HDR Wireless Live streaming(Flow Tours) - 4K resolution in YouTube Live

hi!

you are welcome, I’m crossing fingers, because I know that it will work fine, it depends only on cellular network speed, but Toyo has 3 sim cards, etc. :slight_smile:

About plugin, did you highlight that Z1 is the only handheld 360 cam that can stream just like that in 4k itself? I couldn’t find better one so far. I’ve a Qoocam Enterprise too, comparing it in 4k, same resolution, etc. Z1 streams much better quality. I still own a comparison sample. Qoocam has sharpness issues for sure.

Also to highlight this is really the only camera that can stream directly SRT (extra low latency) format. My server supports it, of course streaming in such format produces more heat, so it can work limited, 30-60 minutes or so… but ~2 second latency only when viewing on a web page the stream, if viewing on a dedicated player, it’s even less…

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I forgot to highlight the most important part. YouTube what you could see is worse than on my platform. If you would see the original source you could tell right away…not to mention how it looks like in h.265.

I’m on the live stream now. It’s fantastic!

Update.

It was really good. I think this is a good way to go on tours. The choice of the suspension bridge was fantastic. I think you should tell people to prepare the Google Cardboard ahead of time.

I have the genuine google cardboard, but this one looks pretty good for $6.

https://www.amazon.com/Cardboard-Topmaxions-Virtual-Reality-Compatible/dp/B01C2PA0KK/ref=sr_1_3?

I do not actually own this version of the cardboard.

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I watched, too. At first through a browser on a desktop, and then, based on @craig 's recommendation, I busted out my Google cardboard (fancy edition). It was worth it!

Captured several screenshots from the feed from my laptop. Doing a walk across a suspension bridge was a great spot for 360 live streaming. More interesting to be able to look in whatever direction I wanted while @Juantonto was giving the tour.

Video quality good. Audio good. All very cool.

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hi, thanks @Juantonto for sharing and streaming! very good location! Bandwidth is a bit too low there for high quality, but I enjoyed!

@craig , @jcasman , thanks for watching! More of these streams will come from Z1 a bit later, in a few weeks…

If the stream is from a place like a hockey rink or a soccer field where the viewer only needs to see a single lens, will the bandwidth requirement be lower if they cover one lens with half of a silicone lens cover?

Is it technically possible to pair the camera with a bluetooth microphone or audio headset with Vysor (as a technical feasibility assessment)?

  1. One lens covered - yes, less banwidth is needed, i will also check to stream 180 degree… actually even szreaming 180 degree in better quality may also work. My plan was to look into 180 stream and stbilization option. Also covering a lens helps by itself, but it may require to adjust exposure compensation which is there already as option
  1. I tried connecting my bluetooth headset through vysor but i couldnt see detect it at all. Could you check that asap with theta x? :slight_smile:

Hi, all
Thank you for watching the live streaming. The archive is public now in our YouTube channel(IKOMA Nature Walk).

Note;

4K resolution(2160p)
Encoding: H.264
Bitrate: 20Mbps / 24fps Exposure Compensation: 0
Mobile Network provider: au/KDDI povo2.0(1day unlimited) 13-20Mbps(upload)

Before starting the live, I measured the uploading bandwidth of Rakuten Mobile(Un-Limit6plan band3/1.7Ghz). I was disappointed a bit with the result. The checker app says “Partner Area”. Yes, in “Partner Area” we can also connect Rakuten Mobile with Band18/800Mhz provided by au/KDDI(5GB/day upper limit).

I had prepared 3 different providers’ SIM card(5G/4G data plan), Rakuten Mobile, povo2.0(au/KDDI) and mineo D-plan(NTT Docomo). As the result above, I decided to use povo2.0 and subscribed one day unlimit “topping” just before starting there. It costs 330JPY. The cost of a cup of coffee can let me enjoy 360 live streaming, right! Japan is nice country.

After the live, I walked along the Yamato river and climbed to Mt. Myojin-yama.I haven’t captured 360 photos with Theta Z1 in such a long time.

I’ll catch you guys in the next live.
Stay tuned!
Toyo

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Hi,

I just noticed that YouTube removed lot of my streams I did, are you aware of any restrictions by YouTube? I’m doing lot of tests, so probably there were too many of these.

Laszlo

my streams are still online, but I do not make many streams.

As I was experiencing the bridge tour with HDR Wireless Live Streaming, I used a VR headset and found it difficult to type messages into the chat box. If there were a way for the tour guide to handle audio chat, messages in the future, it might be interesting. For example, maybe one day there will be an option to use WebRTC for a type of 360 “Zoom” experience.

This is part of my requirements for flow.tours, to have a low latency more interactive system. With optimizations I’m even now able to decrease latency, so using RTMP latency on flow.tours is around 10 seconds, which isn’t bad compared to 20-30 seconds of YouTube. Of course this requirement has UI/design and functional and backend portions too. I will push these after I’m don with the plugin.

In theory, if SRT protocol is used, ~2 second delay may be manageable, so with a wireless earphone used by tour guide, could attend an audio call, or audio meeting with the viewers without issues, on my platform I’m able to process incoming SRT streams and deliver it through web. So for now audio is not supported by flow.tours, so I’m referring to using any other audio service through mobile phone between guide and viewers.

Regarding WebRTC I’m facing with some issues, because what I do on my platform is to ingest SRT and transform it to WebRTC, so from my flow.tours toward clients I sent WebRTC to the web browsers. This was my plan to provide best possible quality, but to reduce latency significantly. The issue is that for some reason some mobile phones are not rendering WebRTC video properly in mobile browsers, so seems some devices are lack of support. I’m still investigating this, this would be an issue even if I would use WebRTC initially coming from camera, the latency could be decreased to around ~1 second with webRTC.

So actually this could work even now through my platform, but not all mobile devices support it. I tried multiple mobile browsers with same result. Also I did not develop yet 360 video mode for WebRTC front end.

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there could be a physical group of people meeting remotely and maybe something like a physical teacher that doesn’t have a headset on and types the comments into the chat that the students/tourists say out loud.

There likely needs to be education of the audience prior to the virtual 360 tour to teach them how best to participate in a virtual tour. Taking the tour with a friend or girlfriend/boyfriend might be an interesting experience that combines interaction with the tour guide as well as interaction with the friend/date. The two friends would need to be in the same room and they switch around with the headset.

Seeing virtual Osaka in real-time with a guide might be a kind of “date” like going to the movies used to be before COVID restrictions.

I think young people are pretty desperate to find shared activities in the US.

Like going on a real tour, it would be ideal if the audience could interact as much as possible. Text interaction is okay. Normally, the tour guide of a physical tour (pre-COVID) would introduce the participants to each other.

The new technology is making new types of experiences possible.

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this is exactly what my goal is with my platform… I’ve voting on radar, to setup guide and ask audience to to decisions during the stream, interact, guide to be able to put additional image and textual content onto UI of video. I attended several online “virtual exhibitions”, etc. and it was interesting that 95% audience was only typing, guide was asking some questions the audience, but from those 20-30 viewers noone was familiar with each other and they just typed on the chat their questions, answers, etc. So for that typical use case having a virtual guided tour in a museum audio may not be so important between attenders or/and guide. For younger people having less attenders may be cool, a new type of feeling I think. Especially if latency is very low.

With ability to stich video directly on my website I’m able to make Z1 work in better quality, by pushing dual fisheye… Lot of small improvements I did to accomplish what I need, but now I just want to finish this plugin and start beta and after to push platform.

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hi,
would like to share with you another stream, with spatial audio that @Juantonto did:
https://fb.watch/bctXDR3kUv/

What is important to note, this was a live stream and with spatial audio, FB supports it for live streams and worked via my plugin, as it’s archive FB downgraded resolution. During live it was 4k. I’m doing some tests related to this as well, but it’s cool during live stream.

thanks, @Juantonto for sharing!

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Does spatial audio work during the live stream?

hi! yes, it does work the same way during streaming while when playing archived stream.

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Have you ever tried to stream more than 4K with your plug-in on the Z1? Is it technically possible?

Someone was asking about the theoretical possibility with the new X.

I’m not 100% aware of the format itself, so I’m not sure if this is covering it completely or just part of “spatial audio”. Clearly as we move the view it has effect on how audio is played, anyway it’s nice that FB supports it.

I think i was able to improve streamimg througj mobile network a bit further Theta Z1 - lightweight Wireless Live Streaming test - YouTube

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