pixvana spin – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

August 29, 2018

Pixvana Open-Sources its VR Video Streaming SDK

Pixvana is a company focused on immersive media and XR storytelling by way of its SPIN Play platform. Today, it has announced the open-sourcing of its software development kit (SDK) for third-parties to use.

Pixvana VRCasting image1

Pixvana’s SPIN Play SDK is an Apache 2.0 open-source-licensed library which can facilitate the addition of high-quality VR video playback, dynamic controls, and cross-platform VR support for developers to plug into their Unity applications. Cloud-based CMS supports advanced data flows for media companies and users can upload from existing cloud storage and export to custom or public endpoints.

“Application builders needed a drag-and-drop solution to add 360-degree and 180-degree VR video to their Unity based applications for Virtual, Augmented, or Mixed Reality apps,” said Beverly Vessella, Product Manager at Pixvana in a statement. “By opening up our valuable, cloud-based VR plug-in to the community, we hope to accelerate the adoption and innovation of VR and AR applications.”

The SPIN Play platform includes features like Field of View Adaptive Streaming (FOVAS) and VR-native playback projections. One of the newest additions to its feature set is an overlay option uses an Oculus Compositor Layer to deliver high-quality 60fps video for fully immersive 360 degree with monoscopic content.

Pixvana VRCasting image2

As for examples of Pixvana’s technology in action, earlier this year CNN used the SPIN Play SDK to deliver the CNNVR App for Oculus, giving users access to breaking news and original stories produced in a 360-degree format. Using the Pixvana SDK, the app met “fast startup” requirements, immediately delivering content tuned for high quality within seconds of a viewer selecting any CNNVR video.

“Pixvana partnered with our development team to customize the content pipeline and enable our editors in New York to get the highest quality content into the CNNVR app as quickly and as seamlessly as possible,” said Jason Farkas, Vice President at CNN.

Download the SPIN Play SDK here, and for further updates from Pixvana, keep reading VRFocus.

April 20, 2017

Pixvana Partners with Akamai for Expanded Content Delivery

Pixvana launched the SPIN content creation and delivery platform last year with the aim of delivering high-quality virtual reality (VR) video to users of all types of VR headsets. Pixvana will now be expanding its reach by using the Akamai network to deliver content.

Akamai have worked with Pixvana before, but the new partnership will allow for a closer relationship between the companies, which should result in an improved experience for users as access to the Akamai’s secure content delivery network will allow for a reduction in latency and increase in responsiveness.

“Pixvana’s SPIN is a technology that improves VR experiences right now on many different headsets and network conditions, and it’s also positioned to work well with future technology,” said Nelson Rodriguez, Global Director, Media Industry Marketing at Akamai. “Combining SPIN with our globally-distributed CDN can offer customers an open-standards-based platform to deliver powerful, high-quality VR content to audiences worldwide.”

“Akamai is the industry leader in content delivery network services,” added Forest Key, CEO and Co-Founder of Pixvana. “Our customers are already pushing the boundaries of VR video. We’re thrilled to be using Akamai’s CDN technology for SPIN Studio, which will help our customers reach wider audiences with gorgeous-looking VR video. Low latency is imperative to feel truly immersed in a VR experience, and thanks to Akamai we are now even closer to that goal.”

Pixvana will shortly be launching a trial version of the SPIN LaunchKit, a custom software development kit for Akamai customers which will allow for the creation of specialist applications usable by other Akamai customers. Further details are available on the Pixvana website.

VRFocus will bring you further news on Pixvana and other VR delivery platforms when it becomes available.

September 29, 2016

Pixvana Reveals 10K VR Video Player and Publishing Platform ‘SPIN’

Pixvana, a cloud-based VR video company, today announced their much awaited solution for publishing and streaming 360 video, a platform that promises to deliver up to 10K resolution streaming playback from the cloud to your VR devices. They’re calling it Pixvana SPIN.

In a mission to make 360 video less terrible, the Seattle-based company has developed a number of technologies since they came out of stealth last December. Their linchpin technology: a field-of-view adaptive streaming (FOVAS) technology that promises to both increase video quality and reduce bandwidth for 360 video, something that has stymied the medium and frustrated its viewers long before Facebook and YouTube started supporting the format. Even 4K video spread across a 360-degree sphere leaves much to imagination.

With Pixvana SPIN, the company claims they can deliver up to 100 megapixel quality within the user’s field-of-view while cutting data delivered by up to 70% overall. Company co-founder and CEO Forest Key says “FOVAS is like swapping your old standard definition set for a 4K TV.”

spin-resolution-comparison — image courtesy of Pixvana Inc.

Following this technique, which segments the video into multiple tiled views, the company is simultaneously pushing an Open Projection Format (OPF) that will index user-created video streams into the correct, multi-tiled format optimized via their SPIN publisher. The visualization below shows a 10K 360 SPIN video encoded with 30 individual tiles. When the viewer moves their head to a new part of the video, the stream is “seamlessly switched so that the highest possible quality image is presented, at a greatly reduced bandwidth.”

Pixvana maintains that a preview version of their SPIN Player will be available soon, with the publisher close to follow in early 2017. As ‘platform agnostic’ player, we’re sure to see apps available for headsets such as Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive, Google Daydream, and Oculus Rift.

The SteamVR compatible app is slated to release on October 8th.

“Pixvana has shown the best-looking VR video we’ve seen to date,” said Valve’s Sean Jenkin. “An open standard for 360/FOVAS content which scales to high-quality VR headsets and lets creators of all sizes publish anywhere without requiring proprietary tools or formats is great for consumers and content creators and reflects Valve’s commitment to an open VR ecosystem. We look forward to making Pixvana’s technology and compatible content available on Steam.”

Pixvana came out of stealth with their announcement of a $6 million seed round back in December led by Madrona Venture group with participation from Vulcan Capital and other angel investors. Company founders come from senior product and engineering leadership roles at Apple, Adobe, Microsoft and Lucasfilm.

The post Pixvana Reveals 10K VR Video Player and Publishing Platform ‘SPIN’ appeared first on Road to VR.