Page 24 - ITU Journal, ICT Discoveries, Volume 3, No. 1, June 2020 Special issue: The future of video and immersive media

ITU Journal: ICT Discoveries, Vol. 3(1), June 2020

processing and distribution pipeline that is hosted The Intel True VR capture system captures video
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in the cloud. The immersive media platform covers from multiple stereoscopic camera pods. The
components of the volumetric and panoramic camera pods are Intel proprietary, paired-lens
capture systems, as well as the immersive media stereoscopic camera pods, as shown in Fig. 2, that
processing and experiences pipeline. are set up in the stadium for the live event. An event
can have as many as eight camera pods, each pod
2.1.1 Intel True View for volumetric video
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including as many as 6 to 12 cameras that are
stitched together. The stitched camera pod views
are then turned into panoramic video that is sent to
the common immersive media processing and
distribution pipeline.
2.1.3 Immersive media processing and
experiences pipeline

The immersive media platform architecture and
workflow diagram shown in Fig. 3 showcases the
Intel Sports immersive media platform that is
powered by Intel True VR and Intel True View.
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Fig. 1 – In-stadium Intel ® True View cameras
Intel True View is comprised of a large (~40)
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camera array that is built into the perimeter of the
stadium as shown in Fig. 1. The high-definition 5K
cameras are angled to capture the entire field of
play. During an event the video captured at the
stadium generates terabytes of volumetric data, in
the form of three-dimensional pixels (voxels). The
voxels contain three-dimensional location
information and relative attributes (e.g., texture
information) that are needed for point-cloud
formation. The camera array is connected by fiber Fig. 3 – Immersive media platform architecture and workflow
to dedicated on-site Intel servers. The data is stored,
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synchronized, analyzed, and processed in the cloud. Intel True VR and Intel True View share a
The terabytes of volumetric data are rendered into common video processing and distribution pipeline
high-fidelity video in the form of virtual camera that is hosted in the cloud.
videos. The video processing component of the pipeline
2.1.2 Intel True VR for panaromic video takes the uncompressed virtual camera videos from
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the Intel True View capture and the panoramic
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video from the Intel True VR capture then encodes
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the video sources.
The settings for stream types, codecs, compression
quality, picture resolutions, and bitrates are highly
dependent on the targeted end-user experiences
and the expected network conditions. The system is
flexible to support current industry standard
codecs such as AVC, HEVC, and M-JPEG, and is
flexible to utilize upcoming immersive media
standards in order to maintain support of a wide
range of platforms and devices.

Fig. 2 – Intel ® True VR camera pod

2 © International Telecommunication Union, 2020