Test broadcasting of 8K started in August 2016 in Japan and full service is scheduled for 2018. The virtual reality technology, which is seeing rapid growth in the global market, requires an 8K resolution.

The current 4K resolution cannot support a full 360-degree wraparound view with adequate resolution. In the field of medical application, 8K is also considered essential for transmitting video images of surgical operations.

However, in order to compress 8K video data down to the size which is practical for transmission or storage, the conventional method either

took very long time for the entire process, or required to havea very large system with multiple processors, consuming a lot of power.

To address this issue, Socionext has developed the world's first solution that enables users to build devices with the size of one PCIe board for real-time HEVC encoding of 8K/60p video.

Applying the solution to Socionext's state-of-the-art lineup of codec products enables users to build a real-time 8K encoder on a small board that fits into conventional PCs and servers.

Socionext has implemented the solution using the company's 4K/60p HEVC encoder MB86M31, which is already in production. It also plans to use MB86M30, which will start volume shipping at the end of November, as well as other Socionext's codec ICs.

Advantech provides the"VEGA-3304", containing four MB86M31 chips

on a single board. It is the first product in which the Socionext's 8K encoding solution is implemented. The MB86M31, developed based on Socionext's expertise on advanced codec technology, can reduce the power consumption for real-time encoding of 4K/60p video down to 1/50

compared to the conventional method. The "VEGA-3304" achieves immense reduction both in the power --- as low as 75W --- a s well as the size of the equipment.