As virtual reality (VR) technology becomes better so does every other technology associated with it, including 360-degree video. 360 cameras – whether professional or consumer – have massively improved over the last couple of years, not only in visual quality but also post-processing. For consumers that end result is very important, yet it’s something the industry is still trying to improve upon – mainly due to video on VR headsets looking nowhere near as pin sharp as HD TV’s. One of the biggest 360 production company’s, Jaunt, has announced its plan to improve the viewing experience, Content Adaptive Bitrate Encoding (CABE).
From today, Jaunt will be employing its CABE streaming solution to provide a better viewing experience, regardless of platform, based on an individual’s available bandwidth and device capabilities without the need to download entire pieces of content and with minimal buffering.
Going into greater depth about the CABE solution Jaunt explained in a press statement: “The CABE technology improves upon the current “fixed ladder” for ABR streaming. Previously, multiple representations were generated through a predetermined set of representations, or fixed ladders which, based on the bandwidth and device capability delivered between 720p 30fps to 4K 60fps, mono or stereo VR video at bitrate ranging from ~1 Mbps to upwards of 60 Mbps. With the new CABE algorithm, the bitrate ladder is optimized for each title published through Jaunt’s XR Platform. As a result, our users can now experience high-resolution, stereo content at a lower bitrates, while simultaneously reducing storage and CDN costs for Jaunt and our publishing partners.”
“To deliver a truly immersive experience, it is vital to stream virtual reality content in a stereo layout, and at UHD resolutions,” said Sourabh Khire, Software Engineer at Jaunt in a statement. “While broadband users can experience this by streaming from the higher ends of a traditional ABR streaming ladder, mobile users who typically stream at a much lower bandwidth might miss out on this premium quality experience. By enhancing our existing ABR streaming technology with content adaptive encoding, each of our titles is optimally encoded to deliver a high resolution, stereo experience at the lowest possible bitrates. We strongly believe that this enhancement specifically tuned for immersive content, will put true immersivity within reach of all of our users.”
The roll out of the CABE streaming solution follows on from last weeks Jaunt XR platform announcement, a white label distribution solution available to media companies, brands, content aggregators and enterprise customers. This will enable them to deliver immersive VR, augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) content directly to audiences through their owned and operated channels.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Jaunt, reporting back with any further updates.
