Review ICE TOTALLY GAMING 2014
4K is the current buzzword in the technology sector, but with the help of Quixant the casino industry is set to beat the consumer market to the punch
A great deal of noise has been generated around the launch of the latest consumer televisions boasting 4K technology, the generic term for dis- play devices with a horizontal resolution of 4,000 pixels, roughly four times the pixel count of the current generation of HD (1080p) panels. However, due to a lack of available content, the consumer market for 4K is unlikely to achieve mass appeal for several years to come. The shift for the casino sector, which creates and has absolute control of its content could and, mostly likely by the summer, will be a different story…
While the recent ICE show in London failed to exhibit any gaming content displayed via 4K, the infrastructure was in evidence. Component and gaming platform provider, Quxiant, showed the first completely integrated gaming platform to offer the performance to drive 4K monitors, the QX-50 Ultra HD. ""Everyone is aware of the vibe currently surrounding 4K displays in the con- sumer market. What Quixant is doing is enabling slot manufacturers to harness this new technol- ogy in their machines right now," explained Gary Mullins, Group Sales Director, Quixant.
"4K displays provide exceptional quality benefits to gaming, where users are much closer to the screen than in other applications and the increased clarity is much more apparent. All the major slot manufacturers are currently looked at bringing 4K to the casino sector," Mr. Mullins continued. "They all want the unique features that will bring their products to the forefront of player consciousness and 4K, being the latest buzzword in the consumer sector, is an ideal technology to achieve their goals."
Lack of content within the consumer sector could mean that the first interactions the public experience with 4K are likely to take place with- in casinos. While the QX-50 Ultra HD utilises the same underlying APU and GPU technology that has taken the consumer gaming console world by storm in the form of the Playstation 4 and Xbox One, the broadcast of 4K programmes is going to take several years to come to fruition. And while sitting on a sofa looking at 4K across a lounge space will bring benefits for huge televi- sion screens, the real advantage for casino play- ers will be the difference that they see while sit- ting so close to their screen. "The casino slot player is ultimately sitting just inches from the screen and will, therefore, see a significant increase in the quality and user experience from
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Quixant’s John Malin and Jon Jayal usher in the next generation of gaming technology
NEW YEAR’S HIGH RESOLUTIONS 4K," explained Quixant's Nick Jarmany.
"4K in the consumer sector is at the very high- end of the first adopters' budget, while for the casino OEMs we're already seeing affordable displays which, used in a portrait configuration, could easily replace the equivalent of two land- scape displays and will be ideal for large jack- pot screens across slot banks" continued Mr. Jarmany. "What's very important is to make sure that you have the platform that's able to drive that kind of resolution. Our role is to pro- vide OEMs with a finished gaming product that can deliver 4K across all forms of gaming."
THE RACE IS ON The certainty is that casinos will offer 4K envi-
ronments before this technology has the chance to establish itself in the consumer market, something that will be highly appealing to a younger tech-hungry player demographic. It's also a certainty that slot developers are in a race to be the first to introduce this technology to the slots market.
“Manufacturers looking to develop both the hardware to support 4K and at the same time design their own game content, will undoubted- ly struggle to be the first into the market with a product,” said Mr. Mullins. “However, develop- ers looking to utilise the QX-50 Ultra HD and concentrate their resources purely on game content will be the ones showing 4K games at G2E Las Vegas.”
Quixant’s John Malin is quick to highlight a potential problem for early consumer adopters and one of great relevance to gaming developers seeking to expand into 4K. “If you’re looking to purchase a 4K TV for your home or office, be
aware that HDMI 1.4 won't be able to carry the bandwidth to realise your TVs full potential,” said Mr. Malin. “Since 4K Ultra HD is four times the resolution of 1080p, the current HD stan- dard, it means there’s a need for more through- put to handle extra data going back and forth. Lot’s more.
“HDMI 1.4 can support 4K resolutions, but only at 24 or 30 frames per second. That works fine for movies, but is of no use for gaming and many TV broadcasts, which require 50 or 60 fps. Also HDMI 1.4 limits 4K Ultra HD content to 8-bit colour. The new HDMI 2.0 standard fixes all of that because it can handle up to 18 gigabits per second. That’s plenty enough to allow for 12-bit colour and video up to 60 frames per sec- ond. However, if you want 4K now, Quixant has extended our existing DisplayPort monitor range to include a selection of 4K Ultra HD monitors which are designed specifically for gaming."”
DisplayPort is currently the only solution to display 4K at 60hz. Available in several sizes from 39ins., the new 4K Ultra HD monitors can be supplied with a multipoint touchscreen, which also boasts the unique Dockport feature to combine display signals and touch signals into a single cable, simplifying cabinet wiring.
“Quixant is now able to provide a complete 4K Ultra HD logic box and monitor solution to gaming OEMs at a price point that makes sense. We believe this offers customers early access to increased performance, enhanced features and the next generation of display technology, which will bring significant benefits to Quixant customers in the coming months and years,” concluded Mr. Mullins.
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