Executives from Apple, HBS and Google highlighted important new innovations during the Gamechangers in Media session at IBC2024.
IBC’s three-day conference programme signed off in style as executives from Apple, Host Broadcast Services (HBS) and Google provided insights into their latest ‘game-changing’ industry developments.
Josh Tidsbury, Senior Manager, Technology Evangelism at Apple provided a run-down of the ‘game-changing’ nature of the company’s latest must-have (for those not on a budget) gadget, the Apple Vision Pro headset.
More than a headset
Apple Vision Pro is “more than a headset”, said Tidsbury, highlighting that it “feels natural” when wearing the visor.
His presentation highlighted the device’s spatial computing capabilities; intuitive control through eye, hand, and voice actions; and immersive entertainment experiences.
“Transform any room into a personal theatre” Josh Tidsbury, Apple
Vision Pro features a custom micro OLED display with over 23 million pixels, spatial audio, and a 180-degree field of view. The platform supports various video formats, including Apple Immersive Video, which offers high resolution and spatial audio.
Tidsbury said that the Vision Pro “can transform any room into a personal theatre”. The interface can dim the light in a room to enable users to enjoy content in a cinema-like atmosphere, among other qualities.
The Apple Vision Pro works through apps but unlike other devices is not bound by a simple rectangular display, he said.
Apps come in two forms – compatible apps – enabling developers to leverage work for other Apple devices ahead of developing native apps for the platform, and native apps.
The best experiences come from native apps, he said, which enable the full stratum of immersion.
Apple has developed a sample app called Destination Video to enable developers to see the possibilities.
Tidsbury said that the best way for developers to build apps for the platform was to use Swift and Swift UI, technologies that enable them to maintain a single project to target all Apple platforms using the vast majority of their code for all platforms. These tools enable developers to take advantage of Apple’s latest tools and developments, he said.
Four types of video playback are supported – 2D video (reusing streams developed for other Apple devices), 3D (replicating what’s available in Apple TV+ and Disney+ apps), Spatial video, rendered through a window to enhance the sense of depth, and Apple immersive video, a new pro format and camera system that mimics the capability of the human eye and enables people to rebuild an entire scene on Apple Vision Pro.
Immersive video comes at 90fps, in 8K stereoscope meaning 24x pixels per second compared with 4K video.
The provides fidelity of presence and peripheral FOV. The stereoscope camera system mimics the human eye to deliver content with real life acuity, he said.
Pixels per degree requires new cameras to build an entire scene using metadata captured at the camera.
Multiview HEVC enables the preservation of environmental details and improved coding efficiency. Blackmagic Design recently launched a camera designed to capture video for the platform.
Apple Vision Pro means big files. Apple tapped MV-HEVC to deliver video in a new way with a 30% improvement in compression. Files are backward compatible with legacy devices playing the left eye layer to render a viewable experience.
Read more Streamers look to AI to crack the codec code
VR innovation
As a host broadcaster working with big sports organisations, Johannes Franken, Director of Digital at HBS, said the company acts as a central entity appointed to build commentary and venue operations for broadcasters.
The company also produces social content around sports. It recently launched Stroller, a new brand dedicated to this. An innovation pillar of this brand investigates immersive content creation.
HBS first created a VR production for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, using the multi-angle filming of the match to create a VR immersive experience.
Early experiments with social features evolved into AR experiences at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 2020 for headset or mobile.
A pure VR experience at the same event was focused on social features primarily for the Chinese market and a younger audience.
HBS has also focused on monetisation. VR can democratise access to events, enabling a broader group of people to ‘attend’ events, said Franken.
It also enables broadcasters to drive additional revenue. Product placement in VR can build interactive and personalised commercial opportunities within the experience.
The technology can also offer in app purchases, including virtual goods, he said.
Franken agreed that the need to put on a headset remained a barrier to adoption. VR developers struggle from lack of market penetration.
He added that his group had formed the XR Sports Alliance to build standards to support further development.
Content discovery
Rounding off the session, Fahad Durrani, Head of Product, Content Discovery and Monetisation at Google TV, reviewed survey data to say that change in video use was driven by Millennials and GenZers. The explosion in streaming media led to browsing dissatisfaction related to challenges in content discovery, he said.
Google went back to its core to create TV that both encompassed all providers in a given market, but which was personalised, and which brough Google apps and experiences to the package.
Google TV, Android TV for retail and Android TV for operators sit alongside each other to enable delivery of experiences within different market segments.
Durrani said there are now 220 million monthly active Google TV devices and a 47% growth rate globally. In the US google TV and other Andridl TV devices hit 220 million monthly minutes of watch time.
He said that GenZers are among the highest consumers of digital Video content. GenZ is very different because they have never know a world without this technology, and has high expectations from products and services. The cohort watch less TV than other generations: 9.4 hours a week compared with 11.5 for millennials. They consume video across devices, they prefer mobiles to TVs. They are more aware of personalisation.
Durrani said that Google had recently announced its Engage SDK, combining different APIs to allow developers and OEMs to bring the best of the experiences across multiple devices.
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