A Memorable Year
Pete Ludé,  IDEA Chairperson

During the 2019 Holiday break, it would have been impossible to predict the monumental changes we all experienced during 2020.  On behalf of the IDEA team, we hope that you and your friends and family are navigating these challenging times and are ready for a road to normalcy (whatever that is) during 2021.  Despite the pandemic, there has been remarkable progress in the evolution of Immersive Media technology during the year, and IDEA is immensely proud to have been a part of it. Reflecting on the past twelve months, here are some of the highlights. First, we are proud to have nearly doubled our membership during the year.  We’re honored to welcome new members:

  • Gridraster – a start-up providing the underlying compute and network stack to power immersive mixed-reality experiences on mobile platforms
  • Looking Glass Factory– committed to building a headset-free, hologram-powered future.
  • Pluto VR – whose is helping humanity transcend physical location, and
  • Volumetric Camera Systems — a multi-camera solutions and production studio focused on providing next-generation immersive services for film, TV and beyond.

These remarkable innovators join existing members CableLabs, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, Light Field Lab, OTOY and Visby to round out a team of multi-disciplinary experts collaborating to invent the future immersive ecosystem.

Secondly, IDEA formed a new Working Group on immersive digital representation of live-captured images, acknowledging the potential differences between encoding photographically captured vs. computer generated holographic and light field content. In another milestone this year, IDEA member Charter Communications produced a remarkable demo at the October SCTE-ISBE Cable-Tec Expo – one of the worlds’ largest cable conferences.  Enabled by the contributions of fellow IDEA members CableLabs, Looking Glass Factory and Visby, the Charter demo was the world’s first live stream of a holographic imaging over a 10G cable network.  It involved one of the first on-location commercial light field production shoots using an array of over 100 cameras, with content processed and then transmitted over 10G cable network with minimal latency.  You can expect further real-life tests and demonstrations during 2021.

This summer, IDEA began the process of establishing a formal liaison relationship with MPEG to exchange information and nurture collaboration.  MPEG continues to make progress on the MPEG-I, Point Cloud Compression and other relevant standards which will compliment IDEA’s standards work.

Last month, IDEA participated in the annual conference of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), which was of course a virtual event.  Our team produced over two hours of content, divided into eight easily digestible segments, which are now available for you to view on the IDEA website, Click Here for Videos.   And perhaps more importantly, the IDEA Media Format Working Group released the updated version 1.0 of the Immersive Technology Media Format (ITMF) specifications.  Read more about what this means later in this news bulletin.  So overall – it’s been a busy and productive year.

Warm wishes for an immersive holiday break, and for a chance to spend some non-Zoom un-virtual time with your family.  The IDEA team is excited to roll full speed into the new year on the path to create an immersive media future, and we look forward to working with you!