HiSilicon Forges Ahead with Ultra-HD

[Guangzhou, China, November 3, 2020]At the 2020 World Conference on Ultra HD Video Industry in Guangzhou, Veni Shone, President of HiSilicon (Shanghai) Technologies Co., Ltd., delivered a keynote speech entitled "A New Starting Point for Ultra-HD". Veni Shone explained that ultra-HD represents a huge leap forward when it comes to accurately recording history and learning from previous generations. He described the technology as a model for integrating AI within infrastructures, and a new starting point for the merging of the real and virtual worlds.

Veni Shone, President of HiSilicon (Shanghai)

UHD Recording and Display with Ultra-High-Speed Connectivity

Looking back over history, certain events tend to become shrouded in mystery, their existences limited to ambiguous history books and myths which are hard to authenticate. For example, did the Trojan War really happen? How did the Loulan Kingdom disappear? To record history, human beings have relied on a wide range of methods, including oral speech, images, text, sound recording, and video. Among these, video is the most intuitive and easy-to-understand, and has proliferated in recent decades. Ultra-HD video is particularly effective, as it provides breathtaking visuals.
Ultra-HD video provides the most accurate and information-intensive way of recording video. It expands the visual angle by 16 times in macro scenes or increases the resolution by 16 times in micro scenes. With its AI assistance, it is even better than human eyes at processing complex scenes.

Ultra-HD can bring lifelike experiences to audiences. However, video resolution is some way off the level required to achieve these experiences. The industry needs to overcome shortcomings that exist in vision, audio, encoding and decoding efficiency, interfaces, and transmission technologies.

First, the video experience needs to be upgraded. A combination of ultra-HD and dynamic HDR technologies better retains visible brightness and contrast and produces more vivid images.
Second, the audio experience needs to be upgraded. Next-generation 3D audio works better with ultra-HD images and 3D AR/VR. New technologies such as multi-user sound zones, head tracking, and 3D rendering can be used in scenarios such as homes and automobiles. Third, from the end-to-end perspective, ultra-HD content needs to be stored and transmitted efficiently via smart encoding and decoding technologies. Innovations, including smart encoding based on object identification and deep learning technologies introduced by AVS3, have reduced the bit rate by about 50%. Fourth, ultra-HD smart devices need unified ultra-HD interfaces. They must be able to match various devices of different sizes, support the simultaneous transmission of signals such as full-specification ultra-HD video, HDR, 3D audio, and power supply, and feature security functions such as copyright protection.

Finally, when it comes to transmission technologies, ultra-high-speed connectivity is key to transmitting ultra-HD content to various smart devices. High-speed and low-latency solutions are ideal for WAN scenarios, and there have been many examples of where ultra-HD has been applied successfully. However, over short distances, the existing indicators such as rate, latency, quality of service (QoS), and reliability are not sufficient. Industry organizations need to use communications technologies to build the next generation of short-range transmission technology, which will apply to smart cars, smart homes, smart devices, and smart manufacturing.

8K+AI: A Model for Infrastructure

Ultra-HD not only enhances home entertainment, but when combined with AI, it can drive innovation within smart infrastructure. In 2021, the CCTV Spring Festival Gala will deliver the first 8K live broadcast. The gala plans to utilize large outdoor screens in cities including Shanghai and Shenzhen. HiSilicon smart media chipsets will be used to support the latest ultra-HD technologies such as AVS3 and HDR.
HiSilicon works with many solution providers within the smart city security field. It uses 8K+AI technology to better analyze and schedule traffic for entire cities. In the future, with the help of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), urban traffic efficiency is expected to rise by at least 10% while accidents are to be reduced by over 20%.
8K+AI is also applied to smart factories. Changhong works with HiSilicon to inspect product quality using 8K machine vision. This greatly improves the precision and efficiency of its inspections and reduces manual workload.

UHD: Converging the Virtual and Real

While ultra-HD is key to perceiving the physical world, it also builds a digital and virtual world using 2D and 3D technologies. When combined with AI, ultra-HD can quickly enable the next generation of display and interaction technologies represented by AR/VR. In the future, the physical world will merge with the digital world. One example of this is the Rokid Vision AR product co-developed by HiSilicon and Rokid. It has been used during live streaming of AR gaming.

Live streaming of AR gaming at the Oriental Pearl tower

Exploration Has No Limits

At the end of his speech, Veni Shone showed his appreciation of the semiconductor industry insiders, "In the past few years, we have caught up with the world leaders in the field of 4K, and become world leaders in the field of 8K. In the future, higher-resolution AR/VR and holographic light field technologies will have greater requirements for coding, transmission, and intelligent collaboration. Our exploration and innovation will not falter."