visbit – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

September 18, 2018

Visbit and Kandao Demonstrate 8K VR Video Live Streaming

Both virtual reality (VR) 360-degree video use and video live-streaming are becoming increasingly popular among consumers. 360-degree video allows for a degree of ‘presence’ and immersion not possible with traditional 2D video while video streaming offers convenience and ease of access. Immersive media company Visbit have worked with VR camera maker Kandao to present an 8K VR video live stream across the Pacific Ocean.

Higher visual quality tends to be the aim for VR video streams, and a stable 8K stream represents a step forward in VR video streaming. The 8K live stream was generated at Kandao’s office in Shenzhen and delivered to multiple VR headsets at Visbit’s office in California.

The video was captured using a Kandao Obsidian R 360-degree camera, a professional grade device equipped with 6 fisheye lenses, with each lens capable of outputting 11.4 megapixel video stream. All six streams were then stitched together and encoded in H.265 using Kandao Live software in real-time to produce the 8K 360-degree live stream.

“Released in 2017, Kandao Obsidian is already a proven professional VR camera with 8K production capability,” said Dan Chen, CEO and Co-Founder of Kandao. “By optimizing the whole stitching and encoding pipeline, Kandao Live software solution significantly lowers the hardware requirements to the processing computer, making it possible to use one local PC to handle all the 8K workload in real time.”

“Back in 2017, we already demonstrated 5K live streaming of 360-degree VR videos on NABShow, together with AMD. Visbit VVOS technology has been live ready since then. Today, we are excited to see Visbit Cloud and Visbit 8K VR player immediately picked up the 8K live signal from Kandao camera. Combining Kandao’s Obsidian camera, Kandao Live software, Visbit’s Live VR cloud service, and Visbit 8K Live Player, we can now offer a ready-to-use solution to power up all kinds of contents to be delivered to the world in 8K and in real time,” said Changyin Zhou, CEO and Co-Founder of Visbit.

A video of the demonstration can be viewed below. For further coverage on Visbit and Kandao, keep checking back with VRFocus.

January 24, 2018

Visbit 8K VR Player Coming to Vive Focus

Virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree video streaming technology company Visbit has announced a new partnership today with HTC Vive regarding its Vive Focus standalone headset. Visbit has unveiled an 8K VR Player for the head-mounted display (HMD), due to launch today on Viveport in preparation for Vive Focus’s launch in China.

HTC Vive Focus headset

Visbit made the announcement during an event held by HTC Vive in China, showcasing how its new technology is integrated with the Vive Focus. The player uses Visbit’s View-Optimized Viewing (VVOS) technology, which it claims is capable of playing up to 8K stereoscopic 360° VR videos in both stream-to-play and download-to-play modes. It also features spatial audio support and video encryption to protect IPs.

“The VR video experience to date suffered from poor resolution and unsmooth playing problems. This situation hasn’t been improved much, even after 4K has become more commonly supported. Meanwhile, content creators who have been creating 8K premium quality 360 VR videos couldn’t make their content stand out because nobody was able to see the difference between 4K and 8K VR videos,” said Elaine Lu, Visbit co-founder and COO. “So we applied our unique VVOS technology to develop this player and enable playing of 8K VR videos with or without streaming. By demonstrating the 8K VR video viewing experience together with Vive, we want to invite IP owners, production studios, and camera makers to team up with us and boost the premium quality VR video content. ”

HTC Vive with Visbit 8K VR Player

Alvin Wang Graylin, HTC China President of VR, commented: “We know immersive video is a very important content type on mobile-based VR platform. Designed with 3K resolution and 75Hz refresh rate AMOLED screen, the Vive Focus standalone enables viewing of 8K resolution and is the perfect HMD for experiencing high-resolution VR videos. Visbit 8K VR Player smartly overcomes the limitation of mobile chip decoding and internet bandwidth, and enables 8K premium quality VR videos be played on Vive Focus. We are glad to partner with Visbit to bring Vive Focus users a significantly upgraded VR video experience.”

Visbit’s 8K VR Player will be available for free to download for a limited period starting today. In the coming months, Visbit plans to expand support other standalone and mobile VR headsets, that could include Oculus Go, Pico Goblin and the Mi VR Standalone. When details are released VRFocus will keep you updated.

July 25, 2017

Visbit Launches Web-Based VR Player & Unity SDK

Visbit has today released a Unity SDK and a Web VR Player, expanding the all-in-one virtual reality (VR) streaming service across all mobile VR platforms and most web browsers. The Unity SDK, also available from today, brings support for Google Daydream View and Cardboard for iOS.

Visbit Unity SDK “Unity support has been a long-time request from our customers. We are proud to bring 4K+ VR video streaming to the Unity community,” said Dr. Changyin Zhou, Visbit co-founder and CEO. “We’re also adding the Web VR Player, which dramatically reduces the difficulties of distribution and improves access for general consumers of VR and 360-degree experiences. Now content creators can generate a web link on the Publisher Portal to share their work, or embed video links on their website, while still protecting their content with domain-level privacy.”

This release marks a significant service expansion for the company. In addition to the Samsung Gear VR and Cardboard for Android, which Visbit already supports, the Unity SDK adds support for Google Daydream View and Cardboard for iOS. Though streaming is optimised overall, the Unity SDK stands out when used to develop Android apps for Google Cardboard because it pulls on patented VVOS technology, allowing 4K and above resolution streaming over regular WiFi and LTE networks, with little to no latency.

Visbit’s newly released Web VR Player is compatible with a wide range of mobile and desktop browsers. Though it does not use VVOS technology, it still allows for the smooth playback of 360-degree VR videos, even in 4K and stereoscopic, and can do so in panning, gyro and VR modes on Chrome, Safari, FireFox and Microsoft Edge. Videos are also protected with domain-level privacy to ensure that they are played only where the IP owner wants.

Visbit Cardboard Along with this product expansion comes a new pricing structure, which includes a Web Only Plan for those who may not need the advanced features designed for mobile apps and a Free Plan for those who are just getting started. Visbit is currently in open beta and customers can sign up at www.visbit.co. VRFocus will keep you updated with future expansions of the VR streaming service from Visbit, including desktop and console VR headsets.

April 15, 2017

Live Stream In 360 With Visbit, Now In Open Beta

April 13, 2017

Visbit Launches Open Beta For VR Video Streaming Service

High-quality, reliable streaming for 360-degree video and other virtual reality (VR) content is a goal that is difficult to achieve. The nature of VR means that a lot of data must be sent very quickly in order to keep up and not cause buffering or frame-rate drops that can not only break immersion, but even cause illness in some users. Visbit are launching an open Beta for a streaming service that aims to tackle those problems.

Visbit have created an end-to-end streaming platform that can offer a stable streaming of 4K and above video, VR and 360-degree videos over standard wi-fi connections for mobile VR devices. The platform handles hosting, transcoding, streaming and playing, making the process easier for creators and users.

The service was previously in closed Beta being tested by certain selected partners, but the open Beta is adding a few new features, such as adaptive bitrate streaming, which can adjust in real-time to the bandwidth the user has available, offline playback and the ability for creators to embed 360-degree video supported by the service into their own apps.

The open Beta will be supported on Google Daydream, Gear VR and Google Cardboard with additional platform support to be introduced later in the coming months.

“Thanks to the feedback from our closed beta users and initial testing, we’ve made a number of tweaks and additions to make our all-in-one streaming service more robust and available for broader adoption,” said CY Zhou, Visbit co-founder and CEO. “We continue to push the limits of what is possible – evident in our recent industry-first 12K streaming breakthrough and support for live streaming – and are looking forward to integrating these features, and more, into our service in the near future.”

The company claim that they have overcome the problems of streaming video in 12K, and that the service can handle livestreaming 360-degree content to allow VR users to watch events broadcast in 360-degree in real-time.

Visbit will be demonstrating the streaming service at the upcoming VRLA Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Centre on 14th-15th April. Further information and the chance to be involved in the open Beta is available on the Visbit website.

VRFocus will keep you informed on Visbit and other VR services.

March 26, 2017

VR Video Streaming in 12K is Now Possible

Virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree video streaming company Visbit have announced that they have successfully streamed 360-degree video in 12K, using commercially available hardware.

12K video is very close to the level of detail for average human vision. This technology will allow for much higher quality VR video streams. Visbit’s new system means that users watching video streams can zoom in and focus on specific details in a way that was previously impossible. The applications for such technology include the ability for surgeons to stream a procedure to colleagues and peers all over the globe to get their advice, or judges in sporting events able to focus in on a specific event to determine if it is allowable under the rules or not. There are also applications when it comes to safety, as a video stream in sufficient quality taken during a disaster could be examined for clues to the cause.

“Today, 360-degree videos are mostly streamed at 1080p and occasionally at 4K. You rarely hear of 6K video streaming, so 12K, a resolution that is very close to the acuity of 20/20 human vision, is unheard of, especially when streaming on today’s regular Wi-Fi and LTE conditions,” said Visbit Co-Founder and CEO Dr. Changyin (CY) Zhou. “There have been advancements in networking technology, such as Intel and Ericsson’s recent demo of a 5G prototype to support 8K VR live streaming from a local server at Mobile World Congress this year, but average consumers won’t have 5G at home for years to come. With our Visbit View-Optimized Streaming technology, 12K video in 360-degrees can run on today’s networks with existing hardware, meaning that viewers can now zoom in and focus on granular details with today’s 2.5K HMD screen and achieve a viewing experience equal to 12K. This unlocks a whole new user experience for viewing 360-degree VR video, as well as new possibilities for content creation.”

Visbit’s streaming service is currently in closed Beta on Gear VR and Google Cardboard. The open Beta is expected to become available later this year.

VRFocus will bring you further updates on Visbit and VR streaming as they come in.