360-degree video remains the most popular way for users to engage with virtual reality (VR) content. At IBC this year, the Fraunhofer Heinrick Hertz Institute will be broadcasting one of its presentations at the event live over satellite.
Fraunhofer HHI will be setting up Omnicam-360 cameras at popular places throughout Luxembourg to capture live images which will be sent via satellite to a live image feed on a UHD television screen at the SES IBC Booth. This demonstration will showcase not only the impressive image quality, captured at 10K x 2K, but also the ability of the Fraunhofer HHI’s HEVC encoder to compress such large amounts of data for satellite transmission without loss of quality.
Dr. Ralf Schäfer, Head of Division Video at Fraunhofer HHI, explains: “We intend for this demonstration to show that 360-degree video can be consumed by TV viewers even without VR glasses. We also want our camera and HEVC encoding technologies to show that 360-degree video can be broadcast to the consumer in high quality.”
“For a reliable live broadcast of video content to millions of households, using the highest level of resolution, a geostationary satellite system is virtually unbeatable,” says Thomas Wrede, Vice President of New Technology and Standards at SES Video. “We are pleased to work with Fraunhofer HHI, to try out new Direct-to-Home (DTH) applications such as 360-degree video.”
IBC 2017 will take place from 14th-19th September, 2017 at the RAI in Amsterdam. Further information can be found on the official website.
VRFocus will continue to bring you news from IBC 2017.