2014 could be one of the biggest years on record when it comes to improving existing technologies and making them that much more popular. Two areas that could get a big boost is the area of WebRTC and unified communications. Google is looking to play a big part in that technology moving forward. The Internet giant has been working on something called VP9 4K, which is video format that takes up about half as much bandwidth as other programs when it comes to streaming high definition video.
The company got some good news earlier this week when television producers like Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, Panasonic and LG, among others, announced their support for the platform. Not only did some of the world’s most powerful and popular television set makers hop on board the technology, but Google also got encouragement and support from chipmakers like Nvidia, Intel and MediaTek.
The use of the VP9 video codecs has already been showed off this year, during 2014’s CES in Las Vegas. While there have been a number of different 4K televisions unveiled, CES was the first time that consumers got a look at what the Internet and 4K combined can do. LG, Panasonic and Sony all rolled out televisions that were actually streaming YouTube in 4K video formats at their individual booths.
The 4K video market is the wave of the future and the present because it offers up even more high definition programming than regular, very sharp HD televisions can provide. Pictures on these 4K televisions are rendered in 3840 x 2160 pixels. Google’s VP9 allows for device manufacturers to stream this 4K video from online services while using less buffering and less bandwidth.
Google says that the technology will be gradually rolled out over the course of 2014 and will be very prevalent in 2015. Throughout this year, computers and mobile devices will start supporting this new codec. In 2015 the company will be able to offer up specific televisions and Blu-ray players that have native support for the VP9 4K video format.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
