Leading companies across the volumetric video ecosystem come together to ensure interoperability and industry growth
Los Angeles, CA, May 12, 2021 – Today seven founding member
companies are launching the Volumetric Format Association (VFA), the first industry
association dedicated to ensuring interoperability across the volumetric video
ecosystem. These seven companies include founding charter member Verizon
as well as ZEISS, RED Digital Cinema, Unity, Intel, NVIDIA, and Canon. The VFA
brings together companies from key industry verticals in the volumetric
ecosystem to work together to establish a collection of specifications driving the adoption of volumetric capture, processing, encoding, delivery, and playback.
Volumetric video is an innovative way of experiencing the content in holographic 3D, allowing the viewer a more immersive and interactive
experience. It is characterized by the process of simultaneously capturing
content from multiple cameras which can then be viewed from any angle at any
point in time. The association seeks to facilitate collaboration,
innovation, and technology sharing of the new bandwidth-intensive industry
format, in order to drive faster development, adoption, and ecosystem growth.
“Verizon is proud to be the driving force behind creating
this group which we believe will be crucial to laying the foundation for future
innovation using volumetric video,” said Denny Breitenfeld, president of the
VFA and director of volumetric technology at Verizon. “With 5G’s massive
bandwidth, super-fast speeds, and ultra-low latency, things like volumetric
video capture will be taken to the next level, enabling innovators to turn real
people into lifelike, moving 3D holograms in just minutes. We look forward to
working with leaders in this industry to develop specifications that will
propel volumetric video forward.”
VFA membership allows companies to share intellectual
property within the confines of the organization while protecting the value of
that IP. The VFA Technical Steering Committee has defined four initial
working groups to begin the work of building end to end specifications:
- Capture
Acquisition
- Interchange
of Data
- Decode
& Render
- Persistent
Metadata
3D content experiences across sports, entertainment, productivity,
enterprise services and more are fast becoming a reality. The VFA is
working to make that reality accessible and practical by developing
specifications that will be a catalyst for industry growth. To that end
the VFA is opening membership to innovative companies in the volumetric
ecosystem. VFA welcomes input, creativity, and collaboration as
together they pioneered a new medium.
“Canon is a strong believer in volumetric video technology
as evidenced by the new kind of sporting experience we delivered at 2019
Rugby World Cup in Japan. In addition, we opened a volumetric video studio in
Kawasaki, Japan that is used by the most advanced creators,” said Mr. Atsushi
Date, senior general manager, Canon SV Business Development Center.
“Canon is confident that volumetric video technology will enable the world to
enjoy sports and entertainment more in many ways that have never been
experienced before, and we have high expectations for the results of VFA
standardization. This is a big first step of many to come in the rollout of the
Canon Volumetric Business.”
“As media content evolves from 2D to 3D, volumetric video
will impact industries from entertainment to a wide range of enterprise
services. In addition to the breadth of our XPU portfolio that spans network,
FPGA, CPU, and GPU technologies, Intel is working with the VFA and our ecosystem
partners to bring advanced and cost-effective volumetric streaming to a variety
of customers,” said Lynn Comp, vice president, Data Platforms Group, general
manager, Visual Infrastructure Division & NPG Strategy at Intel. “The VFA
is an important step in democratizing end-end volumetric video solutions,
enabling global supply chains and supporting interoperable solutions and
innovation.”
“Volumetric video is changing how customers experience
virtual interactions by providing complete immersion with full interactivity
that is powered by NVIDIA GPUs,” said Bob Pette, general manager of
professional visualization at NVIDIA. “Accelerated computing technology is
pushing the boundaries of virtual experiences and bringing together partners to
evolve the ecosystem as a whole will be critical to achieving the next
generation of AI-driven 3D content.”
“As a brand that was founded on innovation, disruption, and
pushing the bleeding-edge of image capture technology, RED is proud and excited
to be part of the Volumetric Format Association,” said Brian Henderson vice
president, business development at RED. “We will continue to evolve
alongside this emerging industry. As a member of the VFA, we will
continue to re-define previously held standards of overall image quality,
resolution and camera performance in order to provide the best possible images
for creators and innovators to work with.”
“The Volumetric Format Association is leading the way in how
content, especially in sports and M&E, is being presented, and we are
seeing the biggest shift since B+W went to color” said Tian Pei, head of
business affairs for sports at Unity. “Volumetric technologies encompass the
process of capturing, viewing, and interacting with the real world and here at The unity we are pushing the limits of what’s possible and transforming the the interactive experience forever.”
“As board members of the Volumetric Format Association,
ZEISS strives to abridge the current adoption barriers within the motion
picture industry and beyond”, says Snehal Patel, head of cinema sales at
ZEISS. Patel continues, “with over 100 years of experience in optical
design and innovation, ZEISS is primed to provide key insights into lens
technology and its relation to Volumetric workflow. Furthermore, through the
VFA specifications, ZEISS hopes to contribute to the accuracy of lens metadata
which will play a vital role in the volumetric user experience.”
As the VFA members move rapidly towards the establishment of
their specifications, companies interested in joining the organization should
reach out by email to info@volumetricformat.org or
see https://www.volumetricformat.org.
About VFA
The Volumetric Format Association (VFA) is an international
industry consortium leading the way to a unified volumetric video ecosystem by
defining a set of open specifications that encourage partnership and
collaboration while reducing fragmentation for the entire industry. Our
members are the industry leaders of video capture, broadcast, and
delivery. With membership roles for Enterprises, Innovators, and
Adopters, VFA has a place for all companies on the cutting edge of video
technology. To learn more visit https://www.volumetricformat.org/.
PR Contact:
Elizabeth Rose
Email: elizabeth@standardshub.io