360 8K Viewport-Independent VR

• Published in: SMPTE 2021 Annual Technical Conference pp. 1 - 15
• Main Authors: Fautier, Thierry, Gendron, Patrick, Ducloux, Xavier, Lepec, Vincent, Perrot, Pascal
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: SMPTE 01.11.2021
• DOI: 10.5594/M001936

360 VR has been deployed in the past few years using different techniques. Viewport-independent technology is used on 4K content for delivery to 4K-capable head-mounted displays (HMDs) and smartphone devices, resulting in a disappointing experience. The alternative is using viewport-dependent technology with 8K content on 4K-capable HMDs and smartphones devices, which enables a good experience, but with complexities and limitations in terms of the integration into existing OTT workflows. The 8K viewport-independent technology presented uses off-the-shelf encoding techniques to compress 8K 360 VR content as a single file and to distribute it in CMAF low-latency DASH mode to 8K-capable devices such as the Oculus Quest 2 or Galaxy S20. This paper will present an end-to-end 8K VR workflow, which is entirely cloud based and capable of delivering high-quality 8K VR DRM-protected content compared with 4K content on different devices. The paper will present the initial results of the trial performed by the VR Study Group of the Streaming Video Alliance (SVA) in collaboration with the VR Industry Forum, where 8K VR content was encoded and streamed on different very-high-speed (fiber and DOCSIS) networks.