Virtual reality and 360-degree video streaming company Visbit Inc. announced today the launch of its streaming platform to open beta.

The service, launched after a successful closed beta test in December, includes a publisher portal, VR cloud capabilities and a VR player software developer kit that will make it possible to embed streaming capability into mobile applications. The service also includes the capability of streaming at ultrahigh-resolution to mobile devices with reduced bandwidth.

“Offloading the handling of video streaming and downloading, and the ability to stream high-quality content on cellular connections is very helpful,” said Justin Lutz, lead innovation technologist at Primacy, a full-service digital agency.

By using cloud-based technology to transcode and deliver the 360-degree video and VR experience, Visbit does the heavy lifting before streaming over Wi-Fi and Long-Term Evolution or 4G mobile networks to clients. This lightens the load on the end device considerably and reduces annoyances to viewers. For example, lower bandwidth needs lower potential buffering, creation of artifacts and pixelation in the stream, stuttering and other frustrations.

In addition to that, Visbit’s streaming service supports a large number of powerful technologies to make VR streaming easier for publishers and provide a better experience for viewers.

Visbit’s service dynamically adapts to the viewer’s bandwidth on the fly by predicting video bitrate and adjusts accordingly using Visbit Adaptive Bitrate streaming. On the higher end, the service is capable of supporting up to 6K stereoscopic 360-degree video and can even provide offline playback.

For businesses, Visbit offers a dashboard with intelligence analytics, including a heatmap and video performance data. For developers and publishers, Visbit’s SDK allows easy embedding of streaming VR content—this will be the core of the customer-facing part of the platform, which plugs into the application and provides the streaming VR support.

The Visbit VR streaming service beta has launched with support for a wide variety of VR platforms, including Samsung Gear VR powered by Oculus and Android Cardboard, with support for Google Daydream and iOS Cardboard. The company plans to announce additional major VR platforms in the coming months.

“Thanks to the feedback from our closed beta users and initial testing, we’ve made a number of tweaks and additions to make our all-in-one streaming service more robust and available for broader adoption,” said CY Zhou, Visbit’s co-founder and chief executive officer.

In what will make a potential killer app for the platform, Zhou also boasted the availability of live streaming 360-degree VR video. With this capability, Visbit is one of the first foveated streaming solutions that can transcode fast enough to support low-latency livestreams.

Via the company’s pilot partner program, publishers and operators of live content can live stream with a 360-degree camera at resolutions up to 4K and bring users right into the midst of the action as it happens.

Publishers, operators and developers who are interested in Visibit’s partner program can sign up at the company’s website.

The company also plans to demo its platform at the VRLA Expo 2017 Friday and Saturday at the Los Angeles Convention Center. A free demo app is also available on Gear VR and Android Cardboard to experience the difference between 4K and 6K video quality.

Image: Visbit