AMD & Vindral Demo 8K 10-bit HDR Live Streaming With Ultra-Low Latency

AMD has teamed up with Vindral to showcase 8K 10-bit HDR live streaming capabilities on its Alveo hardware, bringing high-quality and richer streams to audiences.

Press Release: Vindral, developed by RealSprint in Sweden, is excited to announce a partnership with the semiconductor manufacturer AMD. The first joint project is to create the world's first 8K live streaming at Ultra-low latency. What was initially a tech preview at IBC in September 2023 has now reached commercial readiness.

An AV1-powered 8K 10-bit HDR quality live streaming tier, at ultra-low latency and with all viewers in sync.

The demo is currently running as a full on-premise setup of the Vindral CDN, locally at NAB in Las Vegas, and is powered by an Alveo MA35D from AMD.

The two companies have been working closely to make a viable implementation, quality-secured and scalable.

One foundation to ensure compatibility with lower-end devices is adaptive bitrates, which are always included in streams delivered by Vindral.

"After our AV1 initiative, the next obvious step was to look to the next frontier. And that's 8K. Not many devices can display it yet, nor can they decode the video, but as a brand aimed to be ahead of the curve it is an important step for us," said Daniel Alinder, CEO at Vindral.

"We are happy to work with Vindral on the next generation of performance. Given their specific focus on making high VQ possible, even at ultra-low latency, it's a great match for us. The MA35D was designed specifically to enable these heavy-duty jobs at scale, and a live-streaming CDN is an amazing showcase for us," said Sean Gardner, Head of Strategy and Market Development at AMD.

While 8K is not yet widely adopted in the consumer-grade market, there are plenty of business cases where high-resolution content plays a central role.

"We're working at the cutting edge, demonstrating we can do 8K today. And we've learned quickly that there are market segments that are already looking for these types of solutions. Japan stands out too as a geographical market where 8K is not in the distant future; many companies are already on board," added Alinder.

"From esports to retail and sports betting, there will always be companies looking to push the envelope. That goes for region-of-interest (RoI) applications where you take an 8K stream from a static camera and view any 4K portion of it in your device, as well as industrial- or military-grade image recognition applications," Gardner added.

Other examples include XR applications, which require at least dual 4K canvases - one for each eye; as well as any product that performs AI analysis of the content and sports.