South Korean operator SK Telecom will unveil its 360-degree live broadcast platform dubbed '360 Adaptive VR Live Streaming Platform’ (360 VR Live) at the Mobile World Congress 2017 to be held in Barcelona, between 27 February and 2 March. 360 VR Live is a broadcast system designed to enable users to produce and livestream UHD 360-degree virtual reality (VR) video with low latency using a 360-degree camera.
The platform produces UHD VR content through its differentiated stitching technology. Based on multi-band blending algorithm, the platform stitches images in multi layers to produce 360 VR content without any distortion, SK Telecom says. In terms of frame rate, it supports 60 frames per second (FPS).
With the platform, the size of the 360 VR video file is reduced by 35 percent, while not compromising the image quality thanks to dynamic tiling, SK also said. Applied with 'T Live Streaming', a real-time streaming technology developed by SK Telecom, 360 VR Live creates an upgraded environment for live broadcasting of 360-degree VR video by dramatically reducing latency from over 20 seconds to less than five seconds.
360 VR Live creates provides realistic 3D audio. Based on binaural rendering technology, 3D audio recognizes, in real time, the user's accurate location including the direction of his/her eyes and provides sounds consistent with the user's location.
SK Telecom plans to commercialize 360 VR Live initially in the enterprise market for broadcasting companies and social networking sites. The company will also open its application programming interface to build a new media ecosystem. With the API, individuals and small content developers will be able to create and offer 360 VR Live services.
