PITTSBURGH—CBS Pittsburgh (KDKA-TV) is reporting that it has debuted the region's first state-of-the-art Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) news studio during its 4 PM newscast on August 10 with anchor Kristine Sorensen, and meteorologists Mary Ours and Ray Petelin.

The CBS-owned stations have widely embraced AR/VR studio technologies in recent years as a way to engage and improve their newscasts. With the debut of its new AR/VR studio, CBS Pittsburgh became the 13th CBS station to integrate this technology into its news operations

“Our new AR/VR technology helps us bring complex stories to life in ways that are more engaging and easier for viewers to understand,” said Julie Eisenman, president and general manager, CBS Pittsburgh. “Whether we're tracking severe weather, explaining breaking news developments or covering major community events, these advanced visual tools help us tell stories with greater clarity and context. It's an investment in innovation that strengthens our ability to inform and serve viewers across the Pittsburgh region.”

More on the deployment of the technology, which was developed in house at the station group, is available here.

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 been named an official technical supplier of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest (May 12-16), in partnership with host broadcaster ORF, supporting one of the world’s most complex and widely watched live television productions.

Broadcast live from the Wiener Stadthalle arena in Vienna to millions of fans across Europe and beyond, Eurovision’s 70th edition will employ Vizrt technology to create immersive visual elements.

“The hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest in its 70th edition presents the ORF as the host broadcaster, with an extraordinary technical dimension—both in terms of scale and redundancy and creative ambition,” said Claudio Bortoli, technical supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. “With Vizrt, we are relying on a partner that allows us to operate highly complex live workflows stably while simultaneously setting new visual standards. Especially under the enormous time pressure and international visibility, it is crucial to employ technologies that combine precision, flexibility and absolute reliability.”

ORF, Austria’s national public broadcaster, is using a range of Vizrt solutions, including versatile real-time 3D graphics rendering and compositing with Viz Engine and virtual environments and augmented reality (AR) graphics with Viz Virtual Studio. The Viz Engine will also render all on-screen graphics and the data-driven graphics that display each country’s scores throughout the competition.

As host broadcaster, ORF is responsible for coordinating the live Eurovision broadcasts, complex graphics and live production across multiple shows and days. Vizrt’s technology will enable production teams to deliver compelling visual storytelling while maintaining the speed, reliability and flexibility required for live, large-scale events, the company said.

“Eurovision represents the pinnacle of live production. It’s high-octane, high-energy and high stakes; everything that Vizrt technology is trusted for,” said Chris Black, chief marketing officer at Vizrt. “We’re delighted to be providing technology that enables the boldest creative expression, as well as the dependability needed for broadcasts of this magnitude.”

More information is available on the Vizrt website.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—CBS Sacramento is debuting a new augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) technology-driven studio today, Monday, May 11, at 12:00 p.m.

The launch is part of an ongoing push to provide viewers with more immersive storytelling and next-generation journalism at the CBS Television Station group, which has been deploying AR/VR technologies developed in-house at various stations around the country.

The Sacramento station becomes the 12th newsroom in the CBS Television Stations group to adopt AR/VR technology across its local newscasts.

“CBS Sacramento has long served our community through trusted journalism and compelling storytelling,” said Scott Warren, president and general manager of CBS Sacramento and CBS Bay Area. “This new AR/VR studio gives viewers greater context and perspective, creating a more immersive way to experience the weather and local news stories that matter to them.”

Beginning with the 12:00 PM newscast on CBS Sacramento (KOVR), AR/VR technology will be integrated into all the station’s newscasts, including news, weather and sports. Select AR/VR elements will also be used during news and weather segments on GOOD DAY on KMAX, while the remainder of the program will continue to originate from a traditional studio.

The technology allows journalists to visually explain complex stories, breaking news and weather systems with greater clarity while maintaining the station’s editorial standards.

As previously reported, the Sacramento launch continues the expansion of the CBS Stations AR/VR newsroom initiative, building on innovations first introduced at CBS Bay Area under Warren’s leadership.

CBS Sacramento serves viewers across the greater Sacramento region through CBS KOVR and KMAX, delivering local news, weather, sports and community coverage across broadcast and digital platforms.

LONDON—Vizrt will showcase its newly launched AI Keyer, which expands the possibilities and accessibility of virtual and extended reality (XR) scenarios, during the 2026 NAB Show, April 18-22, at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The Vizrt AI Keyer enables background switching and augmented reality (AR) graphics insertion in every space, whether indoors or outdoors. The secure, proprietary solution is trained extensively on real-world footage across environments and lighting conditions to recognize human shapes as foregrounds and to separate backgrounds seamlessly so talent can move around while being locked into the virtual scene.

“Creating XR environments typically demands large infrastructure investments and requires specialized skills for daily operations. The Vizrt AI Keyer removes all these constraints so high-quality virtual scenes and AR graphics become a reality for live productions of every size,” said Edouard Griveaud, Senior Product Manager at Vizrt.

The Vizrt AI Keyer brings AR into any environment, whether it’s inserting remote speakers into a global town hall environment, switching the visual location of a presenter in a news segment or creating a completely virtual ad wall behind a player in a post-match interview.

Without needing green screens, complex lighting setups and time-consuming chromakeying, production teams can find new ways of engaging audiences and maximizing sponsorship value from anywhere.

“AI is transforming the world, and the creative industries are no exception. At Vizrt, we have been on this journey for years, embedding intelligence into our solutions, empowering storytellers, and delivering real, measurable impact for our customers,” said Rohit Nagarajan, CEO of Vizrt. “That is not a vision for tomorrow. That is happening today. The Vizrt AI Keyer is the latest proof point of our relentless commitment to innovation. Putting breakthrough technology in the hands of every creative, at every level, everywhere in the world.”

See Vizrt at 2026 NAB Show booth N2161.

More information is available on the company’s website.

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.”

Meta Quest, a division of Facebook owner Meta, has announced it will continue its virtual reality broadcasts of regular-season NBA games for the fourth consecutive year. Fifty-two games will be shown in immersive 180-degree VR in Meta’s Xtadium VR app for live and on-demand sports, and in the NBA Arena app in Meta’s online VR game “Meta Horizon Worlds.”

In addition to 52 live games, users will be able to access immersive highlights 24 hours after each game, play mini-games and socialize with friends in both Xtadium and NBA Arena in Worlds. Xtadium also lets NBA League Pass subscribers watch every live 2D game nightly in mixed reality, complete with real-time stats.

Also Read: NBA App Gets an Upgrade With Multiview, AI-Powered Insights and Other New Features

“From the first tipoff to the final buzzer beater, these fully immersive games let you experience all the action from the best seat in the house,” Meta Director of Metaverse Entertainment Content Sarah Malkin said. “Spatial sound lets you feel the excitement of the crowd as if you were there IRL. In NBA Arena, hoops fans can hang out and play mini-games, and we’re rolling out new features and improvements for the 2024-25 season. Take a selfie to unlock an NBA-themed emote, trigger visual effects that rain down on the stadium seating and show off your team pride with new merch. And a bridge between Xtadium and NBA Arena in Worlds lets you choose the vibe that’s right for you.”

Added Meta VP of Metaverse Partnerships Scott Hershkowitz: “The NBA has a long history of content innovation and is one of the savviest leagues in terms of leveraging technology to reach fans where they are to provide compelling experiences. It’s exciting for me personally to be working with the league on this partnership, having led some of their earlier forays into mobile and connected devices when I was at the NBA over a decade ago.”

“We’re always looking for ways to enhance the viewing experience and deliver innovative opportunities that enable fans to feel the excitement of the on-court action,” added NBA Vice President, New Media Partnerships Teddy Kaplan. “Through our partnership with Meta, we’ve brought fans closer to their favorite players and teams and look forward to another special season beginning next week.”

Brad Altfest, Managing Director of Media and Entertainment at Agora, said the deal is a key moment in transforming how fans engage with live sports, pushing the boundaries of traditional viewing through immersive technology.

“The NBA’s move to bring courtside experiences to life in VR with Quest can be huge for fan engagement,” Altfest said. “With 52 immersive games on tap this season, the league is showing it really gets what today’s fans—especially younger ones—are looking for, which is more interactive and dynamic ways to enjoy live sports. Whether it’s virtually sitting courtside or using features like spatial audio and multiangle replays, this approach taps into the rising demand for experiences that go beyond the traditional TV screen.

“As the technology evolves, adding real-time engagement features like in-app social chats, exclusive merch, or even mini-games linked to live plays could make the experience even better,” he added. “The NBA is setting the bar for how the metaverse can transform fan interaction, and it probably won’t be long before other leagues follow their lead.”

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Disney+ has announced that subscribers to the streaming service can now experience a new immersive environment from National Geographic with the Disney+ app on Apple Vision Pro. The experience transports users to the breathtaking natural beauty of Iceland’s Thingvellir National Park and is National Geographic’s first-ever immersive project for Apple Vision Pro.

Disney+ is also making four additional 3D films from Marvel Studios available to subscribers today: “Avengers,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Ant-Man”* and “Ant-Man and the Wasp.”

National Geographic worked with Disney Studio Technology to lead the creative development and production of the immersive environment from high-resolution 3D models captured on-site using photogrammetry and gigapixel panoramas. The teams worked in collaboration with Disney Entertainment and ESPN Technology to bring this new experience to Disney+.

The streaming service reported that the new National Geographic environment will take Disney+ subscribers on Apple Vision Pro to the unique rocky terrain of Thingvellir National Park on a snowy winter day, allowing them to explore their surroundings via interactive elements and sounds that make the space come to life. This UNESCO world heritage site, captured by a team of National Geographic photographers, serves as the backdrop for viewers watching Disney+ content beneath a spectacular nighttime aurora.

“Since its inception, National Geographic has been at the forefront of photography and has led the way in using groundbreaking technology to tell stories that inspire a deeper connection to the natural world,” said David Miller, executive vice president National Geographic. “Creating this immersive environment was a natural next step for us to take to build on that legacy and to continue enabling audiences to experience the beauty of our natural world and see places they may never go to otherwise.”

For more information on Disney+ on Apple Vision Pro, visit disneyplus.com/applevisionpro. 

As the roar of the metaverse hype machine fades to a ho hum, there’s growing evidence that what can be called a “metaversal” approach to production is starting to take hold in the broadcast industry.

Paralleling the headline-grabbing and often flawed efforts to deliver immersive virtual reality (VR) experiences with sports programming, broadcasters have quietly been learning how to leverage volumetric VR and augmented reality (AR) production tools in their workflows. This has allowed them to add compelling graphics dynamism and personalized viewing experiences to internet-streamed 2D renderings of news, sports, and other live broadcasts that are reaching viewers worldwide. 

At the same time, by bringing these solutions into the production mainstream, broadcasters are getting the hands-on experiences in volumetric productions that are essential to producing a new generation of 3D immersive viewing experiences. These efforts are gaining currency with ongoing improvements in extended reality (XR) hardware and software. 

In the Real World
Notably, while many high-profile sports and other VR programming initiatives were done in by poor viewing experiences, some providers, including the NBA—in a recently renewed multiyear deal with Meta; and NBC with its live VR streams during the 2022 Winter Olympics—have stayed the course. With these new productions they’re demonstrating that it’s possible to eliminate pixelation on VR headset screens, stomach-churning delays in responses to shifts in viewers’ fields of vision, and other impediments to user adoption.

Equally important to the improvements in consumer experiences are major advances in headgear, including smaller form factors, tetherless VR head-mounted devices (HMDs) that free users from wired links to computers, and eye movement-tracking sensors that lead to more accurate renderings of what users are looking at. 

Looking forward, while Apple’s Vision Pro mixed reality (MR) HMD set for launch in early 2024 with a starting price tag of $3,499 is targeted to the enterprise and the high-end consumer markets, its incorporation of a dazzling array of advances combining AR and VR technologies exemplifies where mass market user experience is headed as prices for such devices fall over the next few years.

The new volumetric production-driven perspective on the broadcast industry’s migration into the metaverse runs counter to the current sense of disarray in the metaverse camp, which may mean new terminology is needed to avoid detracting from the transformative developments now underway. 

Notably, Apple CEO Tim Cook never used the word “metaverse” when he introduced the Vision Pro in June. Indeed, with Meta’s Reality Labs laying people off in droves after racking up a $13.7-billion loss in 2022 and headlines trumpeting the demise of metaverse projects like Microsoft’s AltspaceVR, Walmart’s Universe of Play, and Disney’s Next Generation Storytelling & Consumer Experiences, there’s far less of the metaverse-infused banter that saturated the internet two years ago.

Building a Foundation
But no matter how the next phase of engagement with internet-based technology is labeled, there’s no denying that the broadcast industry, along with many other industries is moving inexorably toward building a foundation to operating in a new era blending real-world experiences with immersive virtualization. The pace of XR adoption across all sectors is reflected in many recent research reports.

For example, MarketsandMarkets predicts the XR market—encompassing devices, software, and applications—will grow from $40.1 billion in 2023 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.7% to reach $111.5 billion by 2028. 

Researcher Brainy Insights, citing demand for 3D/360-degree content in sports and other entertainment as well as advertising, forecasts even faster growth in the global volumetric video segment of the market with projected expansion at a 29.3% CAGR from $2.1 billion in 2021 to $21.2 billion by 2030.

The broadcast industry’s embrace of volumetric technology in traditional 2D program production is a welcome development for a company like Arcturus Studios, which since its founding seven years ago has amassed a full suite of solutions, including acquisition of the Microsoft creative platform, that are designed to provide end-to-end support for building and streaming immersive 3D user experiences. 

Now there’s an opportunity to apply that technology to address a major pain point impacting broadcasters everywhere, notes Mark Gerberman, vice president of sales at Arcturus. With the amassing of ever more data that can be used to enrich viewing experiences, broadcasters need to make it easier for consumers to absorb and understand all that information. 

“A lot of our focus now is in the virtual production space,” Gerberman says. “Humans by nature see things in 3D, so being able to use volumetric technology to more concisely convey the data producers are pulling off the field is top of mind.” 

The results of such efforts are on view just about everywhere. Across the globe consumers have grown accustomed to seeing 3D data displays generating stats in sync with the narratives of on-air personalities broadcasting from studios that are often embellished with virtual furnishings and backdrops.  

The impact of the volumetric production agenda is noticeable in post production processing, according to Allan McLennan, president of 2G Digital Post, a leading Burbank, Calif.-based post house serving motion picture and TV producers worldwide. “Where we see it is in the sheer size of the files, which are a lot larger than a traditional video capture or film,” McLennan says.

Once news, sports and other live content is produced on location for immediate output, the completed files are sent to post production where they’re processed for on-demand access. “Those files need to be compressed, packaged, secured, and pushed out with a very heavy eye on quality control,” McLennan notes. 

2G Digital is known for its QC expertise, which is essential to meeting producers’ specifications for packaging and local distribution, McLennan adds. “There’s always something that has to be looked at for delivery to the different platforms in the marketplace,” he said. 

While the bigger files benefitting from volumetric enhancements might add a second or two to the post production processes, today’s state-of-the-art hardware can handle the loads. “What it really comes down to is updating new types of software,” McLennan says. “We’re on top of that on an ongoing basis.”

Deloitte Initiatives
With the growing focus on volumetric production in 2D programming, the industry is peeling back layers of the XR onion, normalizing the use of tools that will take them much farther over time, Gerberman notes. Indeed, as he and others in the field can attest, the migration is well underway with a rapidly expanding spate of initiatives at national and local levels of broadcast operations worldwide. 

For example, Allan Cook, managing director at Deloitte Consulting, is deeply involved in such initiatives as head of Deloitte’s Unlimited Reality practice, which has been expanding across multiple industries since its genesis several years ago on the heels of metaverse-oriented projects involving the U.S. Department of Defense. There’s a lot of volumetric production activity underway in the broadcast industry, Cook says.

Cases in point include multi-year Unlimited Reality engagements with the U.S. Golf Association (USGA) and Sinclair Broadcast Group, which, unlike the unit’s other broadcast industry clients, have been willing to publicize what they’re doing with the firm. These applications are based on volumetric 3D production techniques that leverage AI, 3D computing, Web 3.0 technology, and advanced streaming to produce experiences meant for 2D viewing on conventional device screens as well as more immersive 3D viewing experiences if clients want to engage with people through AR and VR eyewear.

One of the features offered with the latest version of the USGA App used in this year’s U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open championships allowed viewers to follow play tournament-wide on interactive streams to their PCs, tablets and smartphones. “With our app you could watch any player at any time on any hole from any direction,” Cook says.

“You could watch a player in 3D hit the ball and see exactly where it landed on the fairway,” he adds. On the green, “you could zoom down to the ball going into the hole in near real time.” In addition to shot tracking, the app allowed viewers to tap into scorecard highlights of all televised shots and to receive customized alerts about players they were following.

Such capabilities demonstrate the drawing power of this technology. With tens of thousands of users worldwide, the app registered as a top-five app in the Apple store during the men’s open, Cook says. The results are resonating with the USGA, which this year for the first time has extended use of the app with varying feature sets across all 15 of its championship tournaments. 

360-degree Socialized Viewing Environment
The other publicized example of what Deloitte is doing occurred with the Sinclair-owned Tennis Channel’s coverage of this year’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, CA. The app— offered on an invitation-only basis to viewers worldwide—delivered a multi-faceted 2D user experience based on 3D volumetric production technology supported in part by Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, a leading provider of 3D creation tools for multiplayer video games. 

This was the first project undertaken in fulfillment of Sinclair’s goal to build a 360-degree socialized viewing environment with its live sports and possibly other broadcasts. “We created a number of experiences you wouldn’t be able to get in your home or even at the event,” Cook explains. 

The app made it possible for users’ avatars to play tennis on a digital replica of the Paribas tournament’s center court. “We also allowed you to do a number of 360 tours behind the scenes, so people could see parts of the environment you wouldn’t be able to see as a regular member of the public,” Cook says. Shopping for paraphernalia in virtual merch tents was part of the experience as well, which “proved to be quite popular,” he adds.

While Cook declines to discuss what’s next on Sinclair’s metaverse agenda, he makes clear there’s much more in store. “They’re very interested in looking at expanding beyond the Indian Wells event with other viewing engagements,” he says.

As for Deloitte’s ability to support more immersive, volumetric user experiences, those elements remain in the proof-of-concept stage with multiple clients kicking the tires on the possibilities. For example, Cook says, this “very leading-edge work” includes “two engagements right now on the next generation of AI headsets from a small company in Silicon Valley.” 

For now Deloitte is providing “a great tool to supplement the television experience,” he adds. “I don’t think we’re at a stage quite yet where we’re going to replace TVs.” 

But the great thing about what’s happening now with volumetric productions is that, as Cook puts it, “if you build it out in 3D, it’s relatively easy to pull it onto any device that could display the 3D experience, whether that’s the headsets, which still relatively few people own, or through your mobile phone or tablet device.” This was demonstrated with the USGA app at the U.S. Open, where on-site users could mix what they were watching on the course with immersive viewing of any other point in the tournament through one of the supported AR or mixed reality (MR) headsets. 

Gerberman describes a similar stage of progress toward what he calls the “Holy Grail” of volumetric experiences that are on tap with six-degree-of-freedom (6 DoF) VR engagements with live sports. Whereas 3 DoF offered in VR sports viewing supported by NBC, the NBA, and others allows viewers to follow the action as if they were there from any of several fixed positions on the playing field, 6 DoF allows users to scope what’s happening in all directions as they virtually move around the arena.

The need to use volumetric technology to better engage with younger audiences is “one of the things we’re hearing from every sports league,” Gerberman says. “Kids are used to 3D experiences and navigating around 3D worlds,” he notes. “It’s just how kids interact with content. Volumetric technology is ripe for enabling those types of experiences with live sports.”

Numerous technologies that help achieve sustainability goals and emissions reduction have been sought after by industry 4.0 enterprises and manufacturers. These include automation, sensor technology, IoT, and wireless connectivity. As a result, entire industries and manufacturers can now generate, collect, track, and analyze the massive amounts of data that serve as the foundation for AI initiatives thanks to these technological tools. Today's businesses and leaders are now effectively using this data and technologies to advance their digital transformation while also supporting their corporate and sustainability initiatives.

AI, IoT, Machine Learning Are Important for Sustainability
As a result of this use, manufacturers are implementing technologies like AI and AR/VR to create enhanced product designs, optimized production planning and logistics, predictive maintenance, improved quality and process control, agile robots, energy efficiency, and minimal waste in their operations. These technologies have proven to help further an organization’s digital transformation strategies through greater efficiency and reduction of costs.

AI can receive and process a wide range of information thanks to a combination of sophisticated sensory devices and computer vision. In comparison to the time required for human analysis, the enormous amount of data can be analyzed quickly. An improved outcome is produced by enhancing the data with machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP). Therefore, AI is playing a more significant role in sustainable manufacturing.

How AR/VR Plays An Important Role
For it’s part, AR/VR is also adding even more power to the sustainable business practices mission. Let’s first explain the difference between AR/VR.

Augmented reality (AR) refers to a technology used by manufacturers or enterprise businesses that adds virtual elements to the real world. These virtual elements can appear in the form of text, images, 3D models or animations, for example. They are usually displayed via a smartphone or special AR glasses. AR can be used for various purposes, such as marketing, design/engineering, education, navigation or training.

Virtual reality (VR), on the other hand, refers to a technology that creates a virtual world that enterprise users can enter with the help of VR glasses. In a VR environment, the user can interact, manipulate objects and even perform physical movements. This allows users to interact with the virtual world. VR can be used for various purposes, such as design, simulations, training, or customer site visits.

Manufacturers that leverage AR/VR quickly realize they are helping the planet by meeting consumer demand for sustainable practices, practicing responsible consumption and production, reducing waste in early product design and redesign stages, promoting and teaching recycling practices, and supporting brand transparency. 

As a specific set of examples, aerospace and military organizations that utilize AR/VR training in replace of real-world training save jet emissions in the air. Virtual design and engineering reduces waste on the production floor of physical products. And virtualized customer site visits also reduces emissions from transportation of physical in-person meetings.

Sustainable practices in the creation, distribution, and sale of brands' products are becoming more and more in demand. By purchasing particular products, consumers are voicing their opinions. Even if it costs more, they are choosing to support environmentally conscious, sustainable brands over less environmentally friendly ones.

Multiple sustainable solutions are further provided by virtualized technologies. Live AR events are one such remedy, as they eliminate the need for extraneous travel, excessive printing, and other waste associated with real-world live events. However, connected enterprise experiences are a new trend that many manufacturers are also excited about. 

Here, builders and contractors may scan a special QR code, which triggers blueprints or a digital design of a house or commercial facility where they can see a close rendition of the finished product in a virtual environment, reducing waste and emissions that would have otherwise been produced in a physical environment.

3D & AI Drive Higher Levels of Sustainability
One of the key requirements for AR/VR applications is to precisely overlay on an object its model or the digital twin. This helps in providing work instructions for assembly and training, and to catch any errors or defects in manufacturing. The user can also track the object(s) and adjust the rendering as the work progresses, solidifying the sustainable business practice. 

Most on-device object tracking systems use 2D image and/or marker-based tracking. This severely limits overlay accuracy in 3D because 2D tracking cannot estimate depth with high accuracy, and consequently the scale, and the pose. This means even though users can get what looks like a good match when looking from one angle and/or position, the overlay loses alignment as the user moves around in 6DOF. 

Also, the object detection, identification and its scale and orientation estimation — called object registration — is achieved, in most cases, computationally or using simple computer vision methods with standard training libraries (examples: Google MediaPipe, VisionLib). 

This works well for regular and/or smaller and simpler objects such as hands, faces, cups, tables, chairs, wheels, regular geometry structures, etc. However, for large, complex objects in enterprise use cases, labeled training data (more so in 3D) is not readily available. 

This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to use the 2D image-based tracking to align, overlay, and persistently track the object and fuse the rendered model with it in 3D. By utilizing AR/VR in 3D and in conjunction with AI, users can realize a proper outcome and ensure that their virtualized process has led to a more sustainable business practice.

With these technologies in use, manufacturers and businesses can know that their investments in AI, mixed reality solutions, and IoT, among others, will help them arrive closer to their corporate sustainability goals in the years to come.

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.

LOS ANGELES—Pixomondo and William F. White International’s virtual production stage in Vancouver has been confirmed as the largest LED stage by GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS, the ultimate authority on record-breaking achievements, the companies said this week.

Featured in the upcoming Guinness World Records 2023, PXO x WFW’s 22,000 square foot stage is 80 ft x 27 ft 6 in. It is lined with 2,500 LED wall panels and 760 LED ceiling panels. The stage is currently in production on the upcoming live-action Netflix series Avatar: The Last Airbender.

“When it comes to world records in the realm of visual and special effects, we're faced with a dazzling array of new technological wonders to consider,” said Craig Glenday, Editor-in-Chief, Guinness World Records. “As fans of this latest generation of effects-led movies and TV shows, it's exciting to be able to recognize a space as magical as the Pixomondo and William F. White International stage. It's almost literally a dream factory where anything can be conjured up, from flying dragons to dramatic moonscapes. 

"We're indebted to our consultant, Ian Failes of beforesandafters, for guiding us through the exciting, dynamic and ever-changing landscape of VFX superlatives, and would like to congratulate Pixomondo and William F. White on their record-breaking success.”

Guinness World Records 2023 will be in stores and online in September.

PXO and WFW also have two virtual production stages in Toronto, home to such projects as Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and various commercials and music videos.

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.”

MELVILLE, N.Y.—Canon has introduced the RF5.2mm f2.8 L Dual Fisheye lens, bringing stereoscopic 3D virtual reality (VR) capture to the EOS R5 camera as part of the EOS VR System.

The digital interchangeable dual fisheye lens is capable of shooting stereoscopic 3D 180-degree VR imagery with a single image sensor, streamlining the complexities of virtual reality production as well as the ability to view content in full capacity, the company said.

To enable viewing the content captured by this system in its truest form, use of compatible VR headset, such as the Oculus Quest 2, enables viewers to immerse themselves in the content by moving their heads, it said.

“At Canon, we innovate so creators can push artistic boundaries, and this commitment to innovation is what led us to introduce the new RF5.2mm F2.8 L Dual Fisheye lens. As Canon’s first entry into the world of virtual reality image capture, the EOS VR System represents an important milestone in our company’s rich history as a lens manufacturer and welcomes a bright future for VR content creation,” said Tatsuro “Tony” Kano, executive vice president and general manager of Canon U.S.A.’s Imaging Technologies & Communications Group. “This new RF lens produces a stunning 8K virtual reality image and sets itself apart through its simplified workflow. Our goal is to make immersive storytelling more accessible for all.”

The new lens features high-quality L-series optics engineered with an interpupillary distance of 60mm for delivery of 3D imagery in VR with natural parallax, closely resembling human vision when viewed through a compatible headset, it said.

With a 190-degree field of view captured from two separate optical systems they deliver outstanding results for 180° VR viewing platforms. With subwavelength coating technology offering impressive flare control in backlit conditions, VR creators can have freedom to shoot regardless the time of day or position of the sun. The dual fisheye design provides versatile exposure control with a maximum aperture of a bright f/2.8 to a deep depth of field of f/16 with electronically controlled apertures allowing the dual fisheye lens to operate just like other RF mount lenses, it said.

Canon’s free Camera Connect app and Canon's EOS Utility program both will be updated in the future to offer remote control live view functionality for monitoring purposes while on-the-go, it said.

The EOS VR System’s workflow is based on recording left and right fisheye images to a single full-frame image sensor. This helps to solve common VR challenges of stitching and syncing, by outputting one single image file. Canon is currently developing two paid subscription-based software solutions as options for completing the post-production process, it said.

The EOS VR Utility will offer the ability to convert clips from dual fisheye image to equirectangular and make quick edits, as well as select the resolution and file format before export. With the EOS VR Plug-In for Adobe Premiere Pro, creators will be able to convert footage automatically to equirectangular and cut, color and add new dimension to stories with Adobe Creative Cloud apps, including Premiere Pro, it said.

Features of the new lens include:

• A close-focusing distance of 7.87-inches/0.2m is possible; max magnification is 0.03x.
• Aperture range of f/2.8 to f/16 with a 7-blade aperture and simultaneous electro-magnetic diaphragm for both left and right lenses.
• Built-in gelatin filter holder, which allows ND gel filters to be used in bright environments if a bright aperture is desired.
• Fluorine coating on the front lens elements, with a dust and water resistant design.
• Extremely compact size, allowing the lens to be used in different types of productions.

The RF5.2mm f2.8 L Dual Fisheye lens is scheduled for December availability and has an estimated retail price of $1,999.

More information is available on the company’s website.

LOS ANGELES—Virtual Reality (VR) comes once again to the boxing ring Saturday (Nov. 14) with Fox Sports’ production of the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) fight pitting Amilcar Vidal against Edward Ortiz.

Facebook Watch will present the VR fight via its Venues app to users of the Oculus Quest VR headset. Quest wearers tuning in for the fight will experience the match as if they were onsite witnessing the sights and sounds for themselves.  

The fight, the first of three VR events Fox Sports will produce for Facebook, will be shot with 4K cameras dedicated to the VR production. Oculus Quest users will be able to interact with one another in the VR environment and watch replays in virtual windows in their environment. 

“You as a virtual reality viewer become an avatar in this virtual environment,” says Michael Davies, senior vice president, Technical and Field Operations, at Fox Sports. “You are watching the fight from a kind of virtual amphitheater that you can move around in.”

“Just in front of you is this great big screen, essentially, that is the virtual reality programming. So, it is a mixture of VR and interactive elements,” he says. 

Boxing is particularly well-suited to good VR production because “the playing field is so small,” says Davies. 

“Years ago [in 2016], we did a boxing event and right at the beginning of our package we used NextVR,” he says. “We learned some things about shooting boxing in VR like the best camera placement.”

For Saturday’s fight, four 4K cameras will be used—one in a neutral corner, another ringside next to one of the judges and a third as a “wild cam” that can be moved around for shots of the boxers walking to the ring and other interesting viewpoints. The fourth, as of this writing, has not been assigned a location, says Davies.

The four cameras will feed a special VR production workflow that is separate from the linear show that will air on FS1 (Fox Sports 1) at 8 p.m. ET. Switching the VR production is similar to a standard video production with one important distinction: speed. “We do it a little bit slower as not to cause too much vertigo [for the VR viewer],” says Davies.  

“What works better with VR is to allow the scene play out in front of you versus trying to follow the action too much. It just takes your senses a little bit of time to acclimate to each shot,” he says. “So, we’d like to find a good shot and stay on it for a while and only switch when absolutely necessary.”

Graphics are added to the VR production as are replays from the linear production. The VR show director views a typical multiviewer with video that’s “like a very stretched picture” to call the shots for the show. Another production crew member is in the VR experience to ensure not only the quality of the production but also that it looks good in the Venues amphitheater, he says.

Audio for VR productions is particularly important. “We learned, and I think everybody learned when we were doing VR for the first time a few years ago, that there still very much is a need for storytelling in VR,” says Davies.

The sound mix, including audio from the VR camera mics, natural sound from the linear show and announcer audio, will help keep VR viewers grounded in the environment and move the story of the fight along. However, unlike the linear show, the production will have no commercials.

To keep VR viewers engaged during commercial breaks, Fox Sports announcers will engage with Oculus Quest wearers to answer questions and talk over the fight.

Fox Sports then will hand off the VR production to Facebook to place into the Venues environment, says Davies.

Producing a separate VR show is a rather low-profile endeavor and poses no threat of interfering with the linear show, notes Davies, who adds that the evolution of virtual reality has been impressive. 

“We’ve probably gotten about 15 or 20 VR shows under our belt over the years,” he says. “So, it’s satisfying to see that VR is marching along and improving with every manifestation. Boxing is a good place to showcase it once again and see what everybody thinks.”

(Editor’s note: Fox Sports and Facebook will also present two more PBC matches, to be determined, on Nov. 21 and Dec. 16.) 

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.

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.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Intel has announced plans for a 5G-based VR, 3D and 360-degree platform for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

In collaboration with SoReal, Intel Core and Intel Xeon processors will bring immersive experiences to the Olympics, including 5G-based VR/AR solutions, experiences and training assistance, as well as esports events and even a theme park.

Rick Echevarria, Intel sales and marketing group vice president and general manager of Intel’s Olympics program, said: “Intel is committed to help bring technologies including AI, 5G platforms and VR into the Olympic Games to provide innovative experiences for athletes, participants, spectators and stadium operators, as well as demonstrating how technology promotes successful business transformation.

“Working with an organization with deep expertise in VR/AR-related technology development as well as VR/AR content production, combined with Intel’s VR/AR expertise and 5G technology, we are confident in helping to bring more immersive experiences to participants.”

PHILADELPHIA—Looking like something that could have come out of one of his sci-fi films, Steven Spielberg—along with DreamWorks Animation, Universal Parks and Resorts, and Comcast Labs—has designed the Universal Sphere, a cross between virtual reality and a planetarium that is located on the second floor of the Comcast Technology Center in Philadelphia. The sphere is a 360-degree dome theater that shows a seven-minute immersive film and is now open to the public.

Described by Comcast CEO Brian Roberts as “virtual reality without the glasses,” the film is about the ideas that shaped the world and features, according to a report from Philly.com, depictions of a ship falling off the edge of the Earth and being blasted into outer space, among others.

The Universal Sphere is open to the public Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. A reservation is required and can be made the same day via the Universal Sphere’s website. Tickets are free.

For more information, read the full story on Philly.com.

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.

BONN, GERMANY—Sports production at its best can give viewers –if even for a fleeting moment—the feeling that they’re part of the game.

Deutsche Telekom and MediaKind extended that immersive feeling with the help of 6K tiled 360-degree video to viewers via the Magenta VR app on Dec. 9 when the Telekom Basket Bonn met EWE Baskets Oldenburg on the hardwood at the Telekom Dome in Bonn, Germany.

“Consumers are always seeking new ways to experience their favorite sports content. Through the rapid evolution of 360-degree technology, we have the potential to push boundaries and take the consumer to the heart of the game itself,” said Angel Ruiz, CEO of MediaKind.

[Read: Samsung, USA Basketball Team Up On VR]

The multi-camera, 360-degree live stream was delivered to Deutsche Telekom customers via the company’s Magenta VR service on a consumer app. Technical project management was handled by MediaKind, which worked with Deutsche Telekom, Magnum Film, Tiledmedia, Iconic Engine and INVR. Magnum Film shot and produced the event in 360-degree video.

The coverage was the latest milestone in a collaboration over the past year and half between MediaKind and Tiledmedia to demo 360-degree viewport adaptive ClearVR video and supplement traditional broadcast production, bringing viewers closer to the action. “The success of this world first live sport event using 6K 360-degree video with ClearVR tiled format is a major milestone for our team of engineers and our partners who turned this around in a short space of time,” said Ruiz.

MediaKind’s virtualized software encoding technology was deployed in the Google Cloud Platform. MediaKind’s software-based probes were used to monitor every point of data traffic flow and cloud processing operation. They also created customizable and detailed operational dashboards using common cloud visualization tools.

Deutsche Telekom’s T-Labs research team sponsored the event.

More information is available on the MediaKind website.

Fremont, CA — November 22, 2018 - Blackmagic Design announced today that Japan’s DeNA Co., Ltd. and its group company SHOWROOM inc. used a number of Blackmagic Design’s capture and playback devices, including DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G, DeckLink Mini Recorder 4K and Intensity Pro 4K, for their new VR streaming system called SHOWROOM VR. Through SHOWROOM VR, artists and musicians communicate using high quality VR media.

DeNA is a major venture company participating in various fields of business, including ecommerce, gaming, sports, automotive, heath care, education and artificial intelligence. It is also well known in Japan for acquiring a professional baseball team, the Yokohama DeNA BayStars.

The original SHOWROOM service was a live streaming platform started by DeNA in 2013 and it became one of the group companies. Unlike normal streaming platforms, there is a system in SHOWROOM where viewers can send in virtual items, called gifts, and the streaming musicians and artists get paid accordingly. In 2016, DeNA launched SHOWROOM VR and created a studio inside the company for VR streaming, allowing artists to create 180° 3D media.

Designed by DeNA’s engineer of technology development of system management unit, Takeyuki Ogura, the SHOWROOM VR is a custom built service using DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G, DeckLink Mini Monitor 4K and Intensity Pro 4K and NVIDIA GPUs. Built around the DeckLink SDK, DeNA was able to capture, synch, shoot, convert and streaming signals from two 180° cameras.

The two 180° cameras output two 2160p29.97 signals to a custom built PC, which houses the DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G, DeckLink Mini Recorder 4K, Intensity Pro 4K and an NVIDIA GPU. The left signal is captured on DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G or Intensity Pro 4K while the right signal is captured on DeckLink Mini Recorder 4K. The two signals are synced and converted on the GPU and sent out from DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G or DeckLink Mini Recorder 4K. The combined signal is captured and sent to live streaming software using DeckLink Mini Recorder 4K.

Takeyuki Ogura said: “It was essential that the Blackmagic devices support the NVIDIA GPU Direct. Having looked for capture cards supporting it, I found DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G and other Blackmagic PCIe interfaces most suitable for our purpose. And I found it advantageous that DeckLink SDK is published on the web, and a sample program in the SDK that uses NVIDIA GPU was helpful too. Blackmagic cards have great compatibility with PCs, so they were easy to integrate into the system.”

“Viewers watch the streams wearing VR goggles and look at some part of the whole picture. It was necessary to stream in 4K and I chose Blackmagic capture cards because they all support 4K. If the resolution is high, viewers can feel as if they were in the same space as the idols and artists are in. We are expecting to apply this VR streaming technology in other fields, like travel, sports and education,” he concluded.

Press Photography

Product photos of DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G, DeckLink Mini Recorder 4K, DeckLink Mini Monitor 4K, Intensity Pro 4K and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

ARLINGTON, VA.--Broadcast engineers from around the globe converged here for three days last week to exchange information about the industry and broadcast technology developments at the annual IEEE Broadcast Technology Society Fall Symposium.

In spite of the demands of the ongoing television spectrum repack, some 160 engineering consultants, equipment manufacturers, and broadcast group personnel took time away from their duties to join academics and others from as far away as Russia, Brazil and South Korea at the Oct. 9-11 tech con.

Next-Gen TV was the hot topic this year, with nearly half of the presentations falling into this category and nine directly focused on ATSC 3.0’s potential, field testing, deployment, business models, and evaluation metrics. Presentations even included some “one step beyond” views into the future television experiences. One described methodology for transmitting information to provide sensory stimulation beyond sight and sound, and a lunchtime keynote presenter described taking virtual reality out to the ball game.

BRINGING BACK THE ACTION WITH VR

In her presentation, Uma Jayaram, engineering director for Intel Sports True VR division, described why her company decided to launch a virtual reality TV sports production element, and discussed some of the technical issues that had to be resolved to make it possible.

“The timeline for [introduction and acceptance] of new use cases is dramatically shortening,” Jayaram said. “The telephone took 75 years to reach the 50 million user mark; ‘Angry Birds’ took just over a month to reach this mark.

“Companies such as Intel realize that you cannot afford to join the party after it’s well underway and things are moving really fast," she continued. "So, you place some bets, you get into the ecosystem, you play with it, you try to move it, and essentially see what’s going on in a more involved manner.

“When you think of Intel, you ordinarily think of the more traditional segments—CPUs, graphics and so on, but some of the big bets we are making have to do with artificial intelligence, VR, hygiene, and automated driving” observing that all of these emerging technologies involved moving and processing massive amounts of data, an Intel specialty.

“These areas are moving so fast that you want to be in that ecosystem,” said Jayram in explaining Intel’s decision to launch the sports business unit two years ago.

“On ‘game day’ we show up with our cameras, we set up alongside the networks and stream VR experiences in near real time,” she said. “We provide [feeds] to about 10 right’s-holding broadcasters.”

In her presentation, Jayaram did flag some VR limitations, noting that perhaps the biggest centers on the cumbersome headgear that consumers must don.

“I can’t watch with a headset for more than a few hours,” she said.

As one solution, her unit is creating shorter duration or “snackable content” sports highlights packages. “We’re also working to provide a better user interface…something that would allow a person to do VR viewing while still interacting with friends,” she said.

She also described some technical considerations in VR that don’t really exist in ordinary television coverage.

“Time synchronization is very important when you have six separate cameras that all have to be synched together along with the audio," she said. "Seamless ‘stitching’ of the multiple views is also very important.”

Branding of the viewing apps for consumers is also something of a challenge as Intel's Sports unit is dealing with multiple broadcast entities operating in several countries. “In the U.S., NBC has the rights, so we have to have an NBC app with the 'NBC look and feel' and colors. We now have to put out about 33 of these apps [to accommodate the various broadcast entities and viewing devices].”

Jayaram also noted that a business model has to be established before widespread deployment of VR sports coverage can take place.

“We’re looking at subscription models,” she said. “In the end you have to make money. This is still being worked out.”

WHAT’S HAPPENING OUT IN THE [3.0] FIELD?

Status reports on ATSC 3.0 rollouts in three U.S. markets were part of the conference program, with WRAL-TV’s Transmitter Supervisor Matt Brandes describing activities at his company’s Raleigh-Durham, N.C. test facility. Fred Baumgartner, director of Next Gen TV implementation for Sinclair Broadcast Group, provided an update on the station group's Dallas-Ft. Worth ATSC 3.0 single-frequency network initiative, and Pearl TV’s Dave Folsom described goings-on in connection with the "Phoenix Model Market project.

All offered some lessons learned and dos and don’ts takeaways.

“If you’re a person blessed with the privilege of setting up a brand new ATSC 3.0, please download and read the ATSC recommended practices on the Physical Layer, go play with your toys, and then come back and read the recommended practices again,” said Brandes. “Also, buying a new encoder might do more for your coverage than putting in two transmitters. If you can get three dB improvement [in encoding], this is equivalent to doubling your power.

Speaking for Pearl TV, Folsom noted that early equipment implementations are still not complete and software versioning is a big issue

“Anytime someone makes a software upgrade, everything downstream quits working, including the receivers," he said. 

Folsom added that the ability to interchange encoding, packaging and encapsulation units isn’t fully developed yet. “You should be able to connect up the unit and it should work, but it doesn’t," he said. "The standards are clear, [but] there’s a lot of misunderstanding among manufacturers about what needs to be there.”

Baumgartner observed that monitoring and control in connection with SFN transmitter sites is a potentially big issue. “We’re just starting to put our toes in that water and we can run [the Dallas-Ft. Worth installations] from our handheld devices, but at some point, it’s going to start to look like MediaFLO and then you’re got 300 transmitters out there and you have to start thinking about trucks, spare parts, and support infrastructure," he said. "You have to figure out how to make it all run economically.”

‘HACKING’ NEXT-GENERATION TELEVISION

Although the ATSC 3.0 racehorse is barely out of the stable, due to its hybrid broadcast/internet delivery, concerns are already surfacing about vulnerability of signals to manipulation by pranksters or others with darker agendas. Broadcast cybersecurity expert Wayne Pecena examined this in his presentation, “Hacking ATSC 3.0.”

He noted that the broadcast community was not exactly a stranger to nefarious intercepts of program streams, citing the 1986 takeover of HBO’s satellite transponder by “Captain Midnight,” and the “Max Headroom” incident the following year in which the studio-to-transmitter feeds of Chicago stations WGN-TV and WTTW were breached and third-party content aired.

Pecena observed that those incidents had required a lot of technical savvy and large equipment costing many thousands of dollars. “Now someone with a tablet computer sitting in a coffee shop can wreak a lot more havoc,” he said.

He cited the potential risks to broadcasters of ATSC 3.0 stream hijacking, including dead air, loss of revenue, public embarrassment, data breaches, potential legal liability, loss of public trust, and impact on station resources.

Pecena urged station operators to gain a thorough understanding of their IP systems and think about ways in which they might be compromised, observing that “the Internet of Things really provides only minimal, if any, safeguards against hacks, with security often being an afterthought or a ‘neverthought.’”

He said that even with the security components inherent in ATSC 3.0 and a tightening of security at broadcast facilities, there still could be breaches occurring within the home environment.

“The consumer industry must adopt stronger IoT security features,” he said. “The weakest link determines the overall security of any system.”

During the gathering the society also recognized Merrill Weiss with its highest honor, the Jules Cohen award for excellence in broadcast engineering. 

The BTS Symposium moves to Hartford, Conn. in 2019. Conference dates are Oct. 1-3.

For a comprehensive list of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see our ATSC3 silo.

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.”

AMSTERDAM-- The future for virtual reality will be bright, if its quality continues to improve, said Rob Koenen, president of the VR Industry Forum (VRIF), during a “Masterclass on VR Technology and Industry” at the 2018 IBC Show.

Koenen looked back to the first generation of “pricey” and “clumsy” VR headphones which forced users to require expensive computers. By contrast, he said the newest wave offers standalone, VR headphones for under $200, with no wires or computers required to operate.

“Consumers and businesses alike are interested in VR and a healthy ecosystem is developing, but for it to be truly successful it needs to reach enough people, deliver a cinematic-type experience and be affordable to distribute,” Koenen said.

Koenen pointed to the progress at VRIF demonstrations at IBC’s Future Zone as an example of the format’s progress. Those included high-quality live VR360 streaming, tools for the production and playback of streaming VR360 based on the MPEG Omnidirectional Media Format (“OMAF”) and MPEG‑H spatial audio.

“Live services will be key to the success of VR; they take the VR experience to the next level,” Koenen said. “They are a now key focus for VRIF and we will document recommendations for live VR in the upcoming version of our Guidelines, which is scheduled for publication in January 2019.”

Koenen also seemed optimistic about the use of VR applications outside of entertainment, such as in healthcare and training.

“Forecasts for VR are good – IDC, for example, expects spending on AR and VR products and services to reach $27 billion in 2018 – but there is still work to be done,” said Koenen. “To ensure these projections are delivered, the industry needs to come together to focus on creating interoperable, high-quality services which are accessible and bring true value to end users.”

VRIF members include Qualcomm, Sky, Sony, Verizon and more. 

Fremont, CA — August 29, 2018 - Blackmagic Design announced today that Micro Studio Camera 4K and Video Assist were used for 4K VR live streaming of a Jazztronik concert at Billboard Live Tokyo. The concert was streamed on YouTube and viewers could feel as though they were inside the concert venue by wearing a head mounted display.

The 4K VR live stream was organized by Kadinche, a developer of VR and AR solutions technologies, software development and web design.

Jazztronik, the music group who performed for the concert, is part of the Japanese company Styrism. Takayuki Morinaka, CEO of Styrism, said, “It was the first time for us to hold a live streaming concert. Of course it is best to have fans come to our concert and let them enjoy live performances, but we decided to give it a shot at making use of the cutting edge VR live streaming technology for our artists, having noticed that the technologies of live streaming and VR have been rapidly growing over the years.”

Two Micro Studio Camera 4Ks, with Entaniya 250° lenses, were placed at the concert venue, one for live streaming and the other for archive recording. Video Assist was used for monitoring and recording purposes.

“The Jazztronik concert was scheduled to last for one and half hours. We sought reliable cameras that could shoot for long hours and concluded that Micro Studio Camera 4K was the best option. The camera’s small size was especially helpful for this event as we had limited space to put a camera in. In contrast with the size of the camera body, the sensor inside the camera is surprisingly huge, giving you great picture quality in 4K. The 250° lenses and Micro Studio Camera 4K were the best combination because both of them support micro four thirds mount. Micro Studio Camera 4K satisfied every condition this project required.”

“We reduced the frame rate on our software to 4K 20fp to achieve stable live streaming. As affordable as it is, Micro Studio Camera 4K is a wonderful camera with great 4K image quality. Combined with Video Assist, you can even see the video captured by a fisheye lens, which is not possible with common VR devices,” said Dai Akiyama, chief strategy officer of Kadinche.

“I think that VR streaming is best for concerts and events. You can let as many people as you want experience the performance without inviting them to actual venues. Concert halls have limited seats, but with VR streaming anyone can enjoy and see artists at the front row. We are hoping to continue using Blackmagic products for projects of VR and stereoscopic video streaming,” he concluded.

Press Photography

Product photos of Micro Studio Camera 4K, Video Assist and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

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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Oculus has launched Oculus TV, a new channel that serves as a hub to experience programming from Hulu, Showtime, MLB Live games and others, as well as esports via Facebook’s Watch video service. The service is available to users of Oculus Go, the company’s first standalone VR headset. Oculus Go, announced at Facebook's F8 conference last month, retails for $199 for 32GB of storage, $249 for 64GB.

What’s missing from the company’s announcement? Any mention of the words “virtual reality.” Instead, Oculus claims that the viewing experience on its new TV network for Oculus Go is equivalent to a 180-inch TV screen. The company said viewers can switch between live and on-demand content, from “The Daily Show” and “Late Night With Stephen Colbert” to Facebook Watch original shows. Content is also available from Pluto TV, Red Bull TV and Newsy, with the promise of “fan favorites” from ESPN to be added soon.

The Oculus TV app can be downloaded from the Oculus Store for free. 

Fremont, CA - June 14, 2018 - Blackmagic Design today announced that Sky News UK has integrated a series of Ultimatte 12 compositing processors and an Ultimatte Smart Remote 4 to produce dynamic virtual studio segments for its award winning 24 hour rolling news cycle, in particular for its ‘Sunrise’ breakfast programming.

The installation forms part of a major relocation project, which saw the news broadcaster move to new, state of the art studio facilities within Sky Campus in West London. “Our key aim was not only to retain the extremely high quality production values that Sky News is renown for, but also to ensure that we were able to create depth, scale and variety when presenting news output,” explains Ben Wickham, head of studio output, Sky News.

The three walled greenscreen takes up around half of the studio, and is predominantly used for Sky News’ virtual news studio, built within a highly realistic 3D VR environment. Within the virtual set, a video wall can be deployed for welcome sequences, lead item discussions, correspondent reports, sports bulletins and weather forecasts.

Ben explains that this is where the cleanness of Ultimatte’s keying and spill suppression come into their own: “As well as a range of different presenters’ hair colors, skin tones and clothing, it has to deal with changes in camera angle, and greenspill from the three walls on presenters’ heads and shoes. The Ultimatte’s real time edge handling and color separation means that we can always be confident of the results on screen, no matter how many different VR studio slots we have in the running order.”

News programming in the studio is captured by five cameras, including two dedicated VR units; one on a jib and a pedestal unit operated remotely from the gallery. “Our VR elements have to be as flexible as possible, so we can cut between our VR camera signals and also transition between the virtual set and the presenters’ desk in the other half of the studio,” continues Ben. “The integration between studio set and VR cameras has to be seamless.”

Sky News is already expanding its use of VR with Ultimatte 12 with enhancements to its editorial news elements, for example, creating a series of real life locations to recreate timelines of key news events. “Often we simply can’t film in these locations live, as they may still be an active crime scene, however by constructing a virtual recreation, we can have a presenter walk through the scene, giving the story an added dimension,” explains Ben.

“We chose Ultimatte 12 primarily because its precision, wide color space and real time image processing would match Sky News’ rigorous demands for production excellence at all times,” Ben concludes. “It’s critical that any VR elements we introduce into our studio productions retain as much authenticity as possible. Ultimatte’s flexibility, combined with high quality VR builds ensures that viewers will continue to turn to the channel as a reliable and information news source.”

Press Photography

Product photos of Ultimatte 12, Ultimatte Smart Remote 4 and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Press Contact

Nick Govoni
Zazil Media Group
(e) nick@zazilmediagroup.com
(p) +1 (978) 866 7354

LONDON--The annual IBC2018 media, technology, and entertainment show is now in-sight, and those that register before June 8th qualify for a special launch rate. At this year’s high-profile trade show—taking place from September 13-17 at the RAI in Amsterdam—attendees will have access to a wide range of sessions, panels and presentations examining cutting-edge developments shaping the future of the media and entertainment industry.

IBC show organizers promise to inspire show-goers with “fresh inspiring conference themes that focus on innovative new platforms, audience engagement and interaction/immersion, as well as a wide-ranging exhibition that will encompass the latest technologies from artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) to advanced cloud-based workflows.”

For the first time ever, the IBC Conference will feature “The Global Gamechangers,” chaired by Edith Bowman, who will host industry-leading business, creative, and technology talent, including Peter Salmon, Chief Creative Officer of Endemol Shine Group, and Deborah Turness, Head of Euronews for NBC Universal.

This year’s IBC conference tracks are designed to illuminate emerging topics, such as:

“NextGen: Interactive & Immersive Experiences,” a panel discussion—featuring Hammer Films Joint CEO Marc Schipper and other immersive industry experts—exploring AR and AI, among other immersive techniques.

[Read: IBC Announces Keynotes, New ‘Global Gamechangers’ Stage]

“Audiences: Engage. Influence. Grow” will delve into GDPR and machine learning and reveal ways to engage niche and evolving audiences. Rob Koenen, President, VR Industry Forum (VRIF) and an MPEG leader will showcase “Cutting-edge Tech Innovators,” exploring where AI, VR, blockchain and other immersive media technologies could take the industry.

Several sessions will focus on maximizing advertising and targeted marketing opportunities. Former Channel 4 Chief David Abraham, now of Wonderhood Studios, will examine how video consumption business models are changing, and the impact these trends could have on studios and content creation. On a similar note, “Advertising: The New Attention Economy” will explore new ways of maximizing targeted marketing and revenue in the age of big data and blockchain.

IBC will host three invitation-only Executive Forums: The Leaders’ Forum, Cyber Security Forum and the Telco & Media Innovation Forum, convening the industry’s most influential and visionary people to discuss key trends, opportunities and disruptors impacting the industry and its future.

As with previous IBC shows, the exhibition—from September 14-18, 2018—will feature products for every stage of the workflow from content creation through distribution. The Future Zone Theatre will present curated sessions exploring the impact of new technologies like virtual, augmented, and mixed reality (MXR), and The Big Screen will showcase the latest in cinema projection and sound technology.

According to IBC, the show attracts roughly 60,000 attendees from more than 170 countries and representatives from over 1,700 industry leading suppliers.

To register, visit the IBC Show website. 

CUPERTINO, CA.—Altia Systems today unveiled PanaCast Live, a fully integrated, portable video system being used by Intel Sports for live 180-degree 4K 3-D video at 60 frames per second over 12G-SDI.

The new system has been selected to complement Intel’s True VR technology to deliver a 180-degree 4K 3-D experience to fans.

PanaCast Live incorporates six 13-megapixel cameras with onboard real-time processing to synchronize, stitch and optimize video streams at 2,358 megapixels per second, the company said.

The system scales all that data down to produce a 4K 60fps signal delivered over the 12G-SDI interface, says company co-founder and CEO Aurangzeb Khan.

The new product has been designed with enough headroom to scale to 8K with minimal changes to the optical path although additional output interfaces will be necessary, he says.

Altia Systems is unveiling the PanaCast Live system to the public at the Intel Capital Global Summit, May 8-10, in Palm Springs, Calif. The first use of the system by Intel was in January when it was used to stream major live sporting events to fans around the world.

[Read: NBC Olympics To Deliver 50 Hours Of Winter Olympics VR Coverage]

PanaCast Live delivered close-to-the-action shots, delivering a new level of fan engagement, the company says. Live streams of various sporting events are available through the Intel True VR app as well as partner-branded apps for Samsung Gear VR and Daydream.

To capture a sporting event, PanaCast Live can be positioned on the side of field to capture the whole field of play, such as on a scorer’s table, or on the upper level to capture a view of an entire stadium, says Khan.

Altia Systems isn’t stopping with PanaCast Live. It plans to release additional video-based solutions throughout the year and is focused on “driving the industry towards a future of advanced intelligent vision,” says Khan.

More information is available on the Altia website.

Oculus, Facebook’s virtual reality company, is diving deeper into video with Oculus TV, a custom, 3D-rendered environment that will be centered by a large viewing screen, virtual seating area and serve as a content hub for an initial wave of partners.

Oculus TV, announced at this week’s F8 conference in San Jose, will focus on “serialized content” (including both live and on-demand) and provide a curated area for VR apps from partners such as Hulu and Showtime, with plans to add others, including Pluto TV, Red Bull TV and Facebook’s video app for TV next month. ESPN will be joining the Oculus TV mix later this year.

Oculus TV is set to launch this month, and sometime this summer will add the ability for up to four people to watch together in a virtual room.

The most significant VR hardware product news to come out of F8 was the commercial availability of the Oculus Go, the company’s first standalone VR headset that starts at $199 (for the 32 GB version; the 64 GB version sells for $249) and supports more than 1,000 apps and games at launch.

Oculus Go complements the Oculus Rift, which needs to be hooked to a high-octane PC. Oculus software also powers the Samsung Gear VR headset that works in tandem with compatible smartphones. Watch this promo video about Oculus’ new standalone VR headset:

Oculus Go will also compete with standalone VR headsets that will work with Google’s Daydream platform. Google and its CE partners have not announced a revised launch date for those products (originally they were expected to be out by the end of 2017) other than to say that they are coming “soon." More details could be announced at next week’s Google I/O developer conference

Oculus also introduced a “Venues” offering focused on live social events such as concerts, sports and comedy nights — an area that’s been a focus of AltSpaceVR, the social VR company acquired last fall by Microsoft.

Oculus has also redesigned Oculus Rooms, a social platform originally released for the Gear VR, with this week’s launch of Oculus Go.

LAS VEGAS — The 2018 NAB Show is closed and in the books; with the attendance figures about 10% less than 2017 at just over 93,000 making the annual trek to Las Vegas. First impressions seemed to confirm the reduced attendance, at least to those in the Central and North Halls, as traffic seemed less than in the past. For 2018, NAB shifted many of the mainstream players back to South Upper and South Lower. The South Halls generally seemed jammed with people strolling to find the major players, at least from the broadcast equipment and content creation standpoint.

[Read: A Brief History Of The NAB Show]

For 2018, standout trends centered on the many evolving cloud-based workflows (including content and asset management, playout, and processing); the emerging applications and solutions for Internet Protocol (IP) infrastructures–based on the new SMPTE ST 2110 standards; availability of UHD/4K components (from the absurdly inexpensive to the traditional expectations); the practices of creating workflows for High Dynamic Range (HDR) and associated applications which allow users to generate both SDR and HDR; and last but not least, the true arrival of AR/VR and AI/ML … our new set of two-letter acronyms relating to virtual-reality and artificial intelligence.

IP IS HERE AND A REALITY

Perhaps the most evident of all the new technologies is the SDI-game changer — that is, real time video networking using IP.

From the IP-transition perspective, this was the first NAB since the adoption of SMPTE ST 2110 standards for managed professional media networks. Dozens of manufacturers brought many new IP‑centric products to the show. At the IP Showcase alone, 50+ vendors showed interconnected IP related products interoperating according to those standards which were produced by the SMPTE over the previous 18-24 months. Countless other vendors also amplified “IP” — regardless of what they meant by it.

[Read: What SMPTE-2110 Means For Broadcasters]

For this industry, “IP” is the new buzzword — the new direction, much like “cloud,” was only few short years ago. Yet, IP takes on many different forms — from compressed video, to media workflows, to the carriage of information technology, and — of course — those hot new entries steeped in the production and transmission of real time, full bandwidth, full bit-rate uncompressed audio-video (and metadata) in a networking environment. It seemed that without a doubt, IP is destined as an eventual replacement for SDI. Yet there still remain many hurdles to cross for full IP-adoption to be complete.

A collected endeavor of the many manufacturers who contributed to this transition was shown in the IP Showcase, found at the rear of the Central Hall. This year’s exhibit doubled in size over the 2017 NAB Show, reaching nearly 3,000 square feet. It featured a fully functioning, all IP-based video production control room staffed by volunteers and others, including students from Toronto’s Ryerson University, where presentations on IP technologies and applications were streamed live over the NAB channel.

Sponsored by the NAB and composed of trade and standards representatives from organizations including AIMS, VSF, AMWA, IABM, EBU, SMPTE and more; the showcase once again demonstrated working examples of the new IP video standards plus integration of the NMOS interface specifications. This year the showcase exhibits were arranged in an educational environment, letting visitors see and learn about the advanced capabilities of IP for professional video.

Potential IP adopters saw how 53 manufacturers addressed software-defined networking (SDN) alongside new tools aimed at diagnostics and operational management for IP implementations. Records showed some 1,030 attendees were scanned into the system as visitors.

AR/VR & MORE

Rippling down from January’s Consumer Electronics Show, held in this same location, was the enormous prominence of VR/AR (virtual and augmented reality) and AI/ML (artificial intelligence and machine learning). Throughout the show there were sessions and evolving products that support the industry’s new needs to create, manage, and deliver content to these emerging platforms. These cross-platform technologies are opening new doors, ones that are creating immersive and interactive media across social media and transmedia.

One of those “new era” production modes is that of eSports — the transformation of gaming to a real time, arena based live event. eSports attracts inventive players and is in turn changing production techniques that may show promise for aspiring new venues. This new gaming-environment (already attracting more than 40 million fans) could add far reaching opportunities for existing and future stadiums and arenas, especially when those locations are when not hosting other major league sporting events. eSports combines gaming and live “reality” television for both OTA and OTT, and pushes them into social media in a real-time domain. Look for many new programming opportunities across all forms of mobile communications and in-home entertainment.

MORE MOBILE VIDEO TRAFFIC

The biggest booth presence at NAB was Amazon — does this say something about the oncoming change? Here are some thoughts to ponder:

Program content production, ranging from long-form to user-generated short form, continues to explode — driving the technologies forward and the costs to produce that content downward. How that content is going to be consumed was a central undertone at NAB. According to Facebook’s Daniel Danker, “Fifty percent of all internet traffic is now delivery to mobile devices” and is “expected to be up to 75% in five years.”

One out of every five videos is “live” streaming. In August 2017, Facebook introduced “Watch,” a new platform for shows on Facebook. Watch is now available on mobile, on desktop and laptop, and in Facebook TV apps. Shows are made up of episodes — live or recorded — and follow a theme or storyline. And this is not where the story ends.

This, and dozens of similar stories, may indeed help drive the growth of the internet upward and outward. The NAB Show clearly showed this transition moving faster than ever, and the change is at a global level — noting that 73% of the homes in Sweden have 100 Mbps internet full time. All the service providers see this only accelerating the full adoption of mobile video communications and technologies like ATSC 3.0.

UHD, HDR & HFR

Continued emphasis on UHD was also echoed by the adoption of high dynamic range (HDR) and high frame rate (HFR). Several companies exhibited various means and methods to accommodate both the higher resolution characteristics of UHDTV (aka “4K”) and wider color gamut (WCG) perceptual capabilities found in HDR. Adding dimension to newer prospects, camera manufacturers and production solution providers alike are now making strong inroads into HFR video and the ability to produce both HDR and SDR (standard dynamic range aka “plain HD video”) in a simultaneous workflow.

Producing HDR and SDR, in concert with one another, comes with steeper challenges than when broadcasters moved from SD to HD video, or from stereo to surround. The complexities and processes with doing both, so that meaningful and proper images can be delivered to the consumer, showed its challenges at NAB as potential creators and users sought to understand which comes first, the HDR or the SDR — creating a sort of “chicken and the egg” perspective.

ATSC 3.0

The next generation OTA broadcast standard is complete, driving several traditional broadcast companies to develop products aimed at the initial rollouts. ATSC 3.0 is a game-changing standard designed to deliver better video and audio quality, not only for over-the-air (OTA), but also over-the-top (OTT).

Technology wise, ATSC 3.0 is an IP-based transmission standard designed on a five-layer stack akin to the seven-layer OSI stack utilized in IP-networking. The model allows for easy technology replacement and substitution as new features or developmental advances are rolled out. And ATSC 3.0 may have far reaching capabilities.

Audio improvements for ATSC 3.0 will be remarkable. Dolby AC-4, the new “next generation audio” (NGA) format, will include three Audio Element Formats: channel-based (like we have today with mono, stereo and surround); object-based (which is for immersive audio mixes) and includes audio signals and positioning metadata for customized audio programming; and scene-based, a sort of soundfield snapshot from a high-order ambisonic (i.e., a full-sphere surround sound technique) source that positions audio above and below the listener.

WHAT MIGHT 2019 BRING?

Given the significant emphasis on software, virtualization, the cloud, and the evolving flavors of audio and video imaging — plus where the internet will really take us — it is too early to figure out where we’ll be at the 2019 show. One thing is for sure though: change will continue and the industry will surely adapt. Stay tuned to see what survives and what stays as reality.

Karl Paulsen is CTO at Diversified and a SMPTE Fellow. He is a frequent contributor to TV Technology, focusing on emerging technologies and workflows for the industry. Contact Karl at kpaulsen@diversifiedus.com.

NEW YORK –NBCUniversal has teamed up with Google to produce virtual reality (VR) versions of select NBCUniversal shows. The VR projects include original content from “Saturday Night Live,” Bravo Media’s “Vanderpump Rules” and SYFY WIRE, with more NBCUniversal networks, channels and shows to follow in the coming months, including projects from E!, NBC, NBC News, NBC Sports, SYFY, Telemundo and USA Network. They’ll be made available on YouTube, and can be viewed on the web or using any mobile phone. For the most immersive experience, viewers can watch in VR using Google Cardboard or Daydream View.

NBCUniversal and Google will collaborate on at least 10 multi-episode VR productions that will place fans inside scenes via 360-degree views. The experiences are being produced using Jump, Google’s platform for VR video capture that combines high-quality VR cameras and automated stitching. Future select VR experiences will also be available in VR180, a new VR format providing 4K, three-dimensional video.

[Read: NBC Olympics To Deliver 50 Hours Of Winter Olympics VR Coverage]

“We are constantly looking for opportunities to bring consumers new ways to experience content from across the NBCUniversal portfolio,” said Ron Lamprecht, Executive Vice President, NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises. “This partnership combines the creative expertise of NBCUniversal with Google’s VR capabilities to create these engaging experiences. We look forward to working with Google and YouTube on more collaborations like this in the future.”

"NBCUniversal’s networks and shows have a proven track record of high-quality storytelling that audiences can’t get enough of. Bringing them to VR lets fans connect with that content in a whole new way,” said Amit Singh, VP of Business & Operations for VR & AR at Google. “NBCU's teams were able to easily capture engaging VR content using the latest VR Jump cameras. And with YouTube, audiences can experience it on any device, bringing them closer to their favorite series.”

As part of this partnership, Bravo and Google have launched two 360 VR experiences featuring Lisa Vanderpump and the cast of “Vanderpump Rules,” with more to launch in the coming weeks. They include:

·Vanderpump Dogs

· Bonus clip from season finale of Vanderpump Rules

To date, projects have included virtual reality, 360-degree videos featuring “Saturday Night Live” guest hosts Kevin Hart, Will Ferrell and Natalie Portman. 

SyFy Wire created 360 and 180 videos for Emerald City Comic Con, including interactive games such as Sidekick Search, Hide and Go Geek, and Three Questions. 

The existing SNL and SyFy Wire videos, and future content from other shows and networks, are available on YouTube and best viewed using a VR headset, like Google Cardboard or Daydream    

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA—For those that have felt there’s nothing good to watch in virtual reality, Samsung Electronics America, Inc. has launched “Pilot Season,” a new initiative aimed at generating fresh, exclusive VR-rich content via its Samsung VR Video service.

Through the program, Samsung awarded a grant to a select indie filmmakers to fund their creation of original VR episodes for six VR pilot series. In addition to exclusive distribution via a dedicated channel on the Samsung VR Video service, the filmmakers were given the opportunity to shoot with Samsung’s 360 Round 360-degree 3D-camera, which features 17 lenses in a stereoscopic 8-pair configuration, plus one on the top, to capture an immersive 360-degree image with no blind spots.

[Read: Samsung Gear Rolls Out $229 360-Degree 4K Camera]

Pilot episodes were produced for the following six VR series:

· “Bro Bots:” a sci-fi VR comedy series set in a New York City of the future, featuring Otis and Roberto, two British robots with big, quirky personalities that join the NYPD.

· “The Interpretation of Dreams:” a narrative fiction series that tells Freud’s original case studies as haunting, psychologically complex VR dreamscapes.

· “Lightcatcher:” a sci-fi adventure featuring the challenges and triumphs of Earth’s people in the year 2150.

· “Sam’s Surreal Gems:” a story-driven VR experience that challenges viewers to find Easter eggs hidden in various VR scenes.

· “&Design:” a global journey looking at artifacts and inventions to explore the relationship between design, technology, anthropology and science.

To watch the Pilot Season episodes, viewers need Samsung Gear VR with a Controller, powered by Oculus, coupled with a compatible Galaxy device, such as the Galaxy S9 or S9+. Once on the platform, viewers can navigate to the Oculus store, and find the content in the “Featured” section of the Samsung VR Video service.

LAS VEGAS—If you were a broadcaster walking the aisles of the 2018 NAB Show earlier this month in Las Vegas, no one could blame you if you focused much of your attention when it came to video compression on HEVC, or its extension SHVC, which will help to power Next-Gen TV.

However, high efficiency video coding as implemented by ATSC 3.0 wasn’t the only compression development that promises new efficiencies for those in the M&E industry.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS used the Las Vegas venue to announce the first JPEG XS codec implementation for professional video. The research institute demonstrated its new codec as an input format for post-production.

Specifically, Fraunhofer showed JPEG XS as a software plug-in for Adobe Premiere Pro CC, providing real-time playback of 4K 60p UHD video in a Windows environment using an NVidia graphics card to accelerate decoding.

[Read: A discussion with Fraunhofer on what’s ahead in compression] 

Fraunhofer is positioning its new codec as a solution to the impending train wreck it sees when the ever-growing data demands of higher res video and HDR meets the limitations of coax cables in studios. Exacerbating the problem is the desire of production companies to move away from specialized switches and cable for video transport to commercial off-the-shelf alternatives that move IP packets via standard Ethernet infrastructures.

The JPEG XS codec, which is being standardized by the JPEG committee for IP workflows in studios, local video networks and VR/AR applications (ISO/IEC SC29 WG1), enables high-res video transfer via standard Ethernet and other wired connections, Fraunhofer says.

It is optimized for use with mezzanine compression applications involving high-res video to be transferred over limited bandwidth or when limited computer resources are employed. JPEG XS is also designed to take advantage of the SMPTE ST 2110 transport layer.

PALM DESERT, CALIF.—The Interoperable Master Format (IMF), direct-view cinema and a frank discussion about the technology consumers adopt versus what experts at industry trade shows say they will do are among the hot topics to be explored at the HPA Tech Retreat, Feb. 19-23.

“We always offer a well-curated, authentic program,” said Seth Hallen, president of the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) and senior vice president of business development and strategy at Pixelogic.

The retreat, to be held at the JW Marriott Resort, will host some 700 media professionals involved in engineering, technology, creative and business.

The JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa will host the 2018 HPA Tech Retreat.

SOMETHING EXTRA
While the retreat officially opens Feb. 20, the event actually gets underway on Monday, Feb. 19, with the half-day HPA TR-X, or Tech Retreat eXtra.

This year’s TR-X is devoted to AI and machine learning. Among the scheduled TR-X sessions are: “A.I. Impact on Media & Entertainment: What is Changing and Why,” “Novel A.I. Implementations: Real World A.I. Case Studies,” “Content Intelligence: A.I. & Marketing,” and “Bleeding Edge M&E Research.”

TR-X will take attendees out of their seats to demonstrate what AI in media can make possible. For instance, an AI avatar of HPA Tech Retreat conference organizer Mark Schubin will be on hand to answer any questions attendees might have, he said.

In its second year, the TR-X requires those wishing to attend to register separately from the HPA Tech Retreat.

The following day, Tuesday, Feb. 20, the retreat officially opens with the supersession “It’s Still Snowing and We’re Just Making Bigger and Better Snowmen,” which will examine the waterfront of content production workflows, including sports, blockbusters, fully synthetic films and streaming.

On Wednesday, Feb. 21, Thursday, Feb. 22, and Friday, Feb. 23, the retreat kicks off with its popular breakfast roundtables, where various topics, ranging from OBID (Open Binding IDs) and their impact on audience measurement and the 2018 Winter Olympics to IP/PTP in real-time production and distribution and the application of AI to video recognition, will be discussed. Attendees are invited to circulate to the tables where topics that interest them are being discussed.

Seth Hallen, HPA president

Following the Wednesday roundtable, Schubin will present a review of the technology of 2017, which will be followed by Jim Burger, partner at the D.C. law firm of Thompson Coburn, who will look at the latest regulatory happenings in Washington affecting media and entertainment.

One retreat highlight, a “mini supersession” devoted to the Interoperable Master Format (IMF), will take place Wednesday, said Schubin.

With input from IMF experts from the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA), the Digital Production Partnership and Hollywood studios, the mini supersession will explore every part of the IMF ecosystem and what it can be used for, said Schubin. Other sessions, including a presentation on versioning content with different languages and subtitles, will touch on IMF as well, he added.

An IMF exhibit area will give attendees a chance to see the format being used in different parts of the content creation workflow, said Schubin. The day also will offer sessions on the latest tech issues impacting broadcasters and a review of the 2018 International CES.

DRAMATIC CHANGES IN CINEMA
Wednesday will wrap up with a look at the latest developments in advanced cinema. “We are possibly looking at the greatest change in cinema since the first projections in the 1890s,” said Schubin. “That change is no more projection, but rather, direct-view cinema.”

No matter how advanced a cinema screen is, at its core it is designed to reflect light, whether that light comes from the projector or ambient light sources in a theater, such as an exit sign, he said.

“A direct view screen does not have to reflect light, which gives you tremendously more contrast, and because they are LED-based you can get tremendously higher brightness,” said Schubin. The retreat also will offer a presentation comparing and contrasting direct-view and projection cinema.

The advanced cinema session also will explore high dynamic range, black level and variable frame rates, said Schubin.

“You might want to have a movie where a sequence suddenly goes to a higher frame rate,” he said. With today’s new projection and direct-view display technologies, a frame rate that varies depending on the sequence is possible.

After the tech roundtables on Thursday, Feb. 22, the retreat will dive deeper into HDR with an examination of various techniques and technologies being offered, as well as a look at metadata guidelines for downstream image presentation management on consumer displays, an update on ACES (the Academy Color Encoding System) and a panel discussion of remote and mobile production.

ECLIPSING VR
The Great American Eclipse and extreme localized content versioning will be among the Thursday topics of particular interest, said Schubin.

Alx Klive, CEO and founder of 360 Designs, will discuss what was involved in bringing live VR coverage of the total solar eclipse that blanketed much of the continental United States to 6 million CNN viewers.

The session will be followed by a presentation from Eric Pearson, home entertainment supervisor at Pixar, on the steps the studio takes to version movies with subtle nuances tailored for the culture and customs of where various versions will be released.

“The way they create a movie allows Pixar to do that because they have the elements so well defined,” said Schubin.

The day closes out with sessions on understanding blockchain and its uses in the media and entertainment business, leveraging decentralized ledgers and machine learning to reinvent digital content storage and interchange and project budgets.

The sessions on the final day of the retreat, Friday, Feb. 23, begin with “Predicting Trends: Why We Get It Wrong and How to Get It Right,” by Mark Harrison, managing director of Digital Production Partnership. “Mark will be looking into what consumers really do adopt versus what we see at NAB Shows and CES Shows about what they are supposedly going to adopt,” said Schubin.

For example, one year at an NAB Show, 3D—or going back a few years, teletext—was predicted to be the “next big thing” with reality proving to be quite different, he said.

The final day of the retreat also will offer a session by Ed Grogan from the National Security Agency on detecting modified video, the fusion of AI, social, advertising and entertainment, virtual cinematography and storytelling engines and perceptual fatigue in film, broadcast and VR.

The official program will wrap up with a presentation by Steve Lampen, consultant for Belden, on where the industry is headed. However, Schubin will present a retreat denouement of sorts with an examination of the history of voice synthesis.

According to Hallen, the relevancy and genuine nature of the program offered at the HPA Tech Retreat is what got him involved with the organization in the first place. “I am proud that HPA has maintained its authenticity throughout the years and continued to deliver compelling and useful programming. The 2018 event will be no different,” said Hallen.

For more information, visit the HPA Tech Retreat registration page.

NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF.—NBA League Pass subscribers will get court side seats from the comfort of their own home this season with the announcement that NBA Digital and NextVR will produce 27 live games in virtual reality for the 2017-2018 season and the introduction of its new Screening Room product. The VR schedule will feature all 30 teams and start off with a free preview for a game between the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets.

The full story is available on TVT’s sister publication B&C.

LOS ANGELES & WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—A point of topic for the SMPTE 2017 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition will be virtual reality, and to address that the organization has announced Andrew Shulkind, co-founder of Headcase VR, will present a keynote during the event.

Shulkind has experience as a cinematographer but it is his work with virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality content that will be his point of emphasis during his keynote, which is titled “The Immersive Future: Broaden Your Horizons.”

The presentation will look to provide a perspective on the impending media disruption that has the capability to bring exponential growth to areas like field-of-view, storage requirements, compression demands and distribution networks. Shulkind hopes to help attendees gain a sense of what immersive content is and the positives of its implementation.

SMPTE 2017 will take place from Oct. 23-26 in Los Angeles. More information is available at www.smpte2017.org.

PONTE VERDA BEACH, FLA.—PGA Tour broadcasts will have a new tool in its bag with the announcement of an exclusive relationship with Intel to produce and distribute live virtual reality and live 360 video for six future PGA Tour events. This relationship came after Intel had previously provided VR coverage of The Players 2017 tournament in May.

Intel will produce these live VR experiences with Intel True VR Technology. Intel True VR uses panoramic, stereoscopic camera pods to create the immersive VR environment.

The first event that will feature the live VR experiences will be the Tour Championship, Sept. 21-24, at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. Live and on-demand VR and 360 coverage will feature holes No. 1, 15 and 18, available through the PGA Tour VR Live app on Samsung Gear VR headsets. The 360 video stream will be available via Twitter and Periscope, the exclusive social media platform to distribute this coverage during the deal term.

The 2017 President’s Cup international team matchup, held from Sept. 28-Oct. 1, at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, N.J., will also feature Intel’s VR coverage. Coverage will include footage from the driving range and fans. Golf Channel hosts Robert Damron, Rex Hoggard and Bailey Mosier will be part of the VR coverage, which will be available through the temporarily rebranded Presidents Cup VR Live app, as well as PGA Tour, Presidents Cup and Golf Channel Twitter and Periscope platforms.

The other tour events on the schedule will take place in 2018 and will include the Waste Management Phoenix Open and The Players Championship. The remaining events will be announced at a later date.

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.