Q+A: HD or 4K?
Q:
4K screens are the only choice! Netflix sends 4K into living rooms! Who would ever use HD again?
A:
Sure, expectations have changed. But Netflix optimizes for a couch inches from a screen. In exhibitions, screens are often larger and farther away. If your visitors can’t perceive the higher resolution of 4K, you're wasting money.
Q:
4K is future-proofing! HD means obsolescence!
A:
Sometimes “future-proofing” is really “over-engineering.” If you aren’t close enough to see higher resolution, it doesn’t matter. Now or in the future.
Q:
Ridiculous! 4K is a must! We’re competing with phones!
A:
Absolutely, image quality matters. But well-calibrated HD on the right screen at the right distance away can still look stunning.
Q:
You’re just being cheap! Museums need to compete! Go big or go home!
A:
Yes, but let’s not compete blindly in some pixel arms race. 4K is a must for things like close-up immersive interactives, and huge detailed content that visitors are near. For other purposes, it’s not a must at all.
Here’s the thing:
4K is sometimes necessary, but not always.
When it’s not, HD is more than enough, and the cost savings can be put back to work for you.
Warmly,
Jonathan
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MtM Word of the Day:
4K. A digital resolution 3,840 pixels wide x 2,160 pixels high. Can refer to equipment such as a monitor, or content such as a video. 3,840 is nearly 4,000, hence “4K”. HD, “High Definition,” is half that: 1920 x 1,080.
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SOLD OUT: Grammy Museum Rooftop Reception
At the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) 2025 annual conference this week in Los Angeles, the SEGD Professional Practice Group (PPG) for Museum Exhibition Professionals is hosting a reception on Wednesday night at the Grammy Museum rooftop. (After the TREX event.) It’s not an AAM event, it’s just nearby. But it will be a great party. Full disclosure: I’m a committee chair.
BREAKING: The event sold out over the weekend, and the cap wasn’t a small number. I don’t think anyone expected that. We must be onto something.
Although there are no more tickets for the event, it won’t be the last. Learn more about the The SEGD Professional Practice Group (PPG) for Museum Exhibition Professionals here.
