Rumor: YouTube to support 360-degree live video

By admin On Feb 3, 2016

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YouTube is exploring the possibility of streaming live 360-degree video through its platform. Several sources have reported this to BuzzFeed. It is not yet known when the feature will be available.

At the moment, the number of 360-degree cameras that can generate a live stream is still small. The quality of the video is also low in that case. To get 360-degree videos in high quality, the images from the different cameras have to be merged afterwards and stitching the images together in real time requires a lot of computing power.

Google has already developed a 360-degree camera in collaboration with GoPro, the GoPro Odyssey. It’s basically a camera rig with sixteen GoPros. The camera setup is precisely described by Google and can therefore in principle be imitated by anyone with the right GoPros. Google subsequently created its own ‘assembler’ for this, which it calls the ‘Jump compiler’ or ‘Jump assembler’. The compiler converts the cameras’ sixteen raw video feeds into VR video in stereoscopic 3D, but that still requires a lot of computing power. Perhaps that can be done directly on YouTube servers.

GoPro Odyssey: 16 HERO4 cameras, 30×6.5cm, 6.6 kilograms

However, Google cannot assume that everyone has the same cameras and can therefore stream the same video feeds to YouTube, BuzzFeed continues. This eliminates the advantage that the specifications of the recording device are exactly known, as with the Odyssey. YouTube may want to establish a standard for 360-degree camera developers, but it’s also possible that the assembly software on YouTube’s side can handle a wide variety of cameras.

Another option is to put everything together on the camera and then send it to YouTube. This is currently only possible with a single camera and requires very powerful hardware, which is not yet affordable enough for use in any consumer versions. For example, Nokia recently came up with a VR camera called OZO, which can send stereoscopic images in real time via HDMI.

YouTube added support for 360-degree videos in March 2015. This allowed owners of Google Cardboard VR glasses to enjoy 360-degree videos via the YouTube app.