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8K video is seen by many as being the future of video. While this may seem overzealous, given the fact that 4K has been adopted by such a small number of households, 8K is giving many potential users cause for excitement at its possible uses.

The case for 8K video streaming has been strengthened in recent years thanks to the huge advancements in content delivery network and online video streaming technologies from companies such as Akamai, Limelight and CDN77. Their technologies allow large data files, such as HD and 4K video, to be delivered across the internet quickly and efficiently.

As such, Alibaba Cloud has become the first company to live stream 8K video over the internet. While 8K video has been streamed before this, it was via satellite. Alibaba’s achievement is the first to be streamed via the web.

8K video is broadly defined as footage that contains 33 million pixels per frame and has a resolution of 7,680 by 4,320 pixels. That’s double the pixels in 4K, which is the best-quality video currently in wide use, and about 16 times that of a typical high-definition 1080p video. This makes Alibaba Cloud’s achievement no mean feat, and proves that the ability to stream rich, 8K video into the living room is closer than may have previously been thought.

8K Video Benefits

“Alibaba Cloud’s 8K Internet live streaming heralds a new era for high-resolution video cloud solutions, just as 4K resolution did in 2013,” Zhaoyuan Zhu, head of Alibaba Cloud’s Content Delivery Network business, said.

There are a huge numbers of potential uses for 8K video – some of which could even be life saving. They range from gaming and entertainment to medicine. Doctors in Japan are already using 8K instruments in some surgeries, while 8K livestreaming is expected to enable doctors to conduct surgeries remotely.

“We will continue to develop our services to support these different applications,” Zhu said.