While 4K Ultra High Definition TV has yet to make it into the living room, the industry is moving forward with new cameras, evolving standards and early television production. Sony Pictures Television, for example, is producing select pilots with digital cinema cameras, while 3Net is forging ahead with its Total D strategy that includes producing versions of programs in both 2D and 3D at multiple resolutions. Initial tests for broadcasting sports in 4K are just around the corner.

“Netflix’s ‘House of Cards,’ CBS’ ‘Criminal Minds’ and FX’s ‘Justified’ are among the growing list of shows shot with the RED Epic,” reports Variety.

ASC technology committee chair Curtis Clark suggests the digital cinema cameras offer superior results. “It also has an advantage when you’re down-converting that to HD,” says Clark. “You’re super-sampling or oversampling an image and getting the advantage of that. In a sense it’s like when you scan motion-picture film and show it in HD.”

“Such 4K cameras as the Sony F65 and F55 and the RED Epic weren’t made for broadcasting, but high-resolution cameras have quickly found a home in TV sports,” explains the article. “Shooting with a 4K camera gives lots of extra pixels to zoom in for replays and still get a full HDTV image, not a fuzzy, pixilated picture.”

“Not only can we use the F65s that way, we’ve been using Phantom cameras and other extreme high-speed cameras to do slow motion for sports broadcasting, and it gives us some very effective new looks at an old product,” adds David Stump, chair of the ASC camera subcommittee.

In a related article from The Hollywood Reporter, Sony is exploring 4K production for broadcast coverage of soccer and tennis: “With 4K a big topic as the NAB Show opens, don’t be surprised if Sony and FIFA announce that the 2014 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil will be shot and broadcast, at least in part, in the higher-than-HD-resolution format.”

Sony is expected to test the technology in June at the FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil and for five days of the Wimbledon tennis championships, for which it will also broadcast 3D.

“The two technologies are mutually compatible, and some say Ultra HD’s higher resolution could improve the 3D experience, particularly on emerging glasses-free screens,” notes THR.

Sony’s F65 CineAlta camera has already been used to test live sports coverage by Fox Sports, ESPN, Sky Deutschland, SIS LIVE and BSkyB.