NTT Docomo has developed what it believes is the world's first 8K virtual reality live streaming system for broadcasting live events over 5G.
The system, which will be displayed at the Docomo 5G Open Lab Yotsuya in Tokyo, uses a head-mounted display to create highly realistic viewing experiences.
To overcome the difficulties of processing two 4K video feeds for real-time stitching and compression into 360 degree video, Docomo uses a field programmable gate array (FPGA) for superior processing speed and an algorithm for high-density mounting at 30 frames per second.
Equipment that blends five 4K fisheye videos from outward facing cameras in real time are used to stream to a head mounted display that divides the video into multiple clipped videos, so that only the video corresponding to the direction the user is facing need be displayed.
A real-time encoder is used to produce the video that is sent to the display.
The system is designed to take advantage of the superior speeds of 5G, as it requires a throughput of up to 200Mbps to send the video from the real-time encoder to a Panorama Cho Engine GPU-configured controller, and a throughput of 80Mbps to send video from the distribution server to the headset.