8K UHD Video Services Boost Gigabit Growth

With the advancement to implement the national strategy of building a cyber power and a digital leader,

China has constructed the world's largest information and communication network. Its expansion of fiber broadband and construction of gigabit cities have established the capacity to reach over 500 million households. With the booming gigabit broadband, the fiber-to-the-room (FTTR) solution proposed in the industry is effectively addressing the connectivity bottleneck within households. The advent of 8K technology has also opened up new changes and possibilities for the development of ultra HD (UHD) video services. Leveraging its abundant resources, ZTE has capitalized on its own strengths to facilitate the mutual promotion of gigabit networks and services, thereby assisting operators in their gigabit operations.

Gigabit UHD Video Service: Building a Solid Pipeline Foundation for Operators

The concept of "Gigabit" for operators goes beyond the capabilities like 5G, Gigabit broadband, and Wi-Fi 6. It also encompasses the drive to promote content towards UHD and embrace new video services such as multi-viewpoint video (MVV), free-viewpoint video (FVV), and virtual reality (VR). With the development of the Internet over the years, video is the fastest growing and bandwidth-consuming service. As China continues the widespread deployment of "Three-Gigabit" commercial services, UHD video has emerged as a leading application and is rapidly implemented. This marks a golden era for UHD video business, positioning China as the largest UHD market and paving the way for ongoing evolution towards 8K and higher resolutions.

On the one hand, UHD video service offers a rich and diverse landscape. 8K UHD video has been widely applied in live sports broadcasting, artistic performances, and cultural tourism live streaming. Users can experience the finest detail of live events on the large screen, with more realistic visuals, stunning effects, immersive scenes, and impressive performances. 8K UHD films and TV shows deliver an immersive viewing experience, allowing viewers to enjoy videos in amazing new ways. Leveraging its ultra-high resolution and lifelike imagery, 8K UHD video is poised to empower more industries such as industrial manufacturing and telemedicine.

On the other hand, VR has become an important form of UHD video and a significant addition to the era of "Three-Gigabit" connectivity. VR offers its greatest value through immersive viewing experience. With the continuous advancements in technology, VR has matured considerably. VR headsets now offer separate decoding, and VR display terminals have become lightweight. The performance of terminal chips has improved significantly, greatly reducing dizziness in VR viewing. Leveraging the 8K field of view (FOV) technology, even with just 4K decoding capabilities, it is possible to play 8K VR videos, resulting in enhanced clarity of VR content. VR can simulate 360-degree surround sound effects. The 2D-to-3D conversion technology enables the transformation of a vast amount of 2D content into VR, thereby enriching the availability of VR content sources.

The advancements in 8K and AI technology drive the development of more immersive and interactive UHD video services. Innovations like AI-enabled image enhancement, MVV, AI virtual trials, FVV, and bullet time viewing are gradually gaining industry recognition and undergoing trial promotions. ZTE, as a leading provider of multimedia video solutions, has launched end-to-end UHD multi-dimensional video products and 4K/8K UHD terminal devices (Fig. 1). These products integrate new technologies such as UHD, strong interactivity, and AI enhancement, and have been commercially deployed in sectors including education, healthcare, sports, tourism, and home entertainment.

Combination of FTTR and 8K: Unleashing the Potential of Operator's Pipelines

One of the key strengths of operators is their strong network pipeline connectivity, particularly their control over the home network portal. With this network portal, operators can offer true gigabit experience and leverage smart networking technologies to create a competitive edge. As a leader in FTTR solutions, ZTE has played a pivotal role in the development of FTTR standards, product definition, commercial models, and interconnectivity. It has developed comprehensive whole-home networking solutions and product systems for both residential and enterprise scenarios. These solutions have been widely deployed in 15 provinces in China, including Guangdong, Shandong and Henan. ZTE continues to empower operators in upgrading Wi-Fi quality, overcoming the final bottleneck of gigabit connectivity, and delivering a seamless user experience.

Furthermore, operators leverage their powerful network pipeline advantage, enabling them to boast a user base reaching hundreds of millions. With the vast user scale in mind, operators built on the foundation of new gigabit broadband need to explore inventive gigabit value-added services to increase ARPU and enhance user stickiness. By complementing the "smart networking connectivity" capability with UHD video services, operators can tap into diverse needs of users in the video sector. This will in turn drive network optimization and improve connectivity to better support video services, thereby achieving a collaborative development of gigabit networks and services.