Jump Start your Immersive Video Experiences

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Imagine viewing video on your cell phone, tablet, laptop or TV of an event, either in the past or live where you feel like you are “there”.  While immersive VR requires significant amount of hardware, everyone in todays world has access to a screen that is with them almost 24 hours per day. From sporting events to theater to concerts, the technology is now available that enables this experience.

The immersive experience comes from the users ability to change views on demand.

Rather than watch a broadcast of an event where the viewer is limited by the direct position and direction of the camera, immersive experiences allow the user to move their local screen and view what they would see at the event if they moved their head to get a different view.

As compared to immersive VR where stereo images are sent to headset, the immersive video experience can be performed on any 2D screen that the user has in their possession.

The workflow that delivers images to the screen starts at the event itself. Using a 360 degree camera, the video is captured looking at all angles. This very wide angle camera captures the action and would typically be positioned in front of a stage for a concert. The images at any given time are then stitched together to create a 360 degree view of the event.

The next step is to take this high resolution image and change the resolution to various formats. This is where the heavy lifting is done and requires a highly tuned system to be able to transcode 4K resolution video to different resolutions in real time. Once the video has been transcoded into different resolutions and frame rates, it can be uploaded to a cloud solution and delivered to the intended audience.

Transcoding of these very high resolution images requires tuned software, a fast processor and hardware assist. The Intel Xeon processor family is a preferred CPU for transcoding in real time. The performance is essential, as if the CPUs cannot keep up with the video that is coming in from the camera and stitching system, then a live feed cannot be delivered as customers expect. As everyone knows, when any video that is being viewed lags from what is expected, the experiences is poor. This is even more critical when the user is moving their device in space and the new image is required to be updated very quickly. Depending on a number of factors, mostly the resolution of the client device and the network speed, the experience may be excellent as expected, or poor and unusable. The Intel Xeon processor family is a key component in the technology that delivers these images to the client screen.

With a wide range of Intel Xeon processors available, a truly immersive video experience can be delivered to a diverse set of end users who enjoy watching a concert or sporting event from wherever they may be located. While not an immersive VR experience, immersive video where the user has control over the viewing angle is a very important technology that can deliver exciting content to many consumers.

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