MPEG-DASH Case Studies

Case study demonstrating bleeding edge implementations of MPEG-DASH for high QoE immersive experiences. Features 8K stereoscopic 360 videos, ambisonic audio tracks, and tiled streaming examples all delivered over conventional web technologies. The results were demonstrated leveraging high quality WarnerMedia mezzanine sources, including Dunkirk, IT, Annabelle: Creation, and The Meg.

Read the case studies.

Case Study Details

1 - Multi-Codec Manifests

The goal was to determine the optimal means by which to transcode and package 8K stereoscopic 360 video content for streaming, taking into account storage costs, streaming footprint, and user/device compatibility.

To achieve this, both H.264 and HEVC adaptations of the content were placed inside a single DASH manifest, which we refer to as a multi-codec MPEG-DASH manifest. Utilizing this strategy can lower an enterprise’s streaming footprint by up to 30%, and its storage costs by 15%, while also maintaining broad device support.

2 - Ambisonic Audio Support

The goal was to explore options for delivering high quality, low latency head-tracked ambisonic audio via MPEG-DASH. Among the many challenges were the lack of an ambisonic audio delivery standard, conforming with the DASH-IF multi-channel audio standard without using DRM, and the overall bitrate footprint that ambisonic audio requires.

The case study employs higher-order ambisonics delivery via MPEG-DASH by utilizing the Opus audio codec, as well as a novel means for visualizing ambisonic audio as a video heatmap, which can be overlayed on top of a 360 video for precise audio QA.

3 - Future Media Formats

This case study demonstrates MPEG-DASH’s support for cutting edge, non-standardized media delivery techniques.

Among the techniques demonstrated are cubemap projections, tiled adaptive HEVC streaming, and real-time 360 video object detection.

Technologies Used