"This is the cheese, that lay in the house. This is the rat that ate the cheese. This is the cat that chased the mouse..." and so on and so forth, but what about Jack? Is he supposed to sit back and let all these things happen in his house? 4K "happened" to us; I would say a few years ago is when most folks started really talking about it. Are AV integrators like Jack?
The first time I actually saw 4K was in March 2013 in the form of a Sony 3D projector. It was more geared toward residential applications, 2000 ANSI lumens, and about $25,000. My eyes feasted on about 70 foot lamberts reflecting off an approximately 110" Stewart Filmscreen Firehawk playing Avatar from I believe a Sony 4K media player. Wow! It was the most beautiful display of video I had ever witnessed...
June 2014 Infocomm comes around with 4K this, 4K that, 4K everywhere I go, "with silver bells, and cockle shells, and pretty pixels all in a row!" It's not just Mary whom is quite contrary. This huge 4K marketing push is really starting to be annoying! First of all, why is the AV industry so bass ackwards that we rely on consumer marketing and "innovation" to drive commercial? It used to be the other way around! Consumers are completely confused by 3D, 4K, UHD, 2K (3840 x 2160) quad HD, etc. Then, try talking to the Big Box store's sales guys, and they can't even spell HDCP, but that's a whole 'nother blog post. Don't even get me started on how many people are "upscaling" to 4K. Really? Really?!?! YOU CAN NOT CREATE PIXELS OUT OF THIN AIR!
Let's be real here, do average commercial applications really need 4K resolution? (Conference rooms, huddle space, higher ed, training rooms) How many of your clients can even see a difference between 720p and 1080p on a 55" display? How big of a LCD/LED do you need to really tell a difference between 1080p, 1920x1200, and 4K? Sure, if you go up to the screen and stand 5" from it yea wow it is pixel dense, but what about at normal viewing distances? Who is really going to sit that close to their display in an executive boardroom that is mainly used for say video conferencing? "This is the dog that worried the cat."
Now, don't get me wrong, I can see 4K in some specialty applications. Maybe medical, maybe courtrooms, places like flight simulators for example. Of course! That is the perfect application for 4K. You got a military guy or gal sitting that close to a screen, who really needs an immersive experience, who are practicing how to fly a real life plane to go kill bad guys for our country. YES, let's give those people the highest resolution possible! A typical conference room, huddle room with a 60", 70", even 80" display that will show excel files and PowerPoints....yea umm not so much. "This is the cow that tossed the dog."
About 8 months ago I actually had a client ask me about doing 4K in their approximately 30'x20' room that was to seat about 4-6 people. The room wasn't your typical huddle room in that they were going to be looking at specific information within a propritary PC application like graphs, charts, and the like. We put in (2) 80" displays to be used in extended display mode. I told them, "You don't need 4K, and it really isn't ready for prime time." Do you think I did them a disservice in that case? Maybe it was a toss up, but were they really ready to spend about 25% more on the infrastructure, almost 50% more for the displays, who knows how much to get the video graphics card on the PC at the time, and would their software even output 4K properly?
Will 4K have, "a great fall?" "All the King's Horses and all the King's Men," are shoving it down our throats right now! I'm always looking to future proof rooms for clients, but why sell something now that they a.) Don't need, and b.) In 3 - 5 years will be less expensive that 1080! Another reason why I'm not all "Jack be Nimble" about 4K is because 8K is on the horizon. In the special cases where 4K is a fit, isn't 8K going to be even better? "This is the maiden all forlorn."
At the end of the day, 4K is kinda like folklore. Fun to look at, not always true, and sometimes doesn't make the most sense. We can not just succumb to the latest and greatest just because it is out there. Let's not put 4K every where right now. Let's educate our customers on 4K, the terminologies, the future. We are integrators. Let's integrate products and human interaction with technology our customers need. After all, "This is the house that Jack built..."
