"With the promotion and application of 5G commercial and ultra-high-definition display technology, China's ultra-high-definition terminal industry is expected to start a golden period of industrial development in 2021." TCL founder and chairman Li Dongsheng at the 2021 World Ultra HD Video held on May 9 Said in the opening speech of the Industry Development Conference.

Li Dongsheng believes that this year, China's ultra-high-definition industry is ushering in three major opportunities.

Three major opportunities in the ultra-high-definition video industry

• The first opportunity is that users' demand for ultra-high-definition video continues to rise, and the market space is huge. 

Driven by market demand, the TV industry is gradually entering the ultra-high-definition 4K/8K era. Ultra-high-definition video has become the general trend of consumption upgrades under the current "home economy" and is favored by consumers.
The domestic market penetration rate of 4K TV has exceeded 70%, and 8K TV has become a standard product for TV manufacturers. Global sales of 8K TVs will reach 200,000 units in 2020. With the holding of major events such as the Tokyo Olympics, 8K TV sales may reach 1 million in 2021. In the future, the penetration rate of China's 8K TV market is expected to increase from less than 0.5% at present to 7% in 2025.

• The second opportunity is driven by China's strong ultra-high-definition industry foundation and superimposed policies, which has pushed the industry into a golden development period.

According to agency forecasts, the market size of China's ultra-high-definition video industry will exceed RMB 3 trillion in 2022. Li Dongsheng said that taking ultra-high-definition display panels as an example, new display devices are important to support and foundation for the ultra-high-definition video industry. China's LCD panel production capacity has expanded rapidly in the past two years. In 2020, China's panel makers' TV panel shipments will account for about 55% of the global market share, and this proportion will continue to increase.

• The third opportunity is the increasingly mature industry chain ecology.

Li Dongsheng believes that with the commercialization of 5G, it is foreseeable that in the next 3 to 5 years, China’s ultra-high-definition industry will move from the production of high-definition panels, shooting machines, video production, and other upstream equipment to the construction of transmission systems such as set-top boxes,  PCB industry， optical fibers, and 5G base stations. Going to downstream content creation, the entire industry chain will accelerate the formation of a mature ecology. Among them, high-definition display panels are the most mature terminal link in the ultra-high-definition industry chain. Chinese companies have completed the transformation from followers to leaders and strive to become leaders.

The Dilemma of the Development of Ultra HD Video Industry

However, Li Dongsheng also said that the development of China's ultra-high-definition video industry is also facing shortcomings such as the lack of research on 5G+8K application scenarios, the incomplete industry-standard system, and the immature commercial profit model.

Among them, it is worth noting that the product research and development of core devices and key equipment for ultra-high-definition video needs to be strengthened.

Li Dongsheng introduced that many key equipment and components in the ultra-high-definition video industry chain have insufficient independent supply capabilities and lack core technology research and development capabilities. Take the display panel as an example. The front-end array process equipment of LCD is all imported, OLED is imported except for individual module equipment, and the key materials of OLED are imported. The large but not strong display panel industry needs to be broken as soon as possible.

To this end, he suggested using the new generation of display technology, 5G technology, and artificial intelligence technology as the starting point to develop and apply naked-eye 3D, light field display, and holographic technology with a resolution of 8K and above, and integrate it with flexible display technology Combine. In this area, Chinese companies are most likely to be the first to achieve breakthroughs and lead the world.

Li Dongsheng said that the "14th Five-Year Plan" period will be a golden period for the development of China's ultra-high-definition industry. Guangdong is a pioneer in the development of the ultra-high-definition video industry. It has gathered several highly competitive and influential ultra-high-definition industries, forming a good industry development ecology. Guangdong should seize the period of strategic opportunity to open up a new situation for the high-quality development of the ultra-high-definition video industry.

TCL Li Dongsheng: 2021 is expected to start the "golden age" of the ultra-high-definition video industry. "With the promotion and application of 5G commercial and ultra-high-definition display technology, China's ultra-high-definition terminal industry is expected to start a golden period of industrial development in 2021.