home, but also on the street and on the roadside outdoor large screens. To 8K video."

The development of 5G and UHD complement each other. Tan Ya said that everyone is looking for a large-scale killer application of 5G, and ultra-high-definition video may be the fastest to land. Wang Xue said: "Ultra HD's application in the consumer field only opens a door. There are so many things that can be done in the future, such as unmanned driving and telemedicine."

In addition to ultra-high-definition content distribution, Wu Yi also wants to do other more interesting things. "For example, combining with AI and big data to open up games, e-commerce and other scenarios, and to grow the industry chain longer and bigger." Wu Yi believes that the media attributes of 8K content will be worse, but the artistic attributes will be stronger and can produce An eye-opening effect for users, "Combined with naked-eye 3D technology, the outdoor 8K large screen shows the public colorful art, advertising and creative works, and even becomes a new landmark of Internet celebrity."

Telecom operators also want to share the 5G+UHD feast. Xiao Wei, head of China Telecom Tianyi Ultra HD, told the China Securities Journal that as one of the 5G application products, China Telecom launched the Tianyi Ultra HD APP, using 4K, multi-camera, free viewpoint and other technologies to help China Telecom's 5G rapid development. "Ultra HD video is deeply integrated with 5G, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and other technologies, and the innovation of business scenarios and commercial models will be beyond imagination." Xiao Wei said.