COVID-19 has brought about significant changes worldwide, accelerating the shift from in-person to virtual experiences across various industries such as media, entertainment, healthcare, and education. Dolby, a company with a long-standing mission to empower creativity and self-expression, is driving this shift through our innovative platform, Dolby.io.
Since its founding, Dolby has been on a mission to empower creativity and self-expression, which is driven by a belief that people are moved and compelled by immersive experiences. The vision of Dolby.io is to extend that mission by powering the next generation of live online experiences that rival real-world experiences in immersion, interactivity, and social engagement.
Dolby.io gives developers and creators access to services and APIs designed to improve the quality of the media, communications, and streaming within their products. Immersion through Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos live music, and spatial audio. Interactivity through real-time streaming APIs for massive global audiences. Social engagement with audio and video chat APIs.
Dolby.io has formed an alliance with PubNub that enables even greater real-time social engagement capabilities.
The PubNub Virtual Spaces Platform has gained widespread recognition within the developer community and is trusted by over 2,000 customers worldwide. It offers a comprehensive end-to-end solution for integrating real-time capabilities into apps, boasting unparalleled speed, reliability, and scalability.
When considering how PubNub can be used in conjunction with Dolby.io, the platform offers a plethora of relevant features. These include offline/online detection, robust chat functionality, audience reactions, live polls and leaderboards, in-app alerts and mobile push notifications, as well as data broadcast and event streaming for stats, scores, playlists, bids, and more.
PubNub defines a “Virtual Space” as a digital environment where people and devices can seamlessly collaborate, interact, and exchange information in real-time. As the demand for virtual spaces continues to skyrocket, creators face significant challenges such as a shortage of specialized developers, high implementation costs, and creative hurdles in bringing their visions to life. To address these challenges, PubNub and Dolby are working together to provide solutions that encompass tools, frameworks, and pricing that simplify the process of building highly innovative and immersive experiences for any industry.
Todd Greene, CEO, PubNub“As more humans enter the Metaverse, the lines between physical and virtual have become increasingly blurred. It is indeed a brave new world, and our human experience is being rapidly transformed with the virtual experience now needing to be as engaging as in-person.”
During a recent discussion at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Marie Huwe, SVP of Dolby.io, and Todd Greene, CEO of PubNub, delved into the rapid convergence of physical and virtual worlds driven by technology. From intricately detailed 3D worlds to high-fidelity 3D audio and lifelike digital interactions, the boundaries between reality and virtuality are becoming increasingly blurred.
Virtual experiences can sometimes surpass real-life ones. For instance, consider the disappointment of having a bad seat at a concert or being stuck in a nosebleed section of a stadium where binoculars are needed to catch a glimpse of the action.
Last summer, Dolby Atmos immersive audio was used for the first time to live stream Tomorrowland, reaching over 6 million fans worldwide.
Other notable examples of leveraging Dolby.io for immersive virtual experiences include Odyssey, which enables spatial audio communication and 3D streaming in their metaverse without the need for code or downloads, directly within web browsers. RedPillVR, a music metaverse platform, recently hosted renowned DJ Paul Oakenfold for a virtual residency. Mytaverse, an events platform, partnered with Falcon Aircraft to facilitate a business aviation trade show in Orlando, allowing virtual attendees to demo the new Falcon aircraft in the metaverse.
Specifically, this partnership will make a range of technology advances more accessible to creators through technology integrations, sample apps, and solution guides that address the synergistic use of:
- Dolby.io Streaming and Communications APIs
- Spatial Audio for the highest-fidelity 3D sound in a virtual experience
- Replicates audio conditions similar to real world
- Participants hear audio rendered at given locations in 3D space
- Spatial mixing in the cloud
- Real-time Streaming globally at scale in under 500ms
- PubNub Real-Time Interaction APIs, for real-time social engagement at any scale
- Presence Occupancy & Access Control
- Live Reactions (like counts, emojis, etc.)
- Audience Engagement & Gamification (chat, live polls, pick-ems, leaderboards)
- 1:n Alerts & Push Notifications
- Data Broadcast/Event Streaming (stats, scores, playlists, bids)
- Computing “On the Fly” (moderation, language translation, business logic)
- Latency Sync & Replay
My colleague Braden Riggs posted a blog post showing how you can add PubNub In-App Chat to a Dolby.io Real-time Stream with just a few lines of JavaScript:
Dolby.io Real-time Streaming seamlessly complements the real-time capabilities offered by PubNub, creating a natural synergy that empowers app developers to rapidly create and deploy interactive audience engagement features. These features include on/offline detection, live lobby counts, audience reactions, full-featured chat, CTA overlays, live polls, and more. Such engagement features not only improve user engagement but also foster a sense of community, prolong in-app session duration, and even provide additional opportunities for monetization.
Telemedicine is another compelling use case where the combination of Dolby.io and PubNub shines. By leveraging Dolby.io for real-time voice and video communications alongside PubNub for secure and compliant real-time interactions, such as on/offline and geo-detection, HIPAA-compliant chat, time-sensitive alerts/notifications, and streaming of sensor data and IoT device control, developers can swiftly build and deploy robust virtual patient experiences. These experiences contribute to the continuity of care, enhancing the telemedicine ecosystem with cutting-edge technology. But the combined promise easily extends into other industries, including:
- Live Sports Betting
- Live Auctions
- Live Events
- Virtual Worlds
- E-Learning
- Customer Engagement
- Business Collaboration
Using Dolby.io Communications APIs (for video and audio) with PubNub for virtual waiting rooms (on/offline detection) as an example, the combination is equally important in other types of immersive virtual experiences, from multiplayer games to business collaboration and trade shows.
Real-world human interaction is hard to replace. Creating immersive, interactive, and social virtual experiences is key to making it possible for those that don’t have the means or the opportunity to visit Tomorrowland or watch the World Cup Final to experience it as close to real life as possible.
The alliance between PubNub and Dolby.io makes it easier than ever for content creators and innovators to make this a reality.
