Meerkats to go Ultra HD in BBC's first 4K broadcast

The BBC's next big wildlife series will see meerkats comin' atcha in Ultra HD.

Regardless of the fact that approximately eight license fee payers will have a 4K TV by the time Survival airs and that meerkats will be well out of vogue, the BBC has long had its eye on 4K.

It began trialling UHD filming way back in 2008, when the massive £25,000 Ultra HD TV sets that flooded CES 2013 were but a twinkle in Sony, Samsung, LG, Philips and Toshiba's eyes.

The Beeb even filmed certain bits of the London 2012 Olympics in 8K, which bodes well for the next next generation of HD television viewing.

No comparison

Survivor will be the UK's first wildlife series to be filmed in the pixel-tastic format, with the BBC's Natural History Unit (NHU) handling the logistics.

Mike Gunton, creative director of the NHU, explained: "There's a new reality which those images give. I think it makes the images more engaging. You feel you can almost touch them and get into the heads of the animals."

It's not all plain sailing though - the size of the Ultra HD files has slowed down post-production due to their bulk. As such, there's no scheduled release date for the programme just yet.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government claims it will be all set to broadcast the World Cup final in UHD TV in July 2014, bringing the world's first 4K TV showing to the super-rich two years ahead of schedule.

From Independent and Telegraph