And we didn’t even break a sweat doing it! Apple announced the availability of the 27” iMac with Retina 5K Display on October 16, 2014. Many of the bloggers wondered if there would be applications for 5K screen resolution beyond having room for tool-bars while editing 4K videos. We, at Vidyo, saw an opportunity to innovate and had one of these devices in our possession about 10 days after launch. Within hours, we experienced the world’s first 5K videoconference.
So what’s the big deal? Why would anyone need 5K videoconferencing?
For starters, it’s an amazing experience for anyone who participates in group collaborations – think Apple Retina display vs. an older screen. You can have up to 16 720p participants rendered in 1:1 pixel mapping on the screen at the same time. That’s 6x (611%) more pixels in your desktop conferencing than an expensive telepresence system.