Page 6 - 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

Foreword

Our multimedia-rich communications experience
is built on international standards that give
innovators the confidence to invest in new
applications and services.

The video compression algorithms standardized
by ITU, ISO and IEC are at the heart of increasing
screen resolutions. They are also central to
industry’s ability to meet rising demand for video,
one of the most bandwidth-intensive applications
running over global networks.
These standards are at play in almost all video we
view, over any medium.
These standards meet industry demand for
sophisticated video compression capabilities.
They also enable a natural, economically viable
evolution of video compression technology.
Widespread conformance to these standards
ensures that video encoded on one device can be decoded by another, regardless of device brand. This
introduces economies of scale essential to market growth.

This special issue shares unique insight into the latest developments in video and immersive media and
the exciting prospects appearing on the horizon as a result.

The new ‘Versatile Video Coding’ (VVC) standard, expected to be complete before the close of 2020
will achieve a significant improvement in compression performance over the existing ‘High Efficiency
Video Coding’ standard (HEVC, published as ITU-T H.265 | ISO/IEC 23008-2). Its versatility will
make a key contribution to higher-quality video services and emerging applications such as 360°
omnidirectional immersive multimedia and high-dynamic-range (HDR) video.
The VVC project builds on over two decades of industry-defining standardization work.
I would like to applaud the many experts in industry and academia that have contributed to this work,
work that continues to enrich our communication experiences and provide a basis for advances in fields
such as healthcare and education.

I would like to thank all contributors to this special issue of the ITU Journal for their will to share their
insight with the broader ITU community. The insights of this special issue offer an exciting taste of
what is to come in multimedia.

I look forward to our continued work together to strengthen ITU-Academia collaboration.
This collaboration is of great service to the public interest, with research communities making an
important contribution to ICT innovation as well as international efforts to ensure that the benefits of
this innovation are shared worldwide.

Chaesub Lee
Director
ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau

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