The next step for YouTube after debuting 360-degree videos is to allow for livestreaming of 360-degree videos.
Even if YouTube is the world's most popular video sharing platform, livestreaming 360 videos for anyone on the planet to see in real time is no small feat at all.
Currently, 360-degree video is created using a setup involving multiple cameras with at least two wide-angle lenses. Videos from each of the lenses are then normally stitched together in post-production to create one spherical image that allows us to virtually look up, down and around in a video.
The trick is to create a new kind of platform that will not only stitch together 360-degree videos in real time, but will also push out that video at broadcast quality. Compared to the high-definition video that's enormously available on YouTube right now, the current crop of 360-degree video is unbearably grainy.
"Bringing live 360-degree video to users, however, would mean ingesting feeds from all sorts of cameras. And that could prove a daunting task without prior knowledge of each camera's specs and idiosyncrasies – or the ability to identify them on the fly," writes Buzzfeed's Brendan Klinkenberg.
YouTube, however, is working on that according to the report by Buzzfeed.
There is one existing solution and that's with GoPro's Odyssey. It's a massive rig made up of 16 GoPros that all work together to pump out a much clearer quality of 360-degree video. It was developed by Google's JUMP program. It also costs $15,000.
The Odyssey is obviously a special case, and in order for YouTube to be the place to be for 360-degree video instead say Facebook, which owns Oculus Rift and has also started releasing 360-degree videos, YouTube needs to make the upload process an effortless one.
The report also reveals that one potential solution YouTube might be working on is by creating a standard that manufacturers could refer to and build into their 360-degree video gear. That way, YouTube could create a database of the exact specifications of select cameras and use that info to stitch content seamlessly all on the fly.
Considering YouTube's clout in the video sharing space, that's probably an easier task to complete than the original problem it's already trying to solve with 360-degree videos.
Photo : Rego Korosi | Flickr
