February 2020 Newsletter

 

 

Welcome to the VR Industry Forum Newsletter!

Keeping you updated about our activities! Here we highlight our latest
work and focus on areas that are most critical.

A Message from the President   

4 New tracks in motion!

We have started 2020 with many interesting new topics and, as in previous years, we continue addressing VR360. However, new immersive services and technologies are entering the arena to redefine the landscape offering more advanced services. That is why VRIF has redefined its scope to address the new challenges to the industry. Our newly developed focus areas will allow us to target different stakeholders’ interest as well as to secure VRIF’s long-term vision. The four parallel tracks are defined as follows:

VR360

  • Addresses aspects of capture, distribution and security of VR360 content (3DOF). It is based both on viewport independent and dependent technology (such as MPEG OMAF technology). It covers download, streaming and live use cases.

Volumetric

  • Covers aspects of capture, production, storage and distribution formats, and security of volumetric assets (6DOF). It can be rendered in HMD, AR glasses and flat screens. Meshes and Point Clouds formats are discussed as well as compression and distribution mechanisms.

Social VR

  • Addresses telecommunication aspects of:
    • Real-time VR communication for different segments such as consumer and enterprise
    • Virtual representation of the users: avatars, video, volumetric, etc.
    • Sharing live experiences
    • Security aspects
    • Network requirements are investigated

5G Cloud

  • Considers aspects of how best to utilize 5G and cloud/edge infrastructure to process and distribute XR content to low complexity devices.

The goals are:

    • Guide content providers on how to use 5G and Cloud/Edge
    • Promote the transition from ”device-centric” to ”network-centric” content distribution

VRIF Working Group Activity

Highlights from the Guidelines WG

The guidelines work is at full speed and we have already begun work on the above tracks.

The WG meets weekly on Fridays at 4pm CET/ 7am PT, open to members of the VRIF only.

Release of Guidelines 2.1

A new version of the guidelines has been released with recommendations on:

  • Live VR Service Deployments of TiledMedia and Intel Sports 
      • Both Use Cases show that VRIFs Guidelines are actually used!
  • Additional Guidelines on Presentation APIs based on Khronos OpenXR 1.0

For downloading the latest version please click here.

Upcoming Tutorials:

Don’t miss the opportunity to attend the following tutorial presentations on:

  • Volumetric track, March 6th at 7am PT / 4pm CET (Google Calendar)
      • Video-Point Cloud (V-PCC) – Sebastian/Nokia
      • PCC carriage formats – Emre/Nokia
  • VR360 track, March 13th at 7am PT / 3pm CET (Google Calendar):
      • OMAF v2 introduction – Miska/Nokia

Note: Dates subject to change. These sessions are currently available for VRIF members only.

VRIF Member Testimonial from Bollywood, India

Watch the video from Chaitanya Chinchlikar, Vice-President at Whistling Woods International here.

Upcoming Events

  • March 5 – 6, 2020: Session in XR4ALL in Munich, Germany. “Workshop – Engineering XR for the Future.” VRIF leadership will talk about “VRIF use of standards to deploy XR services.” See here for the full agenda.
  • May 10 – 12,2020: VR&AR Fair 2020

If you’re not already a Member – Join Today!

Membership Information

VRIF was established to further the widespread availability of high quality audiovisual VR experiences, for the benefit of consumers. We:

  • Advocate voluntary industry consensus around common technical standards for the end-to-end VR ecosystem, from creation to delivery and consumption.
  •  Advocate the creation and adoption of interoperable standards promoting the use of common profiles across the industry and promoting and demonstrating interoperability.
  • Develop voluntary guidelines that describe best practices to ensure high quality VR experiences including Guidelines that go beyond interoperability (e.g. Production, Human Factors).
  • Describe and promote the use of VR services and applications. 

Many industry leaders already see the importance and value of VRIF. Join today and add your voice. We welcome your participation and look forward to meeting you at an upcoming industry event.

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