Some good news for you early adopters with 4K TVs and Dolby Atmos sound rigs. NBC plans to record and provide the 2016 Rio Olympics in 4K. Richard Lawler writing for Engadget:

 NBC will provide a downconverted version of the 8K feed Olympic Broadcasting Services and Japan’s NHK are experimenting with, to 4K, and present it in HDR with Dolby Atmos surround sound audio. 

With the sheer number of sports at the Olympics not everything is getting the 4K treatment, but events that will be offered include:

• Opening and Closing Ceremonies
• Swimming
• Track and field
• Vasketball
• Men’s soccer final
• Judo

As always, there is a bit of catch in that the feed will be offered in a 24 hour delay. Those who remember the transition from SD to HD will find this all too familiar as the same thing happened then until HD became the norm. So how can you get the 4K feed? This is where things get tricky:

 We haven’t received official confirmations yet, but with DirecTV broadcasting live 4K channels and Dish pushing Ultra HD to its latest TV boxes those seem like good candidates right off the bat. Multichannel News points out that Comcast has said it will begin distributing an HDR-ready Xi5 box by July, and has plans for a 4K-ready Xi6 set-top. 

There is always a lot of business that goes into these decisions but it sucks that I, as a Time Warner customer who has a 115 Mbps download speed (upgradable to 300 Mbps) cannot get access to the Olympics in 4K through some streaming method. However, if you own a Sony 4K TV (which are actually cheaper than you think), no matter what generation and have one of the providers mentioned above, I’d start looking into the setup boxes required as you’ll be in for a treat if you’re able to watch the Olympics in 4K.

Having been treated to viewing the Olympics and the World Cup in 4K at various Sony events, I can assure you that it’s nothing short of spectacular.

Discuss:

Are you going to try to tune into the Rio Olympics in 4K?