360-Degree Video Streaming: A Survey of the State of the Art

• Main Authors: Rabia Shafi, Wan Shuai, Muhammad Usman Younus
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-09-01
• Series: Symmetry
• Subjects: Virtual Reality (VR); 360-degree video; Tile-based streaming; Audio techniques; Head-Mounted Display (HMD)
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/12/9/1491

360-degree video streaming is expected to grow as the next disruptive innovation due to the ultra-high network bandwidth (60–100 Mbps for 6k streaming), ultra-high storage capacity, and ultra-high computation requirements. Video consumers are more interested in the immersive experience instead of conventional broadband televisions. The visible area (known as user’s viewport) of the video is displayed through Head-Mounted Display (HMD) with a very high frame rate and high resolution. Delivering the whole 360-degree frames in ultra-high-resolution to the end-user significantly adds pressure to the service providers’ overall intention. This paper surveys 360-degree video streaming by focusing on different paradigms from capturing to display. It overviews different projections, compression, and streaming techniques that either incorporate the visual features or spherical characteristics of 360-degree video. Next, the latest ongoing standardization efforts for enhanced degree-of-freedom immersive experience are presented. Furthermore, several 360-degree audio technologies and a wide range of immersive applications are consequently deliberated. Finally, some significant research challenges and implications in the immersive multimedia environment are presented and explained in detail.