World’s first live concert using XR technology at K-festival

This weekend, New Zealand’s largest festival of Korean culture, K-festival 2021, will include the world’s first live concert using XR technology developed at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington’s Computational Media Innovation Centre (CMIC).

The concert, featuring K-pop and the Auckland Symphony Orchestra, will be livestreamed in 360° video with four cameras using YouTube’s live 360 video facility. It is being done using very high end low latency cameras, meaning there is very little delay between real time and when a viewer sees the video. MR is mixed reality which combines augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) and is used for mixing the physical and virtual world. XR is extended reality which encompasses all three.

“This is the first time state-of-the-art technology MR 360 will be used in a live concert. People both at the event and around the country will be able to enjoy unique XR experiences with real-time visual effects in live streaming of 360° videos, thanks to the work of our CMIC here at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington,” said Associate Professor Dr Taehyun Rhee, Director of CMIC.

People can attend virtually, ideally in a virtual reality headset on which they can look around the venue on xr-hotspot.live. They can switch between different cameras and also get a stream with visual effects developed by the CMIC team overlaid on the live performance.

K-festival is a public event being held at the Trusts Arena, Auckland. CMIC will be the main technology provider for this event.