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​SK Telecom to unveil 360 VR livestream at MWC

The South Korean telco's end-to-end live-streaming platform will be showcased at the Mobile World Congress.
Written by Cho Mu-Hyun, Contributing Writer

SK Telecom will show off its 360-degree live broadcast platform at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.

The 360 Adaptive VR Live Streaming Platform is an end-to-end broadcast system that will allow users to produce and live-stream UHD 360-degree VR videos with low latency using a 360-degree camera.

SK Telecom said it used stitching technology that will seamlessly "stitch" multiple videos and images taken with 360-degree cameras via its multi-band blending algorithm.

It supports 60 frames per second, the company said, while image quality is maintained in UHD despite file size being reduced by 35 percent compared to competitors.

Used in sync with T Live Streaming -- the telco's own real-time streaming service that customized MPEG media transport standards -- latency is reduced from 20 seconds to five seconds, the company said.

It also supports 3D audio, which is accurate thanks to binaural rendering technology. Sound changes to fit the real environment depending on where the user is looking within the VR content.

The telco will commercialize 360 VR Live aimed at broadcasters and social networking firms and later open the API for individuals.

Earlier this month, SK Telecom successfully achieved 3.6Gbps data transfer speeds on a connected car.

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