Compressed video data are growing at a faster rate than ever before. Already today, video data make up by far the highest percentage of bits on the Internet and in mobile traffic. This demonstrates the need for even more efficient compression, which goes beyond the current state of the art High Efficiency Video Coding standard (HEVC). In order to master this demanding challenge, the ITU-T Video Coding Expert Group (VCEG) and the ISO/IEC Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) have been working together in the Joint Video Experts Team (JVET).  In April 2018, Fraunhofer HHI and other leading technology companies successfully proposed cutting edge coding technology with compression capability beyond HEVC. This marked the starting point of the Versatile Video Coding (VVC) standardization activity. The VVC standard is expected to provide 50% bit rate reduction over HEVC when finalized by 2020.

At NAB 2020, Fraunhofer HHI will showcase optimized VVC encoding with reduced complexity. This version demonstrates significant bit-rate reductions over HEVC for content ranging from standard High Definition (HD) to High Dynamic Range Ultra-HD content. Additionally, Fraunhofer HHI will be presenting the current version of its live software decoder for the upcoming VVC standard.

Volumetric video has become increasingly popular in recent years and is considered as the emerging key technology for the representation of real persons as dynamic 3D objects enabling truly immersive applications for Augmented and Virtual Reality with 6 Degrees of Freedom.

Fraunhofer HHI presents advanced techniques for interactive volumetric video streaming at this year’s NAB. The range of applications as well as the level of immersion can be significantly increased by interactivity of the user with the volumetric assets of persons. This requires online and real-time manipulation of the mesh sequence. A good example is head rotation of the volumetric asset of the captured person according to the user’s position in space. This will allow eye contact and increase the immersive experience as the user feels being looked at. In order to avoid computationally complex real-time manipulation on the AR/VR glasses, processing is performed in the edge cloud. In this context, the Fraunhofer HHI has developed a cloud rendering system for interactive streaming of volumetric videos that drastically reduces the problem of high processing requirements on the client side. The rendering of a complex scene with interactive objects is performed in the cloud and finally sent to the user as a simple 2D video.