Busan City, World's First 'User-Selectable 3D Media Service' Pilot Broadcast

Broadcast Channel Total 4 Sessions, Commercialization of OTT Environment by 2025

'Selective Stereoscopic Media Service', City·Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute Busan Joint Research Lab

Core Technology of Stereoscopi

Busan City will conduct a pilot broadcast to demonstrate the ‘User-Selectable Stereoscopic Media Service Technology,’ developed jointly with the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), the world's first of its kind.

The ‘User-Selectable Stereoscopic Media Service Technology’ is a next-generation ultra-high-definition video compression technology that simultaneously transmits existing broadcasts (UHD, mobile 2D) and ultra-high-definition (4K) 3D broadcasts, allowing viewers to freely watch either 2D or 3D video depending on their personal viewing environment.

User-Selectable Three-Dimensional Media Service Transmission Path.

The city and ETRI’s Busan Joint Research Lab (Director Kim Seong-hoon) secured AI-based core technology that converts 2D content into 3D, leading to the development of this service technology.

This technology is distinctive in that it can simultaneously solve the data explosion caused by the increase in high-capacity immersive broadcast video content such as ultra-high-definition (UHD), virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR), as well as compatibility issues with existing video services.

After this pilot broadcast, the city aims to commercialize the technology by 2025 in terrestrial broadcasting and online video service (OTT) environments such as Netflix and YouTube.

The pilot broadcasts will be held a total of four times on terrestrial channels through the following: ‘Jewels of the Korean Peninsula National Parks (Mountains and Sea)’ broadcast on KNN at 6:50 PM on September 1 and 8, and ‘Forbidden Alley (Domestic and International)’ broadcast on Busan MBC at 8:00 AM on September 5 and 12.

The 3D broadcasts can be viewed at demonstration sites equipped with 3D receiving devices, including the Busan Cinema Center, Busan MBC, KNN, and DM Studio.

In particular, the city and ETRI explained that the technology developed this time is highly likely to be adopted as the international standard draft for ‘H.266,’ the core technology of next-generation stereoscopic media services, and that this pilot broadcast and technology development have provided an opportunity to accelerate the cultivation of new markets incorporating virtual reality stereoscopic media technology, such as Apple Vision Pro.

H.266 (Versatile Video Coding) is a 2D video compression codec developed by the Fraunhofer HHI Institute in Germany that can handle high-resolution video. It can reduce the file size by half while maintaining the quality of 4K video.

Shin Chang-ho, Director of the Digital Economy Innovation Office of Busan City, said, “With this technology development, the broadcasting infrastructure of Busan, a city of film and video, will be advanced, and Busan is expected to stand out in the regional specialized content industry sector.” He added, “We will continue to develop and demonstrate diverse and innovative technologies together with ETRI and local broadcasters to expand next-generation stereoscopic media services.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.