Building on the launch of augmented reality/virtual reality studios and technologies in many markets, CBS Stations is now using AR/VR to tell the story of America 250 and celebrate the semiquincentennial anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

As previously reported, CBS Stations began developing AR/VR studio technology in house at its KPIX-KPYX San Francisco stations in 2023 and has since been deploying the technology around the country in the CBS-owned stations for weather, news and sports.

Most recently, in February 2026, CBS Stations launched its 10th cutting-edge AR/VR technology-driven studio at CBS Baltimore (WJZ-TV).

The deployments are part of a larger push by the station group to reinvent the way it tells weather, news and sports stories with immersive new technologies.

Now the group is using the immersive technology to transport viewers into pivotal moments in American history. As part of the America 250 Celebrations, the CBS Stations that will showcase the people, places, and events that have contributed to the American story. Plans at specific stations include:

• CBS New York: Tri-State 250: Our Legacy of Liberty explores revolutionary-era landmarks and defining moments across NY, New Jersey and Connecticut, from George Washington’s farewell to his officers to the reading of the Declaration of Independence that sparked the toppling of King George III’s statue.
• CBS Philadelphia: Through its year-long “Founded in Philly” franchise, CBS Philadelphia highlights the city’s central role in America’s founding, bringing viewers inside the places, people and innovations that helped shape the nation.
• CBS Detroit is showcasing Michigan’s lasting impact on America through stories spanning the automotive revolution, the Underground Railroad, Motown Records and the Civil Rights Movement.
• CBS News Bay Area is telling America’s founding story exploring the arrival of Spanish settlers in Alta California in 1776 and using immersive AR/VR technology to recreate indigenous life during that era.
• CBS News Chicago is examining how the city’s industrial roots, iconic brands and spirit of innovation helped shape America’s growth and continue to influence its future.
• CBS Boston is developing original local reporting that spotlights New England’s foundational role in the Revolutionary era and the region’s enduring influence on the American story.

LONDON—Vizrt has introduced Viz Arena 6, the newest version of its all-in-one live augmented reality (AR) graphics and virtual advertising sports solution. The new version includes AI-powered features that reduce calibration headaches and radically simplify keying and masking in ways that greatly speed up AR sports production, the company reported.

More specifically, the new AI-driven features make it easier for operators to integrate AR graphics into live broadcasts, lowering the barrier to entry for creating stunning AR sports graphics. With AI calibration, AR graphics and virtual ads stay perfectly locked to the field, no matter how the camera moves. It also gets graphics to air 10 times faster without losing any precision. The Sports Intelligent Keyer uses ambient learning to intelligently separate foreground from background, with minimal manual input required, the company said.

The system is designed to efficiently produce higher quality graphics in less time. It provides users with a a reliable system that eases time-consuming and complex tasks in ways that allow producers to expand quality productions without scaling costs or complexity, Vizrt said.

That has already drawn praise from some early users. “We were blown away by the AI calibration and AI keyer, they really transformed our fast-paced MotoGP workflow. We were supposed to be beta testing, but Viz Arena 6 was so stable and consistent, that we decided to take it straight to air,” says Sergi Sendra, senior director, media content, technical and production departments at Dorna Sports.

By lowering the barriers to AR graphics, the benefit is not just in creating and inserting striking data-driven visualization; it also helps the bottom line, Vizrt stressed.

With virtual ads, productions can easily add tailored, sponsor-specific advertising to any live sport event. This flexibility expands creative possibilities and helps deliver greater value for commercial partners, the company reported.

“With this release, we’re expanding on the real purpose of AI in production technology: making the process more effective and accessible. Want better creativity and efficiency? AI-powered calibration and keying speed up the process. In sports, the action never slows, and productions need technology that can keep up,” says Edouard Griveaud, Senior Product Manager, Sports and AI, at Vizrt.

More information on the product’s features and its ability to save time can be found at https://www.vizrt.com/products/viz-arena/.

DALLAS—CBS Stations has expanded its use of an in-house developed augmented reality and virtual reality solution for news and weather with the launch of a new AR/VR studio at CBS Texas.

The launch makes CBS Texas the first station in the region to introduce this technology. It is the eighth market where CBS Stations has launched the solution since it was first developed at its Bay Area operations.

CBS Texas debuted the AR/VR system on-air Monday, June 23, during the CBS News Texas 5 p.m. newscast, led by First Alert chief meteorologist McKenna King, who guided viewers through the first immersive weather segment using the new platform.

The AR/VR-enabled studio, measuring approximately 20,384 cubic feet, transforms storytelling by offering a dynamic, visually rich experience that brings weather to life. From hyperrealistic weather simulations to immersive storytelling environments, the technology enhances both presentation and viewer comprehension of complex topics, the station group said.

“The launch in Texas further underscores our commitment to investing in the future of local journalism,” said Jennifer Mitchell, president of CBS Stations and CBS News and Stations Digital. “Through the expansion of our technological capabilities, we continue to deepen how we serve our communities, elevate the viewer experience and shape the future of broadcast journalism.”

“Over the past year, we’ve evolved every part of our newsroom – from refreshing our newscasts, updating our brand and building a multiplatform coverage strategy,” said Raquel Amparo, president and general manager of CBS Texas. “This technology is the next chapter and allows us to enhance meaningful content for everyone we serve.”

The launch follows successful implementations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, Denver and Miami.

LOS ANGELES—CBS Los Angeles (KCBS-KCAL) launched a new AR/VR technology studio on June 11 during the 9 a.m. newscast with meteorologist Paul Deanno.

As previously reported, CBS Stations initially developed AR/VR technology at KPIX San Francisco, and has been rolling out the system to other stations in the group, where they have been used for weather, sports, news, March Madness and election coverage. The L.A. launch is the seventh and the most advanced of its kind within the CBS Stations Group.

Located in a newly built state-of-the-art KCAL News studio, the new studio is the largest technology-driven facility in the CBS Stations Group, spanning 68 feet by 50 feet, totaling 3,400 square feet. It is the first and only fully AR/VR-enabled news studio in Southern California. The nearest comparable facility is at CBS Bay Area/KPIX.

“CBS Los Angeles is proud to be the first in Southern California to bring this level of immersive storytelling to our viewers,” said Tim Wieland, regional president and general manager of CBS Los Angeles. “This new AR/VR studio redefines how we deliver weather and sports – making complex information more accessible, engaging and visually compelling. It’s a game-changer for our market and a testament to our commitment to innovation.”

Stations in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami and Denver are similarly leveraging AR/VR to enhance weather coverage, providing audiences with a more engaging and informative understanding of the conditions impacting their communities, the station group said.

Jennifer Mitchell, president of CBS Stations, who has overseen the rollout of AR/VR studios across the network, said: “We began this journey two years ago with KPIX in the Bay Area, driven by a vision to invest in local journalism and deliver the news in ways that resonate with today’s audiences. Bringing this technology to the nation’s second-largest media market was a natural next step. This is about standing apart through innovation, and continuing to lead with purpose, creativity and cutting-edge storytelling.”

An ambitious effort to develop and deploy AR/VR technologies at CBS’ owned stations will be taking center stage on Nov. 5 in five markets, when CBS Stations will debut what the division is calling “unprecedented augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) presidential election coverage” on Nov. 5 from CBS’s New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Bay Area and Colorado studios.

As previously reported by TV Tech, the technologies were first developed by tech teams at the CBS Bay Area stations and then deployed to four other markets as part of an effort to reinvent local newscasts and provide viewers with a more immersive experience.

The AR/VR election coverage will be led by Jessica Moore and Dick Brennan in New York; Ukee Washington, Natasha Brown, and Don Bell in Philadelphia from the virtual steps of the United States Capitol building; Chris Tye in Chicago, Juliette Goodrich, Sara Donchey, Ryan Yamamoto, and Devin Fehely. in the Bay Area, Michael Spencer and Karen Leigh, in Colorado.

On Election Night, the stations said that viewers will be able to watch results across a national and local VR map that will be driven by CBS anchors in their respective markets. More specifically here are the plans for the five markets where the technology has been deployed:

• CBS New York, the only Station in the tri-state region with AR/VR technology, will bring the biggest races in the area to life in its virtual reality studio on Election Night beginning at 5:00 p.m. ET., with a two-hour America Decides special at 9:00 p.m. ET that will stream exclusively on CBS News New York when the polls closes. They will broadcast LIVE the most significant local and national races, showing the local races that control the balance of power, including who will determine power in the House and a critical New Jersey seat. Viewers will have an immersive experience locally and be transported to battleground states using an interactive multidimensional map, breaking down the results and the race to the White House. Viewers can watch the AR/VR studio results on WCBS and the CBS News New York streaming channel.
• CBS Chicago, the only Station with an AR/VR studio in the region, will cover the LIVE national races, presidential race, and the local balance of power elections, bringing viewers up-to-the-minute interactive results beginning at 7:00 p.m. CT From the first Chicago school board elections to the state attorney’s race, with analysis from former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the CBS News Chicago Election Team. Viewers can watch the AR/VR studio results on WBBM-TV and the CBS News Chicago streaming channel. Streaming coverage begins at 7 p.m. on CBS News Chicago.
• CBS Philadelphia, the only Station in Pennsylvania with AR/VR technology, will provide viewers with an immersive election night experience out of its studio, with LIVE virtual segments in every Election Day show from 9:00 a.m. ET through the Nov. 6th 9:00 a.m. ET show. Viewers will experience immersive battleground election results in a visually stunning, informative space with an interactive floor map that will bring each battleground state front and center as a multidimensional storytelling tool: breaking down the vote county by county in critical Philadelphia voting areas. Another key immersive experience is that Philadelphians will be transported to the White House front lawn with up-to-the-minute precision – so close viewers will see the grass blowing in the wind. Viewers can also stream election results on CBS News Philadelphia, which will stream results exclusively the moment polls close on Election Night. Viewers can watch the AR/VR studio results on KYW-TV and the CBS News Philadelphia streaming channel.
• CBS Bay Area is the innovation studio that developed the proprietary AR/VR codes for CBS Stations. The Station will have LIVE team coverage of all the biggest local races and national election coverage from 3:00 p.m. PT to midnight. The Station will collaborate with CBS Los Angeles and CBS Sacramento to extend LIVE statewide election coverage. In addition, the team will broadcast complete wall-to-wall coverage of local election results on KPIX+ channel 44 cable 12 and CBS News Bay Area streaming channel from 5:00 p.m. until midnight.
• CBS Colorado, the only Station with an AR/VR studio in the region, will use VR technology to report election results on the most important issues facing Colorado voters. Viewers will experience live results with animated graphics to illustrate county-by-county and district-by-district data, helping the viewers better understand which candidates are leading and why. Viewers can watch the AR/VR studio results on KCNC-TV and the CBS News Colorado streaming channel.

Additionally, CBS Stations will cover the election live across its 14 owned markets, including key battleground states Michigan and Pennsylvania. Viewers can watch and stream all the election coverage LIVE here. For CBS News and Stations comprehensive “America Decides: Election ‘24” Team Coverage Across Broadcasts, Streaming and Digital” click here.

Visitors to the CBS News and Stations-owned KPIX-KPYX San Francisco will find a bustling local news operation producing 60 hours of local news each week that has recently abandoned a longtime centerpiece of traditional local news production—the TV news set.

Those sets disappeared in September, about a year after the stations deployed an innovative augmented reality/virtual reality platform for its news operations. The new AR/VR system had been so successful, first with weather and then all their coverage, that “One day, we asked ourselves why we needed hard sets?” CBS Bay Area President and General Manager Scott Warren recalled. “So, we just walked in and started busting them out. Now it is all AR/VR. We have no hard sets. There's no desk, there's no monitors. And every single show was like that.”

“I believe we are the first station to do that,” he added.

And, as this YouTube sizzle reel shows, the technology has been applied to a wide range of subjects, from immersing viewers in San Francisco's famous fog, to sports, politics, entertainment and election coverage.

The decision to go all in on AR/VR technologies was part of a wider effort by the station group to reinvent the way local news stories are presented and distributed to audiences that has led to the creation of a new hyperlocal news operation in Detroit, a Local News Innovation Lab in Texas, a dramatic expansion of the local news offered by CBS-owned stations and other initiatives.

“We all know we're in a challenging place right now in our industry,” explained Jennifer Mitchell, president of Stations and Digital for CBS News and Stations, who oversees 23 of 27 CBS-owned stations and the division’s local and national digital properties like CBS 24/7. “It‘s not just us, it's everybody. There's so much rapid change from an audience perspective. We have to change. The audience and the industry is changing.”

To encourage more innovation, the group also brought in new local leaders like CBS Bay Area president and GM Scott Warren.

“The San Francisco market is the perfect market to take risks, to experiment, to incubate big ideas and test and either fail or succeed and scale,” Mitchell said.

In San Francisco, much of the focus on finding new ways to operate has been driven by the need to improve storytelling and engage audiences.

“Everything starts with a really great story,” Warren said. “But how do you present those stories? And that's why we embraced AR and VR to enhance that storytelling, to provide context for that storytelling.”

Weather First
As they began developing the system in January 2023, CBS Stations executives felt that the logical first application for AR and VR should be weather, which was ripe for innovation. “We [broadcasters] have been looking at weather the same way for 50 years,” Warren said. “We have different people in front of the maps and the maps have gotten better, but we’ve been basically covering weather the same way for 50 years.

“Weather is that perfect opportunity to change the way we tell stories, because it is so immersive,” he continued. “You stand in it. You feel it. You can see it when you look up at the clouds, at mountain ranges. All of these impact the way weather affects each and every one of us. So we started thinking about how we could take weather and weather data and explain it in a whole new way.”

CBS stations are now taking real-time weather data from National Weather Service and other weather information suppliers and “translating that data, the ones and zeros, into weather graphics that our presenters can walk interact with and use to explain things in different ways,” Warren said.

This proved so successful the station then applied it to sports coverage, politics, elections and other topics.

“We quickly went to immersive newscasts as well,” he said. “So entire newscasts are now in AR and VR.”

In the development process of the system, the stations worked with Myreze, a branding and virtual production company. It also decided to adopt Zero Density’s virtual solution, rendering from the Unreal Engine and camera tracking from Stype.

Jeff Jeandheur, director of broadcast operations and engineering, and a team of tech and operations staff that included Eliot Curtis, director of technology innovation, and Chad Simpson, studio operations and integration manager, also played a central role.

This team melded and adapted the VR/AR technologies into a system that could be operated for hours each day on the relatively small budget of a local broadcast station.

“In the past, if you look at the NFL, or you look at Fox or places that have used this technology in the past, they've had to have giant teams and giant budgets come in to do this,” Warren said. “We have figured out, through the coding work and our staff and through our partners, a way to do this on the local level so that all of this data can come in in real time to change the look and feel in the story that's happening. For the first time, a local newsroom can use this technology without a huge team of people working on it.”

The Secret Sauce
The importance of in-house talent in the effort is a reminder of the deep reservoirs of talent and innovation that have been an important part of broadcasting. “Our partners have been great,” Warren said. “But the real secret sauce is what our internal staff has done, how they’ve taken all of the different partnerships and sewn them together with original coding and put it into a newscast that can be created in an automated control room.

“Jeff Jeandheur is kind of a mastermind at looking into the future and trying to figure out things,” Warren added. “And he has brought in a team of people that are all MacGyvers. They live and thrive on solving problems.”

That internal talent also played a key role in expanding deployments to other stations in the group.

“We were literally walking down a new path and there were fears this new technology wasn't going to be reliable and we won't be able to know how to use it,” Warren recalled. “But the more we worked with it, the easier it became, and the better we got at being able to turn things around quickly and teach others in-house how to use this. So once we got it down, which took us about a year, we got to the point where we can go into another station now, and in six to eight weeks have the entire thing built up and ready to go.”

These deployments also relied heavily on the internal talent at other CBS stations, where tech teams quickly embraced the idea and began to develop their own innovations, Mitchell said. “Their energy is infectious,” she said. “It energizes our other stations, our other operations. They are looking at what has been done in San Francisco. They want to bring it to their market.”

“All of those teams are taking the same sort of hungry and passionate approach to innovation,” Warren added. “They’re coming up with new things and new ways to do stuff and showing them to us. And that’s where this really scales. We’re all benefiting from each other.”

The system has been deployed at CBS-owned stations in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and, most recently, Denver, with plans to deploy it at more stations.

In June it also went live on streaming news service CBS News 24/7 Mitchell explains that it was first used in a two-hour whiparound show called “CBS 24/7” that features breaking news from all of the company’s national, local and international news outlets and operations.

“The flagship show for CBS News 24/7 of the same name is now 100% virtual,” Mitchell said. “When you look at that wall of monitors on that show, that is all in the green space.”

Such technologies will also take center stage during the upcoming Election Night coverage. “We have infused AR VR and the virtual studios and content into almost every aspect of our newscast where we can and in markets” where it has been deployed, Mitchell said. “So, of course, on election night, you will be seeing those capabilities on display. It will look and feel different than Presidential election years in the past.”

NEW YORK—Fox News Channel said it will debut new immersive graphics technology during its election night coverage next Tuesday (Nov. 5).

As part of Fox News’ renovation of its Studio M earlier this year, the network’s engineers worked to improve the viewer experience with several technology and design upgrades. Those included new augmented reality (AR) technology for anchor Bill Hemmer’s “Bill”-board showing election data, recently developed virtual set technology and new touchscreen applications for Fox News Voter Analysis.

The tools will enable Fox News reporting teams to provide the audience with the most updated polling information and voter analysis throughout its marathon coverage, Fox News reported.

Debuting on election night, the newly developed “Bill”-board technology was enhanced to include augmented reality attributes and 3D interaction allowing Hemmer to further drill into election data in real time.

With the new tools, Hemmer can interact and telestrate in 3D space, as the infrared sensors can track anchors and objects. The 3D space is also equipped with voice to text, where natural language will trigger augmented reality graphics. These new tools will be visible in population maps, outstanding vote maps and battleground state historical voting charts.

Fox News also said it has created several sophisticated multimedia presentation concepts to enhance the election-viewing experience, including a “Path to 270” map, showcasing the presidential nominees’ potential line to the critical electoral votes needed through dynamic 3D interaction. Using those tools, Fox News anchors can present various scenarios by moving virtual objects representing electoral college votes on the path to winning the presidency.

Additionally, the network developed a “Top 5 Closest Races” tool, which gives a snapshot of races that are too close to call. This provides real-time updates on the candidates’ standing and the impact on the electoral landscape, allowing the audience to visualize the intensity and uncertainty of the closest battles for the presidency, Fox News said.

In addition to the technological enhancements, Fox News also made several design improvements to Studio M, which has served as its election headquarters over the last two presidential cycles. On election night, co-anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum and panelists will convene behind a bespoke “super desk,” designed for the anchors and their teams to use during special news coverage.

Studio M also now features a two-story-high accent feature wall and a 20-foot-long ultra-high-definition media wall for showcasing video and photo elements during the broadcast. Additionally, dimensional accent walls and extensive lighting placements were developed to create multiple presentation areas in the studio.

PORTLAND, Ore.—In a first for NBA broadcasts, the Portland Trail Blazers have been working with disguise to broadcast augmented reality (AR) graphics created by tracking a handheld camera during a basketball game. 

The first use of AR graphics from a handheld camera by an NBA team provides viewers with a more in-depth view of the action with live in-game stats, the companies said. 

“The NBA has provided live game data for a long time, however, we are breaking new ground by taking that data and using it to create an AR experience,” says Trail Blazers graphics producer, John McConnell. “Doing this wasn’t easy. Basketball games are fast-paced, with lots of handheld camera use, and live handheld tracking has never been done before in our sport. We knew we needed a partner to help. disguise has proven to be an industry leader in broadcasting technology and AR, and their team’s incredible passion for basketball made them a perfect fit to make our broadcast graphics next-gen.”

To create the AR graphics, disguise and the Portland Trail Blazers — who are one of only five teams in the league that produce all their live broadcasts in-house — spent six weeks working in close collaboration. 

Together with StYpe, the first step was to install tracking hardware into the Moda Center basketball arena, which used the RedSpy tracking system with an infrared camera pointing to markers on the arena’s ceiling. Next, a disguise px+ media server was installed to enable the Trail Blazers to render real-time Unreal Engine AR graphics with live data feed integration. 

All graphics were controlled through disguise Gateway, which was integrated with Viz Trio, as well as disguise’s Porta solution for native Unreal Engine control. The Creative Services team at disguise provided data visualization and concept development, as well as Unreal Engine graphics implementation and data integration services.

As a result of the work, Trail Blazers fans can see on-air graphics elements that look like they’re in the arena itself, right next to the players. From the pregame show to the fourth quarter, these graphics show live player and game information in a more dynamic, easy-to-read way than lower-thirds graphics alone. There’s even an AR line graph that shows the ups and downs of the team’s shooting percentage throughout the game. Each new field goal attempt can be added to the chart, allowing it to be constantly updated during the game, the companies said. 

For the Trail Blazers broadcast team, this is just the beginning of a more modern analytics approach that will give fans unparalleled access to their favorite club. This will let fans replicate the energy and intensity of being in the stands — without leaving their home, the Blazers said. 

“Since we are the first team in the NBA to use AR handheld graphics, we see this opening up many possibilities for the future,” says McConnell. “For instance, we could add more cameras into the AR world and integrate player tracking into our graphics, which the NBA now provides via Hawk-Eye. That will open the floodgates for more AR elements to work their way into NBA broadcasts. In the future, the NBA might even borrow some popular concepts from NBA2K and the video game world, where stats and info are overlaid on the court for things like player fatigue and other relevant stats.” 

TEL AVIV, Israel—Hype Sports Innovation and CBS Sports have announced that they will be working together to create new technologies for the network’s sports coverage. 

Founded in 2015, Hype Sports Innovation bills itself as the largest global ecosystem for sports tech. The ecosystem includes around 200 teams, leagues and federations as well as a large equity holding portfolio of sports tech startup. Hype has successfully generated hundreds of business engagements and deals through its ecosystem, the companies said. 

As part of this collaboration. CBS Sports said it will tap into Hype’s network of sports technologies to explore new and innovative solutions in such areas as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and remote broadcasting.

"We are excited to work with Hype Sports Innovation and many of the leading technology companies from around the world to further enhance our coverage and deliver never-before-seen technology to our audiences, while developing more creative and compelling content, as well as innovative experiences" said Jason Cohen, vice president technical operations, CBS Sports.

"We are committed to continue pushing the boundaries of sports experience through our collaboration with CBS Sports,” added Amir Raveh, founder and CEO of Hype Sports Innovation. “Together, we have the opportunity to create an unforgettable sports viewing experience by introducing new technology and innovation that fans will truly love."

SportsTech startups with interest in collaborating with CBS Sports and Hype on developing new technologies can apply here. 

Broadband Forum has released the next update of its User Datagram Protocol (UDP)-based Speed Test (UDPST) utility, a development that will help broadband operators deploy new gigabit services and offer better connectivity with low latency and faster speeds. 

The Broadband Forum is a non-profit industry consortium dedicated to developing broadband network specifications. The newest release is an important step forward in the deployment of gigabit services and applications like AR, VR, gaming and UHD streaming that require very low latency. 

The updated UDPST performs the tests defined in TR-471 Issue 3 ‘Maximum IP-Layer Capacity Metric, Related Metrics, and Measurements’, to quantify and verify broadband networks in instances where consistent low latency is just as critical as speed, the group said. 

It aids the deployment of gigabit services that intend to support next-generation applications with growing user uptake. Applications such as gaming, UHD streaming, augmented reality and virtual reality require low latency to assure the required Quality of Experience, the group said. 

“Our open source implementation provides an approach to Internet access measurement with demonstratable accuracy and is an integral part of Broadband Forum specifications,” said Al Morton, AT&T and OB-UDPST project co-leader and TR-471 Editor. “The TR-471 specification was harmonized and developed in coordination with other standards organizations, including ITU-T, IETF and ETSI-STQ/Mobile. UDP is a critical communication protocol for time-sensitive transmissions on the Internet, and the UDPST measurements provide consumer confidence in their service’s support of applications that use UDP.”

“UDPST’s Latency under Load measurements and capabilities to perform application-layer traffic performance estimation address topics that are of considerable interest to the industry,” Morton continued.

Broadband Forum’s Open Broadband - User Datagram Protocol Speed Test (OB-UDPST) project has produced nine public releases of the open source implementation.

With UDPST Latency under Load measurements, users can compare their performance to the latency demands of their Internet applications in milliseconds. Latency requirements can be categorized with red, yellow, and green indicators, as needed. Results of UDPST conducting Latency under Load (and Capacity) measurements were shared with the IETF-IPPM in late 2022. The UDPST results offered an enhanced and more practical view when compared to a TCP-based method, the group said. 

The group explained that UDP-based methods address an important gap because user applications and traffic with strict response time requirements will use UDP. The percentage of UDP traffic is also significant and continues to grow in proportion to TCP traffic. The fully encrypted QUIC transport protocol – running over UDP – already accounted for nearly 30% of traffic in EMEA and 16% in North America in January 2022.

"As an industry we have long realized the strong need for a common understanding on how to measure performance which goes beyond speed as the only factor to consider. We now have what was missing: a simple, standardized, and open-sourced method ready to be used across the whole industry to fill this void,” said Sascha Dech, Deutsche Telekom.

Initially launched in response to growing fiber deployments with low latency and gigabit service rates, the OB-UDPST project utility applies to both mobile and fixed radio access.

“OB-UDPST is one of the latest utilities we’re using at the UNH-IOL today to measure the capacity and latency of systems with increasing capabilities, such as 5G and higher speed PON networks,” said Lincoln Lavoie, UNH InterOperability Lab, Principal Engineer. “Directly participating in the open source project also enables us to share requirements with the team to ensure the UDPST continues to meet our expanding use cases at the lab.”

More information about OB-UDPST is available here: https://github.com/BroadbandForum/obudpst.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—NAB Show has announced a Main Stage session that will explore how the increasing adoption of advanced technology is revolutionizing immersive storytelling experiences. 

The Main Stage session "Immersive Storytelling: Expanding Audiences with XR in Games, Education, and Location-Based Entertainment" will be open to all attendees on Tuesday, April 18 at 1 p.m. at the Las Vegas Convention Center. 

It will examine the growing convergence between traditional entertainment and advanced technology, how nostalgia is fueling this new technology adoption, and what is next on the horizon for virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and extended reality (XR), the show organizers reported. 

The session will feature panelists working at the leading-edge of advanced technology: Aaron Grosky, president and COO of Dreamscape Immersive and COO of Dreamscape Learn; Ted Schilowitz, futurist, Paramount Global; and Jake Zim, senior vice president, Virtual Reality, Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Grosky leads Dreamscape Immersive and Dreamscape Learn's creation of VR adventures, designed to give users a shared experience of watching a story unfold around them as they explore cinematic worlds, characters and creatures. He previously served in strategic leadership and creative development roles for entertainment ventures focused on television, radio, music, online and mobile productions.

Schilowitz is first-ever futurist-in-residence for Paramount Global. He works with the company's technology teams to explore all forms of new and emerging technologies, including VR and AR. He previously served as consulting futurist at 20th Century Fox and worked on product development teams that have produced ultra-high resolution digital movie cameras, advanced hard-drive storage products and desktop video software.

Jake Zim is the senior vice president of Virtual Reality for Sony Pictures Entertainment where he oversees global virtual reality production and strategy for the motion picture group. He has produced a variety of interactive projects released across a spectrum of distribution channels. In addition, he works across business units to develop partnerships with technology and production companies in the emerging immersive entertainment space.

NAB Show will be held April 15 - 19, 2023. For complete details, visit www.nabshow.com.

NEW YORK—NBCUniversal Content Distribution and Verizon have announced a first-of-its-kind augmented reality experience on Verizon set top boxes for NBC’s hit series “La Brea” that will allow viewers to interact with the La Brea sinkhole to reveal classic objects from the television series, including the iconic Wilshire Boulevard Street sign and a baby rhino. 

Fans ultimately will be rewarded with an exclusive deleted scene from the series.

“Innovative experiences and breakthrough technologies like AR are critical to driving deeper fan engagement on partner platforms,” said Matt Schnaars, president, NBCUniversal Content Distribution. “We’re grateful for our partnership with Verizon and our work creating immersive experiences for fans to interact with our premiere entertainment programming.”

Customers can access the "La Brea" experience on their Verizon set top box by tuning into channel 941 using their remote control or via the channel guide. From there, users can scan a QR code from their mobile device to launch the experience.

The "La Brea" experience was brought to life through Trigger XR, an award-winning XR developer studio and creative agency.

NBCUniversal Content Distribution and Verizon previously partnered on Olympic Tentpole Apps for the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Olympic Games. The bespoke content destinations featured Olympic videos on demand, discovery and navigation features, personalization by sport, and up-to-date standings by sport.

"Verizon and NBC are changing the way fans consume entertainment with never-before-seen types of AR experiences," said Erin McPherson, Verizon chief content officer. "We're thrilled to bring next gen storytelling to Fios viewers and excited to push the boundaries for our consumers."

LOS ANGELES—The idea of “a new look” for football offense and defense is nothing new, and while the same could be said of television production of NFL games and their pre-game, post and half-time shows, what Fox Sports has planned for this NFL season is unlike anything the broadcaster has ever done for football coverage.

Relying on a massive LED volume, a combined three dozen Unreal and Viz Engines, multiple new cameras, precise camera tracking and state-of-the-art technology that seamlessly stitches video together in real-time for the volume, the broadcaster will debut a combination of Extended Reality (XR) and Augmented Reality (AR) Sept. 11 during “Fox NFL Sunday.”

The studio will enable Fox Sports to transport viewers one moment onto the middle of Lambeau Field during a Packers update and the next take them outside Sofi Stadium—all while giving hosts a better way to tell the stories of games.

The new Los Angeles studio, while the broadcaster’s first AR-XR deployment for NFL coverage, represents the next step in its adoption of the technology, following the upgrade of its Charlotte, N.C., studio, to AR and VR technology for NASCAR coverage nearly four years ago. 

“AR and XR technology enhances the storytelling ability of our hosts,” says Zac Fields, senior vice president of graphic technology and integration at Fox Sports. 

For a segment called “On the Field,” for example, the technology will help hosts better break down plays. “In the past, you were somewhat limited. You have a handful of guys on the field trying to tell a story,” says Fields.

“If you can add items and manipulate things within AR, you’re not quite as limited. Now you can add in players, objects and routes that someone runs and the viewer can see that virtually in the XR space. That’s exciting,” he says.

By The Numbers
Work began on the new 5,000-square foot studio in Los Angeles at the end of last season. The centerpiece of the two-story structure is the LED volume, which measures 19 feet, 8 inches (H) by 46 feet (W) by 24 feet, 7 inches (D), and takes up about one-third of the area of the set. The LED volume, which was built and commissioned by NEP Studios, consists of three LED walls and an LED floor—a combined 5,130 square feet of LED display—that enables Fox Sports to change environments quickly as different show segments air. 

“[One of the] biggest design goals was to give unique segments their own identity. There are certain branded segments throughout our show where the hosts do different things,” says Fields. “The goal was to provide them with their own environments, their own unique functionality to tell their stories in a different way.”

Fox Sports developed much of the creative for the LED volume and also worked in concert with “out-of-house design studios” on some of the creative integrated into the studio. “They would help facilitate building an environment,” says Fields.

“Sometimes they would build functionality; other times we would build that functionality—things like generating graphics based on live data or any other sort of dynamic information that we then integrate into our studio,” he says.

Rendering relies on a combination of technologies. Eleven Viz Engines power the standard LED screens around the set while 25 Unreal Engines drive the XR rendering required for the LED volume as well as any AR rendering that’s needed, says Fields, adding that all engines used for the volume are 4K.

“One of the key technologies we are using is called GhostFrame [from Megapixel]. It allows multiple cameras to see their own image on the LED wall,” says Field. For this LED volume, four cameras can have their own view of and projection onto the LED volume at the same time.

To someone standing in the LED volume, the displays appear to have the pickup of the different cameras overlaid on each other. However, the technology makes it possible for each camera to see only its own image, thereby giving the director an accurate preview of LED volume shots from the four cameras before deciding which one to take to air, he says.

“GhostFrame is sort of like the secret sauce to making this work in a live broadcast environment,” says Fields. 

To support the use of AR throughout the set, seven cameras are tracked and support object tracking that allows for elements in the shot to be interactive. “We deployed stYpe tracking for the cameras as well as object tracking,” says Fields. “That allows us to not only place objects in AR, but also to interact with objects in 3D space.”

Wireless tablets will be used to give talent control over AR elements and telestration. In total, the setup supports 41 real-time graphics output channels.

One fear many broadcasters have expressed about adopting any sort of virtual technology for sets is what happens in the event of an engine failure. Fox Sports, too, had those concerns but has learned to live with the possibility based on its experience in Charlotte.

“Our Charlotte studio was our first virtual set, and we’ve been doing it quite a while now, almost seven days a week, most weeks out of the year,” says Fields.

Originally, the broadcaster focused on having complete redundancy for every rendering engine as well as an automatic failover. “What we realized was in the time that it would take to get that [doing the failover], you’re better off switching to another camera and using the other cameras until the problem is corrected,” he says.

In the event of a catastrophic failure, the “beautiful thing” about the Los Angeles deployment is there is also a practical set so the show can go on uninterrupted, he says.

Beyond the AR and XR, the new studio is equally impressive and massive. The structure includes 63,000 pounds of steel, aluminum, rigging hardware and mechanical components, and required over 53,000 man hours to build.

Only The Beginning
In Fields’ view, the new Fox Sports studio is only the latest advancement in a long line of virtual technology—one that’s poised to transform television going forward.

“I think this is a technology that you’re going to hear a lot about in broadcast’s future. There’s been an iteration of virtual sets. It started with virtual sets used for weather segments and grew into a whole other thing as the technology progressed,” he says.

As photorealism entered the picture so did a new generation of LED display technology that enabled the next advancement. 

“We’re now able to not only project incredible imagery, but the LED also provides this lighting on your subjects that creates a believability that hasn’t been able to be achieved before. That is why when this is seen on the air, I think people will really be impressed with the visual presentation,” he says.

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.—The virtual reality/augmented reality category of tech hardware and accessories had a very successful 2021 holiday period in the U.S. according to new data released by The NPD Group. 

Their sales tracking service found that unit sales of VR/AR hardware and accessories were up 180% during the five-week holiday period from the week of Thanksgiving through Christmas (Nov. 21, 2021 – Dec. 25, 2021) and that VR/AR hardware and accessories saw a 153% spike in revenue versus the prior year.

Based on NPD’s Weekly Retail Tracking Service data, growth was slightly lower for full year 2021, up 163% in unit sales and 137% in revenue compared to the previous year. 

“This year’s holiday gains come as consumers continue to look for unique entertainment experiences and also likely benefited from challenges consumers faced in securing popular gaming consoles,” said Ben Arnold, executive director and technology industry analyst for NPD. “That said, as new devices become available, and the consumer base has an opportunity to grow, we expect positive momentum in the year ahead – starting with 32% revenue growth in the first half. The Metaverse, VR/AR, and smart glasses will be areas to watch in 2022.”

The beginning of the pandemic brought empty sports stadiums around the world. Even when the teams began to return to the playing field, the fans weren’t allowed back in the stands — at least not actual fans. Some production companies were able to create virtual fans, though similar technology was already in use before the COVID-19 breakout to enhance what the viewer was seeing at home. With the adoption of 5G wireless technology, smart phone users didn’t have to miss out either.

“We have been leveraging AI — artificial intelligence — to enhance the way we can bring the augmented reality experience to the audience,” said Thibault Baras, general manager of Dreamwall, which has been working with virtual and augmented reality technology for more than 20 years. “This has included different content, from virtual fireworks to virtual zeppelins that can fly overhead in a stadium.”

ENTERTAIN AND INFORM

This technology can entertain, inform and even be used to provide additional advertising opportunities for sports franchises. And with 5G, those in the stands will also be able to experience it as well. 

“Virtual studios are designed to amaze the viewer — even with growing expectations, amazing the viewer is still achievable,” said Gerhard Lang, CTO at Vizrt. “Photorealism is approaching a level where it is almost impossible to distinguish between a real studio and a virtual studio. This means our customers can take their viewers to locations and spaces with a quality previously only achievable by large movie productions in post. The technology exists, and it does not matter whether a game engine or native rendering is used for the production.”

The use of graphical technology has advanced so that augmented reality can blend near seamlessly with the physical, and this has been extremely important as the pandemic forced many to work remotely. If the sportscasters and broadcasters can’t go to an event, the technology can help better immerse them into the environment, which could immerse the viewer in the experience.

“Virtual technology and augmented reality help content creators to improve the viewing experience for the audience, especially when delivering large amounts of data or when creating information graphics. Because, if complex data are displayed in a visually attractive way, the audience can understand them better; and helps retaining audiences and explaining the concepts,” said Miguel Churruca, marketing director for Brainstorm.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has consolidated the virtual technology revolution. Virtual and remote solutions are here to stay and taking advantage of these will only help in satisfying an ever-growing demand for content,” said Churruca. “Viewers are demanding ever-more sophisticated graphics, and the increased demand for content creation, coupled with the contention of production costs and current mobility and distancing limitations, make augmented reality and virtual reality the perfect choice for any broadcaster or production company aiming to create high-end content.”

Game engines are also providing production teams with real-time feedback, and even allowing those teams to make informed creative decisions on set, explained James Uren, technical director at Mo-Sys Engineering.

“The technologies incorporated into our VP Pro and VP Pro XR solutions enable final pixel filming in LED volumes, previsualization for green screen filming and augmented computer graphics in live television broadcast,” Uren said. “These technical tools are giving directors, actors and production teams a tremendous boost and will be helping blur the lines even further between the real and the virtual components in a shoot, creating stunning visuals to engage and delight their audiences.”

CREATING MAGIC

We are at a point where graphics technology can create video magic like never previously seen. AMD is making inroads in those efforts with its third-generation AMD Ryzen Threadripper, which has been used by studios to create the wondrous and terrifying alike. 

“All good content is about the suspension of disbelief — and that is absolutely true whether you are watching a five-minute cartoon or a two-hour feature film,” said James Knight, visual effects and media and entertainment director for AMD. 

“It is about making the characters move accurately so that they seem like they are real,” he said. AMD’s technology helps in the production by making this work less time-consuming, by increasing the power the production teams are afforded.

Technology still is only half of it, said Vizrt’s Lang, who said that the final output still largely depends on the talent and skill of the artists working in the studio.

“This talent is sometimes underappreciated and underfunded in our industry,” said Lang. “In addition to beautiful backdrops, our solutions allow for stories to be told in understandable ways. Content is presented using the most efficient workflows in the industry, or by putting the anchor in the steering seat by enabling interactivity in the studio for them.” © NAB 2021

PARAMUS, N.J.—Sony has announced it is upgrading its BRC remote PTZ cameras with a new firmware release offering a set of features supporting the company’s ongoing efforts to help video producers remain safe and healthy while working from a distance.

The V2.1 firmware release for the BRC-X1000/1, BRC-X1000/WPW and BRC-H800/1, BRC-H800/WPW allows producers and operators to simplify their VR and AR production workflows, the company said.

The firmware update enables the BRC cameras to output tracking data over IP, using the Free-D protocol, making it possible for the cameras to feed pan, tilt, zoom, focus, iris and positioning data in real time. 

This capability eliminates the need for additional tracking devices and systems, making VR and AR productions simpler and less costly. It also will make it easier to incorporate VR and AR into live content for applications like set and scenery expansion, live animation, e-sports and graphic overlays.

The Free-D protocol is an industry standard supported by major AR/VR solutions providers. The BRC-X1000 and BRC-H800 currently are under verification with The Future Group (Pixotope), Reckeen, Vizrt and Zero Density. There are plans to support integration with other companies implementing Free-D data.

The firmware update also improves the pan/tilt/zoom operation of the BRC-X1000 and BRC-H800.

A reduced minimum speed allows the cameras to track an object more accurately on the set and facilitate shot framing. Output is more realistic and smoother, even with non-professional operators.

Additionally, the upgrade enables the cameras to focus as soon as the preset is recalled and supports control when using a physical remote controller.

The firmware upgrade for the cameras will be made available online Aug. 31.

CUPPERTINO, Calif.—Apple has plans to integrate augmented reality content to its Apple TV+ shows as early as next year, according to a report by Bloomberg.

With AR technology, characters or objects from the shows could be integrated into viewers’ environments through their phones or tablets as new bonus content, Bloomberg reports. The goal is apparently not only to add value to the Apple TV+ service, but to boost interest in AR tech as Apple works on a headset that could be out in 2022.

An example of possible AR content provided by Bloomberg would be having a virtual lunar rover in your living room while watching the Apple TV+ original “For All Mankind.”

For more information, read the full story from Bloomberg.

BOSTON—Strategy Analytics expects the global virtual reality and augmented reality markets to pick back up in 2021 after a down year in 2020 because of COVID-19.

The projections come from Strategy Analytics’ report, “Short and Long Term Impacts of COVID-19 on the AR and VR Market.”

Among the key findings from the report are that the forecasted combined shipments of VR headsets and AR dedicated headsets is on pace to increase sixfold through 2025. XR hardware (the identification for this combined group) revenues are projected to surpass $28 billion annually in 2025.

Vendors like Samsung and start-up Nreal are also expected to commercialize lightweight, consumer-friendly AR headsets that are tethered to smartphones, which Strategy Analytics says will drive growth in mid and low tier markets. Also in the lower end of the market, 2021-2022 should see a comeback of smartphone-tethered headsets as a result of mobile operators launching 5G.

Though Strategy Analytics has increased its overall forecast for VR headsets, it has decreased its anticipated shipments of console-tethered VR; this is based on Microsoft’s decision not to support VR in the next-generation Xbox.

“We have raised our longer term forecast for XR hardware as a result of new work and life patterns in the ‘new normal,’” said David MacQueen, director of virtual and augmented reality service at Strategy Analytics. “Work at home, training, education and collaboration will all benefit from AR/VR.”

Strategy Analytics’ Vice President David Kerr also says the audience for these devices has expanded beyond gamers and into fields like engineering, automotive and architecture.

A full summary of the report is available on Strategy Analytics’ website. 

Las Vegas, NV – Electronics innovation will be on vibrant display in the Hong Kong Trade Development Council’s (HKTDC) 43rd annual Hong Kong Pavilion at CES, featuring 47 companies in bold and exciting exhibits that showcase why electronics is the number one export for the world city.

Strategically located in the heart of Asia, within a five-hour flight to half of the world's population, Hong Kong has long been a hotbed of entrepreneurship. The city boasts the fifth-fastest growing start-up ecosystem in the world and was the world's #1 IPO center in 2019. It's strong global financial hub, coupled with the city's supportive regulatory structures, low taxes, attract top investments to help fuel new and long-term development.

Today, more than 3,100 start-ups call Hong Kong home, a 21% increase from 2018. Co-organized with the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP)

20 of these start-ups will be exhibiting in Eureka Park, including 6 winners from the Start-up Express – a development program launched by HKTDC to assist Hong Kong start-ups in building networks, marketing their business and enhancing brand awareness globally. There are also two winners from IPHatch Hong Kong – an open-innovation competition to bring business concepts to fruition by commercializing the intellectual property and technology portfolios from renowned multinational corporations.

As a key international sourcing hub, 27 Hong Kong innovators will also be featured in the Design and Source to supply the needs of global buyers who attend CES this week.

Exhibitors representing a broad spectrum of applications will be on display, including:

1. Artificial Intelligence: Jedies Advance Tech, Veztan

2. Wellness/Wellbeing: CYC Motor, Contact Beverage

3. Lifestyle: Knitwarm, Maxconcept

4. Wearables and Medical/Healthcare: Taison Digital, MedEXO, Incus

5. Eco/ Smart Home: AIRXED, Hi-Cooler, Epro

6. Smart City: RaSpect, , Affluent Growth & Innovation Tech

7. IoT & Sensors: R-Guardian, Prodigy, Meridian Innovation

8. Lighting: LiPhy, Rayson

9. Safety & Security: GL Technologies, KiLax

10. R&D: NAMI, Innoplay

11. AR/VR: PPK, Kazoo

12. 3D: PlusD,

13. E-commerce: LinkedMarts

14. Electro/Acoustic: Innovation Technology, Kan Tsang, Chiba, Shiba

15. Testing & Certification: ECTest, STC

As the world’s freest economy for the past 25 years, and ranked as the world’s third best and easiest place for business by the World Bank’s Doing Business Report 2020, Hong Kong presents an ideal opportunity and platform for companies seeking to enter the fast-growing Asian market. Electronics products are currently Hong Kong's biggest export, accounting for over 68% of Hong Kong's total exports in 2018 and supplying global demand for high-tech products including telecommunications equipment, semiconductors and computer items, etc.

For more about HKTDC, please visit www.hktdc.com and for registration details for CES, please visit www.ces.tech.

To learn more about the 47 Hong Kong companies exhibiting at CES, click here.

About HKTDC
The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is a statutory body established in 1966 to promote, assist and develop Hong Kong's trade. With 50 offices globally, including 13 in Mainland China, the HKTDC promotes Hong Kong as a two-way global investment and business hub. The HKTDC organizes international exhibitions, conferences and business missions to create business opportunities for companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in the mainland and international markets. The HKTDC also provides up-to-date market insights and product information via trade publications, research reports and digital news channels. For more information, please visit: www.hktdc.com/aboutus. 

OYSTER BAY, N.Y.—The impact of Disney+ goes beyond all the memes of Baby Yoda from “The Mandalorian.” The direct-to-consumer (DTC) OTT service, which will be joined by others like HBOMax and NBCUniversal’s Peacock in 2020, is forecasting a shift in the video market, according to a new report from ABI Research.

ABI dove into this and other topics in its “54 Technology Trends to watch in 2020” report. Some of the other trends dealt with virtual reality and augmented reality, 8K and 5G.

The last few years, virtual MVPDs like YouTube TV, DirecTV Now (now AT&T TV Now) and PlayStation Vue (soon to be defunct) were seemingly pointing to how content was distributed as being the key factor in a changing market. However, the popularity of Disney+ and its library of content is shifting that paradigm, and the launch of DTC services HBOMax and Peacock—with deep libraries of content of their own—will result in consumers debating how they will spend their content budget, per ABI.

This will make it difficult for new services that do not have preexisting content to make an impact in the market, predicts ABI. It says Apple TV+ is an example of that already with its lower price ($5 per month) and its bundling with new Apple hardware purchases to help spur subscriber growth.

ABI does see a potential avenue for traditional pay-TV operators. “[T]he shift to DTC does create an opportunity for these MVPDs to serve as an aggregation point for fragmented OTT services,” ABI writes.

2020 may be a good year for DTC, but ABI does not see a big growth in 8K TVs. While the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan will be broadcasting in 8K, that hi-res broadcast is expected to be limited to the host country. In reality, 8K content for TVs around the world is still extremely limited, so, “without the content to take advantage of the higher resolution, adoption, of course, will be limited,” ABI reasons. 

Price is expected to come down for 8K TVs, though it is still expected to be higher than the average consumer can afford, so ABI forecasts less than 1 million shipments of 8K TVs worldwide in 2020. However, 4K TVs are expected to see some growth.

Other findings from ABI’s report touched on VR and AR technology. While there is growing buzz for consumer VR experiences, it is not expected to see a big growth as there still needs to be some maturation in both the hardware and software for the technology. AR, on the other hand, is expected to have some significant growth, particularly on mobile platforms. 2020 will be more of a chance for VR to establish a clearer path moving forward, says ABI.

ABI also touched on the deployment of 5G. It said that it expects 5G Fixed Wireless Access services to see “accelerated growth,” while other 5G services will continue to be built out, though there will still be ample room for growth in the coming years.

One thing that ABI did not touch on that is set for a major deployment next year is Next Gen TV. The new television standard garnered no mention in the report, even though it is expected be available in the top 40 U.S. markets by the end of 2020.

More information can be found on ABI Research’s website, www.abiresearch.com.

STOCKHOLM—By 2030, simply watching something on TV, or any screen-based platform, could be so 10 years ago; instead, consumers may be able to enjoy content that engages all of their senses: sight, sound, taste, smell and touch.

This is according to the ninth edition of the Ericsson ConsumerLab Hot Consumer Trends report, which takes a close look at the developments and potential uses of the Internet of Senses, and how consumers believe it will be put to use.

According to Ericsson, the Internet of Senses will be enabled by things like AI, VR, AR, 5G and automation. With these capabilities, consumers predict that by 2030 the Internet of Senses’ multisensory experiences will be a strong competitor to screen-based experiences, with the expected immersive entertainment offerings predicted to be “almost inseparable from reality.”

“We’re talking about a shift from current smartphone-based internet connectivity to immersive experiences resulting from our senses being connected,” said Dr. Pernilla Jonsson, head of Ericsson Consumer & IndustryLab and co-author of the report.

The report specifically details 10 consumer trends for 2030 based on Internet of Senses:

• 59% of consumers believe that VR glasses will be able to present a map just by thinking of a destination;
• 67% believe they will be able to mimic anyone’s voice by using a microphone;
• 45% predict a device that can digitally enhance what you eat and how it tastes;
• About six in 10 respondents thought they will be able to digitally visit forests or other environments and experience their natural smells;
• More than six in 10 think that smartphone screens will convey the shape and texture of digital icons and buttons they are pressing;
• Virtual reality games will be indistinguishable from the real world, according to seven of 10 respondents;
• Half of respondents think news reporting services will have extensive fact checking features to eliminate “fake news;”
• Half expect privacy issues to be fully resolved;
• Six in 10 believe that Internet of Senses will make society more environmentally sustainable; and
• 45% of consumers anticipate digital malls that can utilize all five senses while shopping

Read the full 10 Hot Consumer Trends 2030 report via Ericsson.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.—Augmented and virtual reality are expected to get a shot in the arm in 2020 to the tune of $18.8 billion in global spending.

That forecast comes from a report by International Data Corporation and its “Worldwide Augmented and Virtual Reality Spending Guide.” If the $18.8 billion figure comes true, it would represent a 78.5% growth over the $10.5 billion IDC projects as the final figure for 2019. This would be the start of what IDC sees as growing spending habits until 2023, as the organization is projecting a five-year compound annual growth rate of 77%.

A key for the growth of the AR/VR market, per IDC, is the declining cost of entry. Commercial industries are expected to use the technology primarily for training (projected $2.6 billion in spending) and industrial maintenance ($914 million). On the consumer side, it will be VR gaming ($3.3 billion) and VR feature viewing ($1.4 billion). Public fields are also expected to see significant growth in spending, especially in post-secondary and K-12 education and onsite assembly and safety.

“Across enterprise industries, we are seeing a strong outlook for standalone viewers play out in use case adoption,” said Marcus Torchia, research director, Customer Insights & Analysis. “Enterprises will drive much of these high-end headset adoption trends. In the consumer segment, more affordable viewer models for gaming and entertainment purposes will see the broadest industry adoption.”

In terms of what these companies will be buying, hardware is expected to account for nearly two-thirds of AR/VR spending over the five-year period, followed by software and services. Services will include systems integration, consulting services and custom application development.

U.S. projected spending ($5.1 billion) in 2020 is expected to trail only China ($5.8 billion). The U.S. and Western Europe are the two regions expected to see the fastest growth—104.2% CAGR for the Western Europe and 96.1% for the U.S.

More information on the report can be found on IDC’s website.

BERGEN, Norway & SAN ANTONIO—Vizrt and NewTek will combine their IBC 2019 exhibition—the first joint exhibit at a major trade show since the Vizrt acquisition of NewTek earlier this year—to highlight the future of IP-based, software defined visual storytelling content production.

During the gathering at the RAI Amsterdam, Sept. 13-17, NewTek, Vizrt and partners around the show floor will be using the NDI IP-based video standard.

The Vizrt stage on its IBC stand will offer a variety of thought-leadership presentations, including The Big AR Sports show, which will demonstrate how Vizrt Sports software can be used for AR, play analysis and monetization of sports and other live events.

The Sports software will be an important part of the company’s IBC presentation for sports broadcasters and rights holders as they prepare for the Olympics, UEFA EUROs and other major sporting events in 2020.

Vizrt’s IBC presentation will also include:

• the launch of Viz Engine 4, featured throughout The Big AR Sports Show, as the cornerstone of future media workflows;
• newsroom and automation workflows presented in Connected Storytelling with new features in the company’s automation range aimed at enabling media companies to produce live productions easily and error free;
• the role of NDI as a key enabler of efficient IP-based production workflows, presented at “A New Era of Live Production;” and
• IP-based software defined visual storytelling (SDVS) production and SDI enhancements to production platforms to enable automation-driven storytelling capabilities.

See NewTek and Vizrt at IBC 2019 stand 7.B01. More information is available on the NewTek and Vizrt websites.

LONDON—BBC’s coverage of Wimbledon this year is providing viewers something they have not seen before, a series of in-studio augmented reality displays courtesy of sport and event graphics company MOOV.

Based around a three-camera setup (two pedestals and one jib), MOOV is using RT Software’s AR technology and StarTracker camera tracking technology from Mo-Sys to produce the AR graphics. The Mo-Sys system is an optical tracking system that enables studio cameras to be moved when overlaying augmented graphics.

The AR technology provides enhanced graphics not possible in a traditional studio, including virtual life-size cutouts of players on glass plinths and a virtual “Magic Window” that looks onto a 3D render of a tennis court to show results and match data laid out on the court surface.

Each camera feed is passed through RT’s render engine, which drives both the player cutouts and the Magic Window in real time.

OSLO, Norway—The Future Group has introduced Pixotope, a software suite for commodity hardware that makes it easy and affordable to use 3D, VR, AR and data technology in video productions.

Available as a subscription-only package, Pixotope enables broadcasters and video producers to create real-time, cinematic-quality, cross-reality content, the company said. The new product closely integrates the Epics Games Unreal Engine to make possible creation of real-time graphics.

Pixotope’s real-time graphics processes include reflections, distortion, shadows, lightwrap and virtual camera moves.

The Pixotope software suite includes: Pixotope Director to control all aspects of the system; Pixotope DataHub, which offers an API for easy integration of multi-camera workflows, including MOS, custom control panels, DMX light control and GPI triggers; Pixotope Controller, which allow design and integration of control panels inside browsers on any device; and Pixotope Editor, which supports a WYSIWYG workflow for level layout, lighting, vfx, animation and compositing.

Pixotope tools include the Text3D GG, Pixotope Keyer and Pixotope Studio Creator virtual studio generator.

The software allows users to:

• Create virtual sets and AR with cinema-quality real-time graphics;
• Work with a single camera or multi-camera productions in which everything is synchronized and dynamically linked;
• Make all graphics work, from personalized sets to entire content sequences, data-driven
• Use off-the-shelf hardware and CPUs.

Monthly subscriptions are priced at $2,500 per camera channel.

More information is available on the Future Group website.

You've seen him on CNN stalking around a virtual environment and interacting with graphical representations of the SCOTUS process, North Korean missiles or Royal Thai Navy SEAL divers. Tom Foreman has established much of the network's work beyond video, playing a key role in the development and use of an immersive, 3D virtual studio that takes viewers to space to study satellites, onto distant battlefields to promote understanding of dangerous conflicts and down deep into the data of presidential elections.

Foreman will be a keynote speaker at Government Video Expo 2018. He spoke with Managing Director of Content Paul McLane for Government Video.

Government Video: You've done a lot of work in broadcast news with technology you've described as "going beyond video." What exactly does that mean?

Tom Foreman: We now have tools that allow us to visualize concepts that previously were not visual. We can turn data, we can turn ideas, we can turn trends, into interactive, touchable graphics, with which we can tell a story that adds clarity to our understanding of an increasingly complex world.

Previously, there were economic trends, crime trends, security trends that were difficult to visualize. But if you can turn it into an environment that you can stand next to, it helps people, who are visual creatures, to see what we're talking about.

GV: How did you become involved with the virtual studio?

Foreman: Hurricane Katrina was the birth of a lot of this. I had a deep and long understanding of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast from having worked there in traditional journalism — doing beautiful pictures, explanatory pictures and reports. And yet Katrina brought such a scope of disaster that no one picture could do it justice. Even a collection of pictures could not do it justice. You needed the giant view that we could bring through a graphic treatment. What we were using at the time was a giant wall-based projection of Google Earth, which I was controlling with a mouse in my hand, I was controlling it on set and we were flying in and out.

The real value, though, came from the combination of traditional on-the-ground reporting and photography video that supported it, then using this as a high-tech frame that let us add the meaning that said, "Okay, I just showed you a picture of a church halfway underwater. That matters because this is where that church is; and down the street is this school, and down the street is this government building, and over here is the streetcar line." It gave a context.

We did the same thing after the earthquake in Haiti. We were able to show, not only where the damage was, but by widening out and using some of these tools to show satellite images before and after, we were able to analyze road blockages and say why it was so hard for aid to get to people. The Army asked if they could get copies of our images, because they were having trouble figuring out how to get things to people, and our analysis with the satellite images worked for them.

GV: Why aren't more people doing this in such a visual world? Is it cost?

Foreman: I don't think it's cost, it's understanding. This is a very high-tech tool for a very traditional and old-fashioned process: storytelling. A lot of people mistakenly think that this is whiz-bang, it's all about amazing graphics and immersive graphics; that is not the case at all.

Almost everything we produce begins as simple paper-and-pen drawings on my desk, where our team gathers around, and we draw it; and as we draw it, we're saying, “What is the story? What is it we're trying to convey?”

I think one of the reasons people don't do it — or do it effectively — is they compartmentalize it. "Well, the graphics department will create this; and the show production team will create this; and we'll bring in a reporter at the last minute and plug them in." That absolutely does not work. You have to have the full team involved from beginning to end.

GV: Is there a risk that these tools could come to be used in place of live reporting, rather than to complement it?

Foreman: I don't think so, because everything we do is grounded in traditional journalism. Everything we do is grounded in finding actual facts. In fact, we steer away from doing it when we can get access that shows us what we want.

GV: You've used this technology for so many interesting projects. Are there two or three that particularly stand out?

Foreman: This has been tremendously helpful in giving a sense of scale, when we've dealt with natural disasters; in giving a sense of proximity, when we've dealt with war situations; and in helping us peek into places where we can't readily look.

As we've analyzed the North Korean missile and nuclear program, it's been tremendously useful to show exactly how much progress they're making — and what they still have not yet accomplished. Missiles involve almost incomprehensible distances and speed and force; this allows us to depict that.

In the search for the missing Malaysian airplane, this was an enormously useful tool. When you say to somebody "five thousand square miles of ocean," most people have no idea what that looks like. If somebody talks about something being 1,500 feet underwater, they don't really understand what that means either. We're able to depict that in ways that make sense.

GV: Look ahead five years, how is our experience of watching content going to change further?

Foreman: You see sports embracing this a little bit. Sports can do that in part because you're always talking about a very defined situation. The football field is this size, and there are two teams, and they play this long. Basketball, field hockey, arena, whatever.

We're going to see a lot more of this embraced, not just by news organizations but by anyone who's in the business of trying to tell a story. Because frankly the world we live in today is endlessly complex compared to the world we lived in 50 years ago. You can wake up in the morning and get an email from a friend in Indonesia, respond to a phone call from your office down the street, see photographs from a family member who's three time zones away, and search back 20 years for records of information that you might need that day. You are traveling time and space every minute, much more than we used to. That requires a new kind of understanding of that information.

We can't make our brains evolve that quickly, so what we have to do is have tools that allow our brains, as they are, to connect with this new reality.

GV: What about artificial intelligence, 4K, other technical areas?

Foreman: Willa Cather once wrote that art should simplify, that it's about simplifying ideas and making them understandable. All these technological things—the quality of video; the immersive nature of some of these systems—I think that's going to continue. The real secret here, for those who want to thrive in this environment, is to recognize them for just what they are: These are tools for a simple process of understanding. If you let it become about the tools, then it becomes more noise, more clutter that doesn't help you understand the world.

This world that we're going into is not for the faint of heart. There are huge challenges to making sure this technology serves us. But the rewards for doing that are absolutely immense.

Many years ago, when I was a very young person, I did a big, a big magic show with flying doves and floating ladies and fireballs and the whole thing. That has been enormously useful to me. The whole purpose of a magic show is knowing what's really going on, which can be incredibly complex. And yet remembering what the audience sees — and knowing you have to let them come along in the story, in a way that works for them — that's what we're doing here.

When I'm in the virtual environment, there is rarely a gesture or a step or a turn that is not carefully constrained by the technology that I'm surrounded by. Only if you do that properly does it appear real, in a virtual sense; and only then can the technology disappear and the understanding come through.

Key Takeaways

Who? Tom Foreman of CNN is a featured keynoter at Government Video Expo on Wednesday, Nov. 28, in the session "From the 'Situation Room' to the Thailand Caves — Today's Evolving Journalism”

Why? New technology is helping media professionals tell stories more effectively by leveraging "the one thing humans are really good at: visual interpretation."

Now What? Register now to meet and learn from CNN's Tom Foreman and other top speakers from PBS, The DC Visionaries, BundlAR, Creative Media Matters and more.

OTTAWA-Ross Video has announced the release of v18 of its OverDrive Automated Production Control (APC) platform.

Ross says v18 helps content creators better manage and reduce the complexity of audio, as well offer additional rundown information, greater customization of the user interface, Ross Virtual Solutions UX MOS support (for virtual studio/augmented reality applications), as well as new security updates.

A summary of the new features:

• Audio Variables – included in OverDrive Premium and optional modules for OverDrive Prime and OverDrive Express.
• QuickAudio Groups, an enhancement to the existing QuickAudio feature where users can group multiple sources into a single keyword.
• New UI customization – bigger, bolder and different colors. Users can now select different colors to represent elements in the rundown to match existing workflows making the transition to OverDrive even easier.
• Additional rundown information – users can now display more granular information about each shot in the rundown. This enables a simpler or more detailed display depending on the layout’s application (e.g. producer needs less technical information, but the director wants more detailed information.)
• New security updates and performance/security improvements for HTML5 MOS plugins.
• Ross Virtual Solutions (VS/AR) – UX MOS support

At the same time as shipping V18 of OverDrive, Ross is also releasing V5.1 of Caprica, which enables OverDrive to be used with a comprehensive range of third party production switchers.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Fox Sports will debut a new high-tech set as the home of its NASCAR coverage in February 2019 that leverages the latest advancements in virtual set and augmented reality technology to create an element of on-screen sizzle fans won’t soon forget while bringing a high degree of flexibility to its productions.

At the heart of the tech setup behind this sizzle and flexibility is the Epic Games Unreal Engine 4, along with Zero Density studio software, which provides advanced keying for the virtual set, and custom software to enable all of the data needed for the set to be edited in a live broadcast environment.

CUSTOMIZE QUICKLY

A key advantage of basing the new 3,600-square-foot studio on virtual set and augmented reality (AR) technology is the ability to customize studio spaces quickly and affordably for different shows. However, in the view of Zac Fields, senior vice president of Graphic Technology and Integration for Fox Sports, that was not a realistic alternative until recently.

“A lot of networks would institute some green screen space to have some more flexibility of a virtual set,” says Fields. “The problem was they didn’t look nearly as good as what you can do now with the current tools that are out there.”

Having overcome that obstacle, the technology allows Fox Sports to react quickly in a virtual setting to what happens on the racetrack from week to week and show to show without the time or expense of doing something similar with hard set elements or entirely foregoing illustrating an important fact or concept to viewers because of the sheer impossibility of doing so in the real world.

For instance, bringing the Daytona 500 track up from the floor of the virtual set to explain the banking and surface of the track is something that could only be done in a virtual environment, says Mike Dolan, vice president of Design at Fox Sports.

Depending on what’s needed to analyze a race, the system can instantly bring into the set 3D racecars, engines, wheel assemblies and any other element needed to better inform NASCAR fans, he adds.

The core 3D rendering technology along with other essential gear needed for the set gives the designers at Fox Sports an unprecedented level of creative freedom, he adds.

“With these tools, it’s not so much what’s possible,” says Dolan. “It’s what do you want to do? Whatever you can imagine is now possible, and it will look as real as you want.”

Viewers will see the set early next year when it debuts as the home of “NASCAR Race Hub,” “NASCAR RaceDay,” and other NASCAR programming, according to Fox Sports.

WORLD CUP EXPERIENCE

Beyond the core gaming engine and software that powers real-time rendering and a photorealistic look, the studio relies on five Stype Red Spy encoded cameras, including a Steadicam and a jib camera; Blacktrax 3D tracking technology to trigger events on set automatically; a 50-by-47-foot green screen area; and real-time AR combining real set elements and 3D graphics.

Check out this sizzle reel:

While Fox Sports had been tracking the progress of virtual sets and AR technology for a few years, it was the preparations for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia that confirmed to the broadcaster that the technology was fully baked. Fox Sports built a mock-up set simply to show internally what was being planned for coverage of the international soccer championship, including where in Red Square the network wished to locate its set, explains Dolan.

“After we built it, it opened eyes about what is really possible with this platform,” he says.

Video game renderers like the Unreal Engine 4 have increased the level of photorealism that can be achieved in a virtual set environment, he adds. “That is where the video game renderers have really come into play with the level of 3D and photorealism you can achieve, but still run that in real time.”

When paired with the Blacktrax technology, the setup allows on-screen talent and race analysts to manipulate 3D objects in the virtual set to better explain something to viewers, adds Fields.

While both Dolan and Fields declined to reveal how much the new studio cost Fox Sports, Fields describes the expenditure as “a heavy investment.”

The technology may one day have a role in the coverage of other sports by the broadcaster, but no plans have been announced.

“There’s no reason this would continue to be only a NASCAR thing. There are so many advantages,” says Fields. “It only helps productions tell their stories and make them more interesting.”

Every pundit worth his or her salt is making predictions about the impact of 5G on the world economy. Intel just released a report that attempts to measure that impact on the media and entertainment market.

According to a new “5G Economics of Entertainment Report,” commissioned by Intel and conducted by Ovum, nearly $3 trillion in cumulative revenue opportunities will be spurred by wireless technology from 2019-2028 and experiences enabled by 5G networks will account for nearly half of it (close to $1.3 trillion).

The report cites 2025 as the “tipping point” for 5G, predicting that by then, 57 percent of global wireless media revenues will be generated by the next-gen cellular standard, which promises bandwidth up to 100 Gbps. With speeds potentially up to 1,000x faster than the current 4G protocol, the buffering issues that come with livestreaming and large downloads will be a thing of the past.

5G’s speed will also enable the growth of immersive services such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), which will generate more than $140 billion in cumulative revenues between 2021 and 2028. Ovum predicts that gaming will be at the forefront of 5G-led innovations, with AR gaming comprising annual revenues of nearly $36 billion globally, or more than 90 percent of 5G AR revenues.

By 2028, new “immersive,” currently non-existent applications will provide an annual revenue bucket of $67 billion, which is the value of the entire current global mobile media market--video, music and games–in 2017, Ovum predicts.

For the current media market, 5G is characterized by Ovum as a “major competitive asset” which will allow telecom companies to better compete with cable, satellite and IPTV. The term “cord-cutting” will seem like an anachronism a decade from now as telcos offering 5G will be able to offer most, if not more than the same services as current wired cable service providers.

5G will also have a major impact on mobile display advertising, as higher speeds will enable social and media immersive experiences, leading to an expected market of $178 billion worldwide by 2028.

The average monthly traffic per 5G subscriber will grow from 11.7GB in 2019 to 84.4GB per month in 2028, at which point video will account for 90 percent of all 5G traffic, according to the report. Ovum also warns that the demand for applications for 5G will mean that evolved 3G and 4G networks will suffer as their capacity will be insufficient to handle the increased video viewing time, content evolution to higher resolutions, more embedded media and immersive experiences.

“5G will inevitably shake up the media and entertainment landscape. It will be a major competitive asset if companies adapt, said Jonathan Wood, general manager of Business Development & Partnerships, 5G Next Generation and Standards at Intel. “If not, they risk failure or even extinction.”

The emergence of new content formats in the media and entertainment sector—think 4K Ultra High Definition (UHD), Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)—has created a deluge of data that needs to be managed, accessed and processed in record time to feed the insatiable appetite of today’s entertainment consumer.

According to Tom Coughlin’s ‘2017 Digital Storage for Media and Entertainment Report’, digital storage capacity used in the entertainment industry will increase by 3.5x between 2016 and 2022. To battle the rapid turnaround times and increasing data volumes that follow as a result of this fast-growing industry, an up-to-date and ever-expanding storage system is not just a recommendation—it is a necessity. Is your storage infrastructure ready for the technology challenges of the modern media workflow? Let’s take a look.

STATE OF THE M&E INDUSTRY

Looking at behavior models in the media and entertainment industry, and specifically the VFX space, we can see that today’s media industry is characterized by spikes, as production requirements and schedules are notoriously fickle. Media studio operations must accommodate for huge data workload spikes caused by unplanned job changes that occur in the middle of planned production schedules. Moreover, tight budgets and high expectations are a main concern. As a result, companies are facing unprecedented cost pressure to support new production and distribution technologies that drive differentiation and enhance productivity.

Inevitably, responding to this imperative requires investing in storage and other infrastructure components, but all too often, the need for investment clashes with an ultra-tight budget which can lead to saving in the wrong places. It’s important not to forget that an inadequate storage infrastructure can not only have an adverse effect on business outcome but may also take a human toll by requiring labor-intensive administration, which not only impacts the bottom-line but also shifts the focus from where it needs to be: on the craft and creativity of your production facility. That’s why it’s important to find storage that offers the right combination of performance, price, flexibility, and manageability.

WHAT ARE WE UP AGAINST?

Data-intensive media rendering and animation jobs in the visual effects (VFX) industry demand powerful processing of complex assets with higher resolution, denser colors and faster frame rates. Also, increased pressure on media production teams to deliver higher quality content faster requires an infrastructure that can support 24/7 activity with unparalleled reliability and the confidence that files are available when needed.

If storage is static, lacking, or outdated, wall-clock time increases and deadlines suffer. You need storage that supports parallel creative activities handles high resource demands from multiple sources and delivers the raw speed and management simplicity required for everyone in the creative value chain to work faster and smarter. As a possible solution, studios are moving to or expanding their network-attached storage (NAS) storage solution.

EVALUATING YOUR STORAGE OPTIONS

Putting an agile and easily manageable storage backbone behind both media production and development is essential. As you evaluate your next storage purchase, ask yourself the following questions: Can investment in new storage technology improve our system architecture in terms of greater flexibility, better scalability, improved reliability, and easier management? How will new storage technology improve my creative workflow? How does my team access and share data? How much data growth do we expect from the increased use of 4K formats, 3-D animation, virtual reality, creative collaboration, and new channels for distribution?

In essence, you want a solution that is affordable, delivers high-performance and is still easy to manage. At the same time, performance for all users must be maintained to keep creatives happy as they perform their valuable tasks to push content through the production pipeline.

THE CASE FOR SCALE-OUT NAS IN VFX

Scale-out NAS, when delivered with parallel processing, packs the punch you need to address the data-intensive media rendering and animation productions in VFX environments. When you need shared-access storage that scales easily and delivers faster rendering times, supports highest data availability, and handles dozens of editorial sessions and high resource demands from multiple creatives, scale-out NAS is the way to go. A scale-out storage infrastructure reduces congestion across multiple “vectors,” including bandwidth and capacity, by supporting small-file I/O requirements across multiple flash-based components, while parallel access to larger files such as IMF containers for DPX or EXR elements improves responsiveness to artists seeking to load and process shots rapidly. Here are a few more points to be made for the advantages of scale-out NAS in VFX production:

Ability to adapt to dynamic business needs: Scale-out storage is well suited to media studio operations looking to expand storage capacity and bandwidth vertically. It’s easy to “turn more on” at the source to expand the scope of the data pipe serving the studio operation. Today’s on-premise scale-out storage solutions are proven effective at delivering the right capacity at the point of need, with the flexibility to grow easily without downtime. Your budget also scales predictably because you pay for what you need when you need it, not for what you think you’ll need tomorrow, making you work faster and more efficiently.

Consistent access to vast amounts of data: A flexible and agile scale-out NAS solution is capable of supporting the highest data transfer requirements in your computing infrastructure while maintaining the highest data availability on a 24/7 basis. Consistent access to vast amounts of data, while also providing reassurances to manage a consistent repository of data that can be deduped, backed up, protected and kept secure, is the cornerstone of a modern storage infrastructure.

Driving a collaborative and connected business operation: Maintaining maximum creativity for artists, streamlining workflows, and delivering projects on time and budget is what it’s all about, and the right scale-out NAS solution makes a difference. Artists being able to focus on their craft instead of wrestling with a complicated storage environment can deliver a higher-quality product. Teams being able to work on media files at full resolution rather than editing a lower resolution and rebuilding are saving valuable time and costs.

THE FUTURE OF STORAGE

Media organizations that embrace technological advances in computing infrastructures can realize incredible benefits. Visual media studios are harnessing the use of scale-out storage technologies to work in new ways that allow them to function as a different kind of collaborative, connected and altogether experimental business operation. There is an extraordinary number of choices when it comes to delivering and consuming media and entertainment production content, and audiences expect a high-quality experience across the board, no matter the channel of delivery.

At the heart of this infrastructure is data storage, and the ability to rationalize and optimize this layer to serve different operational needs is of paramount importance in running an efficient studio.

RW Hawkins is a Storage Systems Engineer at Panasas, a performance scale-out network-attached storage company based in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Since 2013, my first NAB Show stop has been at Avid Connect. This year I was extremely intrigued to see how the event would differ from previous years, since Jeff Rosica had taken the helm of the company following the still-fresh ouster of the previous CEO — who originated the event — along with the Avid Customer Association. It didn’t take long to find out.

Avid Connect has always tended to be product-heavy from start to finish, but this one simply did not feel that way. There was plenty of discussion of Media Composer, Pro Tools and the Media Central Platform — Avid’s business is to make and sell products after all — but the overall event, and the breakout sessions in particular, were far more interesting and educational than prior years, covering a wide range of topics that were not specific to the company and its products.

TECH TRENDS

One session that was surprisingly engrossing, “Technology Trends Musicians Can Utilize for Tracking Royalties.” It covered, among other topics, the pros and cons of streaming.

Panelist Jordan “DJ Swivel” Young made the case that, for those who have a dedicated fan base, streaming can actually be a greater source of revenue than CD or song purchases because the artist gets paid every time the song is played, not just when a purchase is made.

A different technological solution to the issue was presented by Benji Rogers, CEO of Dot Blockchain Media, who claims that current audio file formats are antiquated — WAV is 27 years old; MP3 is 24; and FLAC is 17 — and are part of the problem because they don’t contain persistent metadata.

Rogers proposes a new format and wrapper with blockchain as part of the fundamental framework so that ownership can be tracked from inception through all iterations, sampling and reuse.

Whether or not you’re an artist trying to get paid, the ability to encode persistent, unmodifiable metadata will soon become an essential element of every single piece of media as the ability to replace original audio and video content with completely believable digital substitutes becomes even more mainstream than it already is.

There were several sessions on immersive content and VR, both key elements of Next Gen Audio, and these sessions were far more informative than any I attended at NAB.

The panel of “Creating Spectacular Experiences With Dolby Atmos” included re-recording engineers Doug Hemphill, Ron Bartlett, and Tim Hoogenakker. During the discussion on mixing immersive content, Hemphill pointed out that as sound density increases, imaging and intelligibility decrease, so films with busier soundscapes are more difficult to mix and it becomes harder to make individual sounds stand out. In fact, he sometimes pulls back the density of the sound mix when there are really intense visuals to give people’s brains a break.

When asked what it was like to be able to place sound in so many locations, Bartlett said that they went a little overboard with the overhead speakers at first, but realized that this actually made the film sound more mono and less immersive, so more judicious use of the overheads is now employed.

[Read: 2018 Audio Prognostication—What Lies Ahead?]

Everyone felt that the soundscape in Atmos is more akin to listening in the natural world than standard surround mixes, though every so often the choices made in the surround mix are the right ones compared to the Atmos mix.

While they do verify downmixes as they mix, Hoogenakker said that he specifically checks television downmixes on a soundbar since more people than ever are listening on them at home.

Something that helps keep costs down while speeding up workflow is being able to work in 7.1.4 in smaller rooms to prepare audio for the Atmos mix room. Hemphill brought us all back to reality by reminding us that even though the ability to create amazing immersive soundscapes is now in everyone’s grasp, dialog remains king. Always.

CHALLENGES OF AUDIO IN VR

In the first session on audio for VR, “Techniques for Mixing Audio in VR Content,” the panelists covered aspects of VR production I had not even contemplated. Benedict Green of Ecco VR stressed the importance of preproduction and the fact that, when shooting content, the crew, recording equipment, cables and anything else that might take people out of the experience must be concealed, which is a tad difficult when shooting live actors while trying to capture and playback audio.

Avid Connect has always tended to be product-heavy from start to finish, but this one simply did not feel that way.

Green and Varuna Nair of Facebook both noted that ambisonics is the preferred format for VR audio and there are different tools for working with different order ambisonics.

They also discussed some of the challenges of working with audio for VR, including never being able to use a boom mic on set; and the difficulty of using ambisonics microphones because they cannot move without changing the soundfield. Managing loudness, and keeping audio from clipping is a huge challenge, as can working with nonaudio people who may reorder or mangle the ambisonics tracks. According to Nair, when thinking about VR, audio engineers should “think of it as another tool in the toolbox.”

In the session “Creating a Compelling Immersive Mix for VR Content,” Scott Gershin made the case that realism is not always the best approach, since the purpose of sound is to help tell the story in whatever way necessary.

Like Green and Nair, he also mentioned things I had not really considered. For instance, if you move a sound in the soundscape, people will pay attention to it, so don’t move it if you don’t want it noticed. Gershin does not move backgrounds, but he does group and move all sounds for given characters together to the same place in the soundscape because that is where the character exists at that moment.

Since we don’t really hear things behind us he feels that a 270-degree soundfield is wide enough. As for where this is all heading, Gershin thinks that VR will be commonplace in five years and boring in 10, but augmented reality is really where we’re heading anyway.

Jay Yeary is a television engineer who specializes in audio. He is a member of AES, SBE, SMPTE and TAB. He can be contacted through TV Technology magazine or attransientaudiolabs.com.

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MIAMI—Telemundo Deportes, the exclusive Spanish-language broadcaster of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, is teaming up with sports and entertainment collectables company Panini America to provide Telemundo’s first-ever augmented reality experience for the World Cup. The collaboration launched with the new 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Sticker Collection by Panini, available in stores and online, and now, the AR content will live in the Telemundo Deportes En Vivo app, featuring new posts on a weekly basis.

Fans can access all of Telemundo Deportes’ exclusive Panini content in the AR menu within the Telemundo Deportes En Vivo app. The AR experience is activated via Facebook’s Camera Effects Platform, which also allows users to engage with the AR content and create sharable, filter-type content, such as their own Panini sticker available exclusively through the Telemundo Deportes and Panini collaboration.

The AR experience will include 10-second videos highlighting Telemundo Deportes talent, historic moments and most memorable goals in World Cup history as well as features on this year’s host cities and stadiums. The content will be available now and through the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, June 14-July 15. The Telemundo Deportes’ Panini AR experience, created in collaboration with VR Americas, a provider of immersive technologies, is a finalist for “Best Campaign” at the 9th Annual Augmented World Expo 2018 Auggie Awards.

In addition to the AR content, the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Sticker Collection by Panini features a page dedicated to the Telemundo Deportes commentary team. The partnership also includes traditional and digital advertisements, marketing and grassroots initiatives as well as Panini integrations on Telemundo platforms in advance of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia.

The Telemundo Deportes En Vivo app, is available via app stores for iOS and Android. 

LONDON—The BBC is launching its first-ever augmented reality app.

“Civilizations AR”hasbeen developed by BBC Research & Development and Nexus Studios to accompany the BBC's new arts and culture series, “Civilizations.” It is available on both Android and iOS and will allow users to explore exhibits from the more than 30 U.K. museums that are collaborating with the BBC on the series.

Virtual exhibits featured in the app include the ancient Egyptian mummy from Torquay Museum, Rodin’s The Kiss from the National Museum of Wales, The Umbrian Madonna and Child from the National Museum of Scotland, and more.

The app has been built by the BBC R&D department using Nexus software, based on ARKit for iOS and ARCore for Android. It is also designed to be used for other applications in future, with AR possibilities to accompany other shows and series.

Eleni Sharp, executive product manager for BBC R&D, said “The Civilisations Festival has opened BBC R&D up in a brand new way. Not only has it brought innovative digital tools and skills to hundreds of museums, galleries, libraries, archives and other arts organisations from all over the U.K., it has enabled us to trial our ideas and technologies on a huge scale which is going to influence and inform our work over the coming months and years.

“The work we’ve done with these organisations will enable fans of the series new ways to engage with art and cultural artifacts from across the country. The BBC’s first ever AR app is a great example of this, offering users the ability to explore a personal, virtual exhibition of fascinating pieces whenever and wherever they want.”

This story first appeared on TVT's sister publication TVB Europe. 

AMSTERDAM—There’s a huge amount of investment going into VR, AR and MR, in terms of content creativity and hardware. But panellists at IBC’s ‘Leaving the Hype behind’ session agreed that there was still some way to go. Ed Tang, founder and CTO at Avegant, and the business behind the Glyph headset and technology, said that as exciting as the industry is today, in reality it is at the same stage of development as the very early Motorola ‘brick’ mobile phones. “But we are moving very rapidly forward.”

That progress was demonstrated in a powerful presentation by Leen Segers, who told delegates that some €490 million investment cash had been raised in the past year, and that there were 487 companies in Europe working in the VR/AR/MR space. “And it isn’t just start-ups. Players such as Barco and Zeiss are extremely active, as are studios, media, education, distribution, gaming, social media, sport and healthcare as well as the high-profile hardware producers.”

Seger admitted there were problems, not helped by low penetration and fragmented distribution. She demonstrated the number of keystrokes needed to get to content on some apps and also said that for some consumers getting the hardware to link with content was a challenge. “Things are getting better. And 360° is totally underestimated, and super-interesting.”

Sky VR’s technical director Richard Mills showcased its Rebel Queen production, which took Sky’s creatives into Egypt for a comprehensive look at Queen Nefertiti, and which won a ‘Commendation’ at this year’s Venice Biennale. “It’s part-game, part-discovery but with a strong sense of involvement and empowerment for the user.”

LittlStar CEO Tony Mugavero drew attention to his company’s impressive list of clients, major Hollywood studios and international broadcasters, each of them investing in VR/AR and MR. LittlStar now has its own distribution arm where, he stressed, user analytics are a key component.

This story first appeared on TVT's sister publication TVB Europe. 

OTTAWA—TV meteorologists operate around the clock, continually creating content for the 24/7 real-time weather cycle on multiple platforms. In doing so, these ‘Mets’ (as they call themselves) have to rapidly sort through viewer-submitted photos and videos on social media, with an eye to grabbing and distributing the very best footage before anyone else.

That’s just the start: Factor in advances such as augmented reality where real-time graphics are overlaid on broadcast video (such as The Weather Channel “creating” a tornado in its studio); 2D/360 images where the Met can rotate the viewer inside a single camera view; and the detailed experimental content being streamed online from NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite (which is still in test mode), and today’s TV meteorologists are busier than ever before. By the way, most don’t have the budget to hire extra staff to help them cope.

Like most weather graphics packages, Baron’s Lynx is tightly integrated with social media.

THE METS’ WISH LIST
Not surprisingly, vendors of weather graphics platforms such as AccuWeather, Baron, ChyronHego, The Weather Company (formerly WSI; now owned by IBM), and Vizrt are doing their best to provision all of these new options. The Weather Company has even integrated IBM’s Watson augmented intelligence platform (the super computer that won TV’s “Jeopardy” against two human contestants) into its presentation products, to speed up content processing while reducing the human workload.

Yet this is still not enough for bleeding-edge Mets such as Brad Panovich, chief meteorologist at WCNC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Charlotte, N.C.

“The time it takes for presentation software to ingest and process viewer social media videos for air is their biggest downside,” said Panovich. “It doesn’t work efficiently in real-time—especially for 1080p—and it really lapses during extreme weather situations. So I use an HDMI convertor to bring my laptop into our presentation system as a video feed, and access submitted content from my Twitter ‘TweetDeck’ and my Facebook page.”

Panovich makes his “hack” work by plugging his laptop in at WCNC’s video wall and changing the feeds directly while he’s live on air. “It’s just basically throwing my laptop’s screen up on air, in real-time,” he said.

Eric Sorensen, senior meteorologist at WQAD-TV, the ABC affiliate in Moline/The Qaud Cities, Ill., is another forward-thinking Met who wishes weather presentation technology could do everything he wants it to do. Specifically, “today’s technology is great for pushing content out to our viewers on social media, but we really need these systems to turn social media into a two-way street,” he said. “What we need is to be able to know, from every viewer that’s out there, what’s happening in that storm. I really hope that the weather presentation vendors, whose products continue to progress, find a way to bring that viewer feedback into our broadcasts in real-time—without us having to do it ourselves.”

Eric Sorensen

SOCIAL MEDIA PUSH
As dedicated Mets, Panovich and Sorensen are demanding as much as they can from modern technology to serve their viewers better while besting their competition at the same time. In response, vendors are doing their best to meet these needs in a variety of ways.

At AccuWeather, for instance, “our new StormDirector+ and StoryTeller has the ability to search social media by keywords and hashtags,” said Bill Boss, director of product development for the State College, Pa.-based company. “This gives our customers a quick way to search for trending photos and videos in real-time and instantly get them on the air making viewers’ real-time feedback and submissions part of the story.”

Meanwhile, Baron’s Lynx graphics and storm tracking package focuses on providing customizable forecasting tools that make their Mets “the experts that viewers trust and can count on,” said Mike Mougey, vice president of sales for the Huntsville, Ala.-based company. “We believe very strongly that providing context and content in an easily accessible format will set stations apart on the local level.”

ChyronHego’s Metacast weather graphics suite accelerates the ingest of viewer-generated content for air by connecting Metacast to a broadcast client’s social media platforms. This connection, plus “the ability to include uploaded content as media files within a broadcaster’s weather graphics production system, are key elements of advanced, real-time weather presentation,” said Karl Eggestad, sales director for ChyronHego Metacast.

With its use of IBM’s Watson augmented intelligence, The Weather Company has been able to incorporate machine-based curation into its Max Engage with Watson platform. “Your meteorological staff first ‘tells’ Watson what hyper local weather elements your viewers care about and then the system locates and provides them on your weather platform automatically,” said Rodney Thompson, systems and software operations leader for the Atlanta-based company.

Vizrt’s multiplatform suite of weather graphics work seamlessly with all forms of viewer-generated content, according to James Monroe, manager of weather sales for Vizrt Americas. “We work with all forms of social media and any online sources broadcasters choose,” he said. “Our Viz platform lets you designate reliable viewers as ‘Trusted Suppliers,’ so their high value content go directly into your graphics system for immediate playout, making you first to air.”

With virtual reality on the horizon, the push for TV weather packages that provide quicker, better and more impressive graphics will only gather momentum. “For instance, I can easily imagine producing VR weather video for viewers to access online in real-time, tailored to their specific markets,” said Michael Potts, vice president of design for The Weather Channel. “Anything that TV meteorologists can do to make the weather more real and more informative to our audiences, we will do.”

LONDON—Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) will come under real-world scrutiny at IBC2017, with opportunities throughout the show to learn more about these new technologies–from their current place in the market to the opportunities they offer, as well as examining technological challenges and user experiences.

Rikard Steiber, president Viveport and SVP Virtual Reality at HTC Vive, will give a conference keynote presentation on Sept. 16 looking at the road ahead for VR. The session will look at the emerging swathe of consumer devices and services, such as the Viveport VR app store, as well as showcasing successful VR experiences across platforms, from entertainment to sports content.

While revenue forecasts for VR and AR over the next three years run into the billions, many companies are still hesitant to invest. The panel discussion “Leaving the Hype Behind: Next Frontier in VR, AR, MR and Other Realities in Between” on Sept. 17, promises an illuminating session on the realities of VR and AV. Success stories, insight into the projects in R&D, and a pragmatic discussion about what will it take for VR and AR technologies to reach their potential will all feature. Panelists include Edward Tang, co-founder and CTO of Avegant, a company that has developed ground-breaking Retinal Imaging Technology; Leen Segers, co-founder and CEO of LucidWeb, a pioneer in VR content development and distribution; and Tony Mugavero, CEO of LittlStar, a global network platform dedicated to VR and 360 content.

Also taking place on Sept. 17, the Startup Forum offers an invaluable day for established media houses, startups and investors working in VR, AR and MR to share their opinions on the future for these advanced media technologies. Speakers include Marco DeMiroz, co-founder of The Venture Reality Fund (The VR Fund), a company that invests in early-stage VR, AR and MR startups.

IBC has also curated a choice selection of conference papers on this hot topic, in a session entitled “VR and AR–The Production, The Potential and The Pitfalls”. Speakers will share some of the lessons that have been learned so far, as well as discussing the exciting potential of live-action VR captured with camera arrays, the potential adverse effects of VR and AR–and how to avoid them.

In addition, the IBC Future Zone is set to deliver the latest ideas and innovations as a specially selected group of companies, including BBC R&D, Generic Robotics, NHK. Sennheiser and Immersia TV, showcases technologies including mixed reality, 3D audio and holographic projection, with a focus on multi-sensory virtual worlds and imagery of the future.

The IBC Future Zone is also home to the IBC Future Reality Theater. Free to attend for all IBC attendees, the Theater looks beyond current technology, identifying state of the art concepts and inventions and helping to map future applications and market sectors. Confirmed companies speaking include, Adobe, Live Planet, Nokia, V-Nova and Mettle.

“VR, AR and MR are everywhere at IBC this year, from the conference to the Future Zone to the exhibition halls,” said Michael Crimp, CEO, IBC. “There’s a real sense of excitement around these new technologies and IBC provides an ideal opportunity to learn more about the opportunities that are available for driving innovative content and creating new revenue streams.”

This story originally appeared on TVT's sister publication TVB Europe.

NEW YORK—Samsung Electronics America announced U.S. pricing and availability of its new Samsung Gear 360. The new 360 will be priced at $229 (editor's note: price corrected from previous version) and will be available in-store and online at Best Buy and BestBuy.com, Amazon.com, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and U.S. Cellular, Samsung.com, and through the ShopSamsung app.

The new Gear 360 will offer video recording at up to 4K resolution, as well as 15 megapixel images. When Gear 360 is paired with a compatible smartphone, such as the Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+, users will have the opportunity to share their moments in real time at 2K resolution to social media platform,s including Facebook, YouTube and Samsung VR.

From the Gear 360 mobile app, users can control the camera remotely as well as stitch, edit and share content on the go. Whether creating a 360-degree video or photo, users can access various viewing modes and editing tools to use on their own video creations.

The new Gear 360 is compatible with Samsung devices, including the newly released Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S7 active, Galaxy Note5, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy S6, and Galaxy S6 edge. It is also compatible with many third-party accessories through the universal mount at the base of the device. The new Gear 360 offers expanded compatibility with iOS devices and Windows and Mac computers.

Samsung is bundling the 360 with Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+ between May 25, 2017 and June 19, 2017, as a $49 add-on while supplies last. 

LOS ANGELES—The Hollywood Professional Association will get the ball rolling on its annual HPA Tech Retreat a day early this year, as the organization has announced the first ever HPA TR-X sessions, which will be held the day before the Retreat is set to begin. TR-X will focus specifically on virtual and augmented reality.

Co-Chairs Lucas Wilson, founder and executive producer for SuperSphereVR, and Marcie Jastrow, senior vice president of immersive media at the Technical Experience Center, will lead a discussion on the changing VR/AR landscape and its integration into entertainment and applications. A series of case studies and creative explorations will be offered, including “A VR/AR Market Discussion,” “Acquisition Technology: Cameras, Lightfield, and More,” “Live 360 Production Case Studies: UMG Livestream, The Mill,” “Immersive Audio Production Case Study: Paul McCartney,” and “The Future.”

HPA TR-X will take place on Feb. 20 at the Hyatt Regency in Indian Wells, Calif. Registration is now open.

CULVER CITY, CALIF.—The ribbon has been cut on the new Technicolor Experience Center. Led by the newly appointed Senior Vice President of Immersive Media for Technicolor, Marcie Jastrow, the new facility will “develop high-concept content, platforms and technology for virtual reality, augmented reality and other immersive media applications,” according to Technicolor.

Based in Culver City, Calif., the Technicolor Experience Center will enable communities of artists and technologists at Technicolor—and its partners—to create immersive experiences in entertainment, advertising and other commercial applications.

“The Technicolor Experience Center creates a vibrant ecosystem that enables our teams, partners and customers to advance the state-of-the-art in this new form of storytelling,” said Tim Sarnoff, Technicolor deputy CEO and president of product services.

Currently, Technicolor is working on virtual and augmented reality projects that include Warner Bros.’ “Suicide Squad,” MGM/Paramount’s “Ben-Hur” and Jack Daniels’ marketing campaigns.

LOS ANGELES—New media platforms demand new production methods and none, since the introduction of the pixel, have needed a rework more than virtual reality.

First job of any media content is to engage the audience. Whether it consists of a teenage boy cloistered away with his VR headset, the urban hipster with the latest flavor of augmented-reality glass, or a family at the local theme park’s 360 panorama; if you don’t hook them with something compelling they’ll move on to something that will.

What flavor are you selling?
VR: Contrary to what you’ve probably read or heard, VR is a very finite format and not something that has anything to do with physical cameras. To quote the ubiquitous Wikipedia, “Virtual reality… replicates an environment that simulates physical presence in places in the real world or imagined worlds and lets the user interact in that world. Virtual reality artificially creates sensory experiences, which can include sight, hearing, touch, and smell.”

AR: Augmented reality superimposes a computer-generated image over the live view of the physical, real-world environment. The image remains in alignment to the real-world or a pre-defined target as the viewer moves.

PANORAMIC VIDEO: 360 and panoramas surround the viewer with an environment intended to create a sense of presence. They can be “stitched” together from several conventional video streams or by using a fisheye or purpose-build lens. Although 360 has been with us since well before the pixel showed up, the recent media frenzy over VR, combined with low-tech design and fabrication needs, have created a glut of acquisition systems spewing from garages and home workshops all across country. Even though 360 is not VR, it does share a number of the same issues with respect to narrative production.

Why this iteration of VR is different:
Thanks to your tax dollars and the military industrial complex’s need for more accurate real-time targeting, Inertial Measurement Unit, or IMU, technology took a major leap forward. Poised on a tiny chip that sits inside nearly everything from the Predator drone’s AGM-114 Hellfire missiles to your smartphone, the IMUtracker uses a gyroscope, accelerometer, GPS and magnetometer to figure out where it is, where it is looking and where it is going: And this is precisely why VR will work this time.

The Oculus Rift head-mounted display isn’t the about virtual reality—that’s been around since Jaron Lanier coined the phrase back in the early ’80s—or simply figured out how to make the IMU faster. Facebook stepped in and bought Oculus because they understand where this is all going. Motion-to-photons lag is the delay between inputting a command and seeing the effects of that command. For Oculus, that magic number is somewhere under20 milliseconds and even though you can’t perceive it, for the very first time, VR doesn’t make you puke.

THE MECHANICS OF VR CONTENT:
The fact that VR gear will play both true virtual environments and panoramas does not mean that 360 video is VR. Your ability to make real VR content is limited by your grasp of CGI and game engines. Good engines are relatively easy to create with and come with an extensive catalog of ready-made sets and props that will get you started without writing a single line of code. There are even fully rendered scenes with controllable characters that you can reverse engineer and modify.

To create a “reality” that lives up to the name, a rather significant number of computer scientists, artists and engineers have been working for more than 20 years to make synthetic characters that are driven by predictive analytics and voiced by prosodically guided phonetic engines that queue emotionally appropriate posture, gesture and empathy scripts.

This is not a pursuit for the faint of heart, but if you’ve got an XBox Kinect, you already have the rudimentary tools to start creating real VR content. Download a demo copy of the Unity or Unreal game engine and get started.

THE MECHANICS OF AR CONTENT:
The actual manufacturing process for Augmented Reality content is essentially the same as for VR with the exception that your entire environment is now replaced by and registered to the real world. The true importance of VR is that it is driving the R&D on AR. AR is so important because it is the de facto interface for the Internet of Things. Everything within your field of view will have an AR tag. Think of it as visible Bluetooth gone wild: And those synthetic characters, they will be your semiautonomous, very smart, personalized digital assistants.
THE MECHANICS OF 360 PANORAMA CONTENT:
Buy a 20-year-old QuickTimeVR camera on eBay or one of the hundred or so 360 systems out there on the market. Good entry style systems are the Sony Bloggie and the VSN v360. For a cinematic quality image I recommend the time-tested Pont Gray, Lady Bug5 that Google has been using for Street View for the past ten years or the Immersive Media, Dodeca, a proven performer for both civilian and military use.

The craft of virtual content:
A very large part of linear narrative is wrapped up in the art of framing. The director, cinematographer, actor and editor all conspire to convey the emotional arc of the actor as they drive their vector along the central theme of the narrative. The problem with VR is that there is no framing. The viewer is free to look around and will most likely be looking the other way at all the major plot points: you’ve lost the narrative. This holds true for VR, AR and Panorama. The narrative must be reimagined.