Visbit Launches the First All-In-One 360-Degree Virtual Reality Video Streaming Service in Open Beta

Following a successful closed beta period that began in December 2016, virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree video streaming company Visbit is releasing their service into open beta, marking the industry's first official availability of an end-to-end platform offering streaming of 4K and above resolution VR 360-degree videos over regular Wi-Fi and LTE for mobile VR devices. The company's all-in-one service, which includes a publisher portal, VR cloud and VR player SDK, leverages its patented Visbit View-Optimized Streaming (VVOS) technology so content creators and publishers can simplify the management and delivery of Ultra High Definition (UHD) content to viewers at reduced bandwidth.

"Offloading the handling of video streaming and downloading, and the ability to stream high quality content on cellular connections is very helpful," said Justin Lutz, lead innovation technologist at Primacy, a full service digital agency. "Visbit's SDK is straightforward and simple to use, making it that much easier for us to deliver a quality video experience."

From content publishing to transcoding, hosting, streaming and playing the video, Visbit  provides a complete end-to-end solution that cuts development time and cost, allowing content creators and producers to focus on creating immersive experiences. The company's move to open beta showcases a number of additions to the service, including:

• Visbit Adaptive Bitrate (VABR) streaming, which dynamically adapts to a viewer's bandwidth, predicting how the video bitrate will change and what the viewer's bandwidth will be to allow shorter startup times and faster adjustments with little to no buffering
• Support up to 6K stereoscopic 360-degree videos
• Advanced business intelligence analytics, including a heatmap and video performance comparison data by VR platforms
• VR Player SDK that allows publishers to embed a 360 VR video player into their own apps
• Offline playback
• Support across multiple VR platforms including Samsung Gear VR powered by Oculus and Android Cardboard, with support for Daydream, iOS Cardboard and additional major VR platforms to be released in the coming months

Visbit also announced that it is now able to support live streaming of 360-degree VR videos, making it the first foveated streaming solution that can transcode quickly enough to support live streaming. Via its pilot partner program, live content publishers and operators can pair Visbit's service with a live streaming 360 camera to live stream 4K resolution 360-degree content and allow users to watch live VR events over regular home Wi-Fi and LTE networks.

"Thanks to the feedback from our closed beta users and initial testing, we've made a number of tweaks and additions to make our all-in-one streaming service more robust and available for broader adoption," said CY Zhou, Visbit co-founder and CEO. "We continue to push the limits of what is possible – evident in our recent industry-first 12K streaming breakthrough and support for live streaming – and are looking forward to integrating these features, and more, into our service in the near future."

Source: Visbit media announcement