It became very clear after two days of discussions with Sony’s leading talent that 4K and more is coming very quickly. Sony’s theme at NAB 2011 will be life beyond HD. More than 5,000 screens of 30,000 in the USA are now using Sony 4K digital projectors. At Sony’s Atsugi Tech Center, we saw the new SR Memory Cards, capable of handling 4K and sustained data rates of 5 Gbps. We learned about the new CineAlta >4K digital camera. Sources who must not be named say that Avid will be showing practical 4K editing. We saw how this next leap beyond 2K will be used in medical, industrial, graphic and educational fields. Virtual museums. Product simulations. We’ll see consumer 4K displays at reasonable prices within 3 years. Within 6 years, we’ll have 8K displays. The heat is on.

If you had plans to renovate your home theater media room, don’t even think about building in the display. Display technology is accelerating. You’re going to want something I saw in Tokyo–entire rooms whose walls were complete digital displays.