4k – Steve Blum's Blog

Fixed, mobile North American broadband speeds will more than double by 2023, Cisco study says

20 March 2020 by Steve Blum
4k, 5G, broadband, cisco, mobile broadband

More and more people around the world will have access to faster and faster broadband connections, with speeds for fixed and mobile service doubling and tripling by 2023, due in large part to increased global deployment of fiber to the premise and 5G technology, according to a white paper recently published by Cisco. Although North America will continue to beat world broadband speed averages, the U.S. will not be among the leaders in advanced infrastructure deployment.… More

4K is the video, and consequently broadband, standard in 2020

11 March 2020 by Steve Blum
4k, 8k, broadband, ces2020, cta

Fears that Internet routers and switches will melt under an onslaught of 8K-enabled cord cutters can be put aside for a few years, according to projections released by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). But the number of U.S. households with 4K screens will continue to grow rapidly, and that will be problematic enough for broadband service providers: 25 Mbps download speeds will be the minimum needed to serve the typical U.S. home.

8K is a big screen technology.… More

5G is about video and gaming, says Qualcomm exec at LG press event

7 January 2019 by Steve Blum
4k, 5G, CES2019, lg, qualcomm

The big benefits of 5G technology and networks will be old benefits, just more of them. 5G will be sold to consumers as a way to watch high bandwidth video and play fast twitch games. Judging from LG’s opening press conference at CES in Las Vegas this morning, 5G service is all about 8K video streaming, instant 4K video downloads and low latency multiplayer gaming.

This limited focus might be industry-wide. The 5G announcements were made by a Qualcomm executive, Jim Tran, vice president of product management.… More

Booming prime time video peaks will slam broadband networks over the next five years

28 November 2018 by Steve Blum
4k, at&t, broadband, cisco, frontiercommunications

Three-quarters of all Internet traffic is video and that share will grow to 82% over the next five years, according to the latest update to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index, which is an ongoing broadband tracking study published by the company. Cisco also projects that global Internet traffic will more than triple over that time.

In other words, video is why there’s rapidly rising demand for faster broadband service speeds, and greater capacity. Not just because there’s more of it, but also because people don’t watch it consistently over the course of the day: the ballooning volume of video traffic is crammed into prime viewing hours.… More

15 Mbps is the holy grail for 4K video

20 March 2018 by Steve Blum
4k, broadband, monopoly

Different online video companies put it differently, but the net result is the same: if you want to watch 4K streaming video – aka ultra high definition – you need a broadband connection that reliably delivers 15 Mbps and has enough head room to support whatever other Internet traffic is passing in and out of your house.

A story by Rob Pegoraro in USA Today provides a run down of the 4K bandwidth recommendations from the two big dogs in the over-the-top video game…

Amazon says “you need an Internet connection of at least 15 Mbps to watch videos in UHD”.

… More

4K TV will be in half of U.S. homes by end of 2019

22 February 2018 by Steve Blum
4k, broadband, CES2019, cta

The consumer adoption rate of 4K television sets blew past last year’s expectations, climbing to 25% of U.S. households by January 2018, according to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). My rough estimate that ultra-high definition 4K sets would be in 20% of U.S. homes by the end of 2017 was low. The adoption rate grew even faster, amidst falling prices, increased content availability and 4K’s status as the default standard for large screen TVs (50 inches and larger).… More

Video product demand shifts away from TVs in U.S. homes

4 November 2017 by Steve Blum
4k, consumer electronics

U.S. consumers are buying bigger TVs with better picture quality – 4K ultra high definition sets selling fast and could be in 20% of homes by 2019 – but their love affair with the small screen could be on the wane as they increasingly turn to even tinier displays. That’s the conclusion of a periodic survey by the federal energy department.

The study was conducted by the Energy Information Administration (EIE), an agency that, among other things, analyses adoption of consumer electronics products in order to track and forecast household energy use.… More

Broadband capacity crunch looms as 4K adoption accelerates

2 March 2017 by Steve Blum
4k, broadband, CES2019

Broadband hits the video wall.

On current trends, at least 25 million U.S. consumers will be watching ultra high definition video programming via 4K television sets within two years. That’s a very rough estimate, but if it’s off, it’s probably low. But let’s run with it for the moment.

It means that at least 20% of U.S. homes will be looking for 4K-quality video programming. Satellite is a natural source for it and cable companies will try to push some through as well.… More

4K TV sales growing, with 20% U.S. market share in sight

19 February 2017 by Steve Blum
4k, broadband, CES2019, cta

About three-quarters of all large screen televisions – those more than 50 inches – that were sold last year in the U.S. (and worldwide) were 4K, ultra-high definition (UHD) sets, according to Paul Gagnon, the director of tv sets research for IHS Markit. By 2018, all but 100% of big screens sold will be 4K-capable. In raw numbers, the Consumer Technology Association – the trade association for the U.S. consumer electronics industry – estimates that more than 80 million 4K sets will be sold worldwide this year, and next year the total will be in the 100 million unit range.… More