Virtual Reality Development Is Moving in the Wrong Direction

I recently had the pleasure of sitting on a panel at Light Reading’s 2018 大型传播活动在德克萨斯州的奥斯汀. 我的小组成员，Arianne Hinds博士.D. (principal architect, video and standards strategy at CableLabs), and Ozgur Oyman, Ph.D. (from Intel and a board member of the VR Industry Forum group), provided a very lively discussion on the topic of VR, MR, 和基于“增大化现实”技术. 在谈话过程中, Hinds explained how CableLabs is working on a container for VR based on existing technology pioneered in Hollywood’s visual effects (VFX) industry.

First, let me state that I am a big fan of technology. What Hinds and CableLabs are doing is very innovative and nothing short of remarkable. During her explanation of the container format, she said it will massively reduce the amount of bandwidth required to deliver VR while still maintaining incredible resolution. 和, on top of that, it won’t need a headset to render. 当然, it’s still very nascent and relies on display technologies that have not yet been commercialized. But it’s a bold step forward in an industry that is still fraught with significant challenges to consumer adoption.

Yet, as she talked about this new development, I couldn’t help but cringe. VR, as the next generation (or even evolution) of video content, has numerous issues that need to be solved right now. 首先是生产. It requires significantly more manual processes to create and publish VR video content than it does 2D. For example, in a 360° environment, how do you hide the camera crew and equipment? 和, much of the production requires specialized stitching software (still in its infancy) to make the final product. Outside of expensive volumetric video studios (like Intel’s recently announced Intel Studio) that can create more fluid VR content without the need to stitch, creating high-quality VR videos is still hard, 复杂的, 和昂贵的.

其次是交付. 如果你想播放VR视频, you really need 8K or more resolution (to reduce the pixilation), 这需要下一代, 头盔显示装置. 即使使用较新的编解码器(i.e., HEVC and AV1), we are still talking about 10GB or more in bandwidth. 和 when that VR video is in a chunked HTTP format, there’s the latency to contend with—which can, 不幸的是, 导致恶心.

最后，还有成本问题. 是的, there are 一些 reasonably priced prosumer cameras hitting the market, 但这仍然是一项投资. But with VR camera technology changing at such a rapid pace, gear acquired this year could easily be obsolete in 12 months’ time. 这些只是一些技术上的挑战!

But, now we are talking about developing a VR container? 这是现在需要解决的问题吗?

虽然, 再一次。, 我对cabllabs在这方面的努力表示赞赏, there is a danger in trying to bring standardization too soon to an industry that is still trying to figure itself out, one in which the technology is evolving at breakneck speed. Perhaps this container will help galvanize the industry, but I fear that it will divide people into camps— those who support the CableLabs container and those who don’t. Will we end up seeing the kind of container fragmentation we have in HTTP chunked streaming? If we do, VR video adoption may be severely hampered.

和, on top of that, there are no content owners involved in the efforts. One of the requirements to be a member of CableLabs is to be an operator. So, it’s possible that members like Comcast could bring their NBC folks to the table but, 和海因兹谈话, 这是不可能的. But it’s not the operators who will implement this container in video production workf lows. Shouldn’t content owners have a say in how the container is developed, given that they’ll be the ones who employ it?

I see the merits of the effort—the VR industry needs technology guidance. 我只是觉得时机不对.

[This article appears in the July/August 2018 issue of 流媒体杂志 “在VR视频中，是尾巴摇狗吗??"]