2020 has brought with it a surge in demand for video streaming. Millennials and Gen Z have traded broadcasted TV for streams and over 60% of them watch streams daily.
So, it’s no wonder that venture capitalists have stepped in to support new startups focusing on video streaming. Innovative businesses can reach their full potential and continue to expand in the area with the assistance of a venture capitalist.
When investors are eager to provide financial support to new technology, it is a good indication of the product’s or technology’s overall growth potential.
Here are a few areas and the best stream deck alternatives that have stirred up the interest of vector capitalists in the last year and are worth keeping an eye on.
5G Mobile Communications
5G will bring with it faster speeds and lower energy consumption. These are both important factors in the user experience in video streaming platforms. 5G will be capable of transmitting information in under 1 millisecond or to put it more simply: faster than human reaction times.
While at the moment, 5G is considered to be more of a buzzword, its adoption is well on its way. To benefit from its full power, both the infrastructure and individual devices need to be brought into compliance. By 2023 the service should be available on 1.4 billion devices.
The more devices become compliant and the larger the 5G network becomes will be important in task automation. For example, 5G will play an integral role in the development of self-driving cars. Low latency will result in faster communication between vehicles, traffic lights, and various sensors.
Automated drones connected via 5G could also play a pivotal role in preventing accidents.
As soon as 5G was deployed, it led to a higher possible bitrate giving birth to new radios. 5G’s low latency doesn’t just imply faster video delivery; it also greatly improves virtual interactions that are no longer interrupted. Concerts and sports events will also greatly benefit from the advantages of 5G.
The gap between the virtual user and the in-person attendees will be greatly diminished. 5G will allow the virtual user to experience such events in real-time, just like the ticket holders.
FC Barcelona has already prepared its venue for the 5G proliferation. The first 5G stadium is equipped with 360-degree cameras, greatly improving the at-home spectator experience. Ticket holders can also benefit from 5G by enhancing their match experience.
Mobile apps will allow for an overlay that can include player stats and other relevant information. Coupled with VR headsets, they can have access to various angles regardless of where their seat is located.
Edge Computing
Edge computing draws its power from proximity. When it comes to living streaming we can expect better scalability and insanely speedy delivery. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are also important aspects of this new technology.
Overall, edge computing revolves around decentralizing data storage and computation. It will shift the information processing tasks closer to the edge, closer to those that both produce and consume the information. Once real-time processing and decision-making are brought closer to the user, there will be a great reduction in latency.
Improved security and advanced analytics are some of the other important byproducts of edge computing.
Edge computing will also cause an increase in automation as it will reduce the volume of data that has to move through a given network. Coupling edge computing with the powers of 5G, we can expect exponential returns.
Low-Latency Protocols
Over the past decade, the streaming industry has been focused on finding means to reduce latency. Several protocols are going to achieve low latency at scale. WebRTC, SRT, CMAF, and LL-HLS are only some of the already available protocols on the market. A wide-scale adoption is imminent, and with an increased user base, they will be tested on a large number of use cases.
Wide-spread 8K VR
To date, virtual reality delivered a subpar end-user experience even though it has tremendous promise. VR innovation has taken the back seat because it could not provide any impressive applications, the display quality was poor, and capture and rendering have been disappointing.
However, if we combine VR with 5G, edge computing, and low-latency protocols, it might just reach its true potential. Oculus QUEST2 and the XR2 platform from Qualcomm come at a relatively low cost and are up-and-coming devices.
Conclusion
Pimax is another major player in this industry. They received the Guinness World record recognition as the most successful crowdfunded Virtual Reality project back in 2017. This goes to show that the users were more than ready to adopt such technology even back in 2017.
Pimax 8k VR headset managed to raise $4.2M while only having a $200,000 goal. In October 2020, they received another $20M in funding, and they have over 8 products under development.
Venture Capitalists David Kezerashvili contributed to this article, for investment opportunities and contact information click here.
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