HDMI 2.2: Ready for the future?

• Features

• 05/08/2025

Every technological advancement causes ripples, some more than others. With HDMI 2.2 specification making its way to the scene, it is prudent to examine how the technology will shift the market.

Brad Bramy, vice president of marketing and operations, HDMI Licensing Administrator [HDMI LA], starts the conversation off by detailing what has changed: “The big advancements with HDMI 2.2 specification are the increased bandwidth, a new Ultra96 HDMI Cable and Latency Indication Protocol (better ‘lip’ sync). We’ve moved up to 96Gbps and that means you can transmit 10K, 12K, or 16K resolutions and that is really useful for commercial applications in the form of big videowalls, college campuses, stadiums, and so on. HDMI 2.2 technology opens up a lot of options for distribution and eventual consumption of content whether it is for entertainment or commercial application.”

AV is in the business of transporting signals from point A to point B. More bandwidth is always welcome. But why exactly is the jump in bandwidth offered by HDMI 2.2 important?

Content options

Bramy begins his answer within the context of content production: “When you are producing a movie, and of course movies today have to be made for both streaming and wider release and this is true for TV shows as well, the aim is to capture everything you shoot at the highest data rate. A lot of production houses are using 8K cameras and if not that then they are using 4K or greater cameras because they want to capture everything.”

Bramy continues: “They do that for two reasons. First is that they eventually have to downscale at some point in the production cycle, to 4K and lower for streaming. But if you capture as much data as possible up front the quality of the downscaled content is better. There is just more data available for the downscaling process to be refined. Second, is that capturing content in higher resolutions at the start allows them to build a library that they can use for many years. Content libraries live for generations and if you capture in high resolution now you can be ready for whatever resolution is prevalent five years down the road.”

The ability to choose when to downscale provides more agency to content producers and futureproofs their work to a certain degree. According to Bramy: “Almost everything is compressed. Content is not captured compressed, but somewhere along the production chain it is going to get compressed. And of course, you need to look at uncompressed content with a critical eye as well. You might have 8K60 uncompressed but what is the chroma subsampling? With HDMI 2.2 specification however you have the ability to do 8K60 with full chroma uncompressed. And this just gives content producers and production houses a lot of options to create and distribute content with the frame rate, refresh rate, colour bit, chroma, and compression they want.”

Next, Bramy delves into the aspects of quality when it comes to video. He says: “What kind of 4K are you talking about? Is it 4K60 or 4K120? That is pretty basic, and most installers know that there is more to the ‘flavours’ of 4K. The important questions are what is the context, what is the colour bit? There is a huge difference between 6-bit and 8-bit colour and there is a huge difference between 8-bit and 10-bit colour. And if you go beyond that, some people are doing 12-bit right now, the difference becomes greater, and the results are incredible.”

Bramy continues: “The other thing is chroma, and there is very little that is using full chroma 4:4:4. There is a huge difference between full chroma 4:4:4 and subsampling at, for example, 4:2:0. With HDMI 2.2 specification you can not only get up to the higher colour bits, but there is enough bandwidth to use full chroma or better chroma subsampling. By having more bandwidth, it enables you to capture as much data up front and distribute these better end-user experiences with the higher bandwidths.”

Bramy sums up the real impact HDMI 2.2 specification will have: “Being able to play with this mix means you can dial a lot of things specifically to how you want them. And for people that are producing the content, whether it is a game or a movie, as it goes down the production cycle you can keep the quality higher, and higher, and higher. You don’t have to use stringent downscaling or subsampling or lower bit rates. This severe downscaling can be moved down the line to the end user if need be and you can create content that is more immersive and has higher quality.”

Commercial considerations

HDMI 2.2 specification implementation is expected to be welcomed by the professional AV industry. Joe da Silva, vice president of marketing at Extron, says: “This increase [of bandwidth] facilitates greater colour bit depth at higher resolutions, resulting in richer colours and sharper images when viewed up close, or on large displays. Specifically, 96Gbps enables support for uncompressed 8K at 60Hz with 4:4:4 colour sampling at 8-bit colour depth. This capability requires 64.15Gbps, which is more than HDMI 2.1 can manage. Bumping 8K60 4:4:4 up to 10-bit HDR raises the data rate to 80.19 Gbps, and HDMI 2.2 can still support it. In addition, the HDMI 2.2 maximum data rate supports environments that require uncompressed 10K60 4:4:4 at 8-bit colour depth.”

He continues: “The HDMI 2.2 [specification] increased data rate is not just about 8K or 10K support, it also enables higher frame rates for 1080p and 4K signals, improving visual quality and providing a better experience. This is ideal for esports and its fast action gaming sequences. Virtual reality and high frame-rate cinema applications can also benefit. HDMI 2.2 also enhances the audio experienced by delivering improved synchronisation between audio and video source signals.”

According to da Silva, the coming of HDMI 2.2 will open new levels of quality across commercial AV applications. He says: “The advancements of HDMI 2.2 drive display technology, making larger displays more impactful and enabling higher refresh rates such as 4K at up to 480Hz, 8K at up to 240Hz, and 10K at 120 Hz. This can play a significant role in esports competition and training, providing smoother game play in a more immersive experience for the players and the audience. The higher resolution and colour bit depth ensure even greater details for large digital signage and displays, as well as massive videowalls and displays for stadiums, shopping complexes, and similar venues.”

Mavis Leung from Crestron says: “HDMI 2.2 is exciting because it comes with greater bandwidth which will result in higher quality. And while applications for new technology take time to develop, we are seeing the rise of AI and VR and you can surmise that this higher bandwidth and higher quality transmission of data might be needed sooner rather than later.”

She continues: “And there are current day applications that require the higher bandwidth that HDMI 2.2 brings to the table. Medical applications, such as streaming surgeries, require high picture quality and these are crucial applications that are necessary for teaching, learning, and remote assistance. With entertainment, particularly esports, refresh rates of 144Hz are required for displays, and this has become pretty much industry standard. HDMI 2.2 allows high resolution data to be transmitted and higher refresh rates so supporting esports applications is going to become streamlined.”

Leung adds: “So, when you look at the future, you have gaming, entertainment, AI is emerging, more content, and all of these will drive the requirements for higher resolution. With that in mind HDMI 2.2 is coming along at just the right time to handle all these applications.”

However, not everything is rosy when it comes to all possible applications of HDMI 2.2. Leung elaborates: “In the commercial AV market, more specifically in the corporate sector, there is a greater demand for technology. Specifically, UC&C solutions are being deployed to create meeting spaces of all kinds. And when it comes UC&C there isn’t a very high demand for higher resolutions. Microsoft Teams Rooms are the norm, and a UC codec is present in all these spaces. But the jump to 4K for these spaces is not happening.”

There might also be opportunities and challenges with cable lengths. Bramy says: “When HDMI technologies and features get deployed in commercial spaces, you’ve got matrix switchers and you’ve got amplifiers to get the signal across long distances and it has the potential to get challenging to deliver the uncompressed high bandwidth signalling. But manufacturers have a range of products to address that. With HDMI 2.2 specification there is a new cable, the Ultra96 HDMI Cable, and people are working on prototype cables; right now the cable length might be 2m to 3m for passive wired products, but it is up to the manufacturers to see how long their compliant cables can go. That is not even long enough sometimes for a TV on a wall in a home, but the spec also supports active wired and active optical HDMI cables so there will be plenty of longer length options although those will mean a price jump. So, there might be an opportunity for the market to solve a challenge around cable length, and that might just be around the corner.”

The AV industry however is familiar with the issues of short cable runs. Da Silva from Extron says: “Professional AV installations generally require distances between video sources and displays that are greater than specification cables can span. This has been the case since the earliest versions of the HDMI standard. Technologies such as HDBaseT, video over IP, AV over IP, and fibre optics have developed in step with HDMI advances to provide a variety of signal extension solutions for the pro AV industry. This situation will continue with HDMI 2.2.”

Residential battle

Over in the residential market, HDMI 2.2 specification will have a different impact. Bramy says: “When you are looking at the end user, especially the one at home, we are now looking at 100-in TVs being a real end point. Combine that with the fact that more people are buying 65-in and 75-in displays which is amazing. The price of larger display panels is coming down and this means there is an added focus on quality. Ideally, everyone would be able to have at least 10-bit colour and not a lot of compression, or at least be able to choose between the levels of compression. And we believe that will be the real impact of HDMI 2.2 product capabilities, it will give people a lot more choices.”

The dovetailing of increasing display sizes and the corresponding increase in quality offered by HDMI 2.2 technology is obvious. The timing is apt as HDMI 2.2 specification is competing for market share in residential applications.

Bramy however states: “As Wi-Fi increases its capabilities, wired interfaces have to increase theirs and I believe that wireless will continue to play catchup. The current spec supports 48Gbps and now 96Gbps with the new HDMI 2.2 specification What comes next? Is it going to double? How does Wi- Fi keep up? And then there are the limitations to Wi-Fi where it is just not as stable and, in residential applications, it is hard to get decent coverage let alone for commercial applications such as a college campus where every lecture hall and classroom needs a stable connection.”

Ready, set, go?

Crestron and Extron are both members of the HDMI Forum. However, neither at this stage was willing to divulge information for their HDMI 2.2-enabled products. Leung states: “It is still early days in the journey of HDMI 2.2 and I think we have to wait for the display endpoints to start appearing on the market. For Crestron, our investigation and R&D is already under way since the news of HDMI 2.2 and our involvement with the HDMI Forum. But at this point in time, we do not have any concrete roadmap to share regarding when HDMI 2.2 products would become available.”

In the meantime, work continues. Bramy says: “The Forum is constantly improving HDMI technology, features and capabilities so the technology stays ahead of the curve and it stays relevant. It is becoming harder. HDMI 2.1 specification had groundbreaking features. It added support for dynamic HDR and advanced gaming features such as Variable Refresh Rate, Auto Low Latency Mode and Quick Frame Transport as well as the first new HDMI Cable in many years, and introduced better audio with Enhanced Audio Return Channel. With HDMI 2.2 specification, the HDMI Forum is making more advances with better lip sync and greater bandwidth and another new HDMI Cable – the Ultra96 HDMI Cable. So, the wired connection remains important and relevant and will continue to do so.”

Bramy concludes: “The HDMI 2.2 specification is going to be made available at the end of Q2. And then comes the compliance test spec and that means that people are not going to be certifying HDMI 2.2 products until Q3 maybe. But that really is the timeline for manufacturers and business because everyone must be future-ready.”