At the 3rd annual CineGrid International Workshop, December 7-10, 2008, held at Calit2/UCSD, NTT Network Innovation Laboratories and Keio/DMC organized a demonstration in collaboration with Calit2/UCSD and UIC/EVL to showcase three-way 4K and 2K teleconferencing. While “2K” is HDTV resolution, “4K” is four times that, also referred to as super-high-definition.
Two 4K cameras were located at DMC in Tokyo and at Calit2 in San Diego, and a 2K camera was located at EVL in Chicago. This demonstration showcased a future distributed collaboration environment that will rely on 4K/2K video technologies and global high-speed networks. Images sent to Calit2 were projected in 4K on a large screen, enabling the CineGrid audience to participate in this collaborative session, and to see the details of facial expressions and body motions made acutely visible by the very high resolution.
To implement it, NTT researchers used several new techniques: (1) a 4K/2K hierarchical encoding scheme that uses JPEG2000 to compress a 4K image, encoding lower-frequency images into 2K components and higher-frequency images into 4K components; (2) Flexcast technology, which realizes multicast over non-IP multicast capable networks; and, (3) video-sync signal distribution technology that reduces packet loss, thereby greatly improving image transfer synchronization over the networks. DMC handled the high-quality 4K/2K image production and organized the networking configurations used. DMC also did extensive network performance measurements, which it is currently analyzing.
Note: This demonstration did not use the TransLight/StarLight transatlantic link, but did involve the StarLight facility. The networks used from Japan (Keio University) to UIC/EVL involved IEEAF to Seattle (Pacific Wave) and then over a CiscoWave used by CineGrid to StarLight and then over I-WIRE to EVL. The path from Japan (Keio) to Calit2 involved JGN2plus to Los Angeles (Pacific Wave) and then over CiscoWave to Calit2.
URL:
www.cinegrid.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=92&Itemid=56
Collaborators:
Japan:
NTT Network Innovation Laboratories; Keio University/Institute for Digital Media and Content (DMC)
USA:
Calit2/UCSD; UIC/EVL; StarLight; Pacific Wave
