Connections

Adobe Touts New VR Features at IBC

On the eve of IBC in Amsterdam Sept. 13, Adobe introduced new virtual reality (VR)/360-degree video, collaboration and other features for Creative Cloud, many of which it said were powered by its Adobe Sensei artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning framework. All the new features are being made available later this year.

“Quite simply, it is the age of video,” Bill Roberts, Adobe senior director of professional video product management, said during a virtual news conference ahead of the announcement. By 2021, it is expected that 82% of traffic on the Internet will be video, he said, citing a forecast by Cisco. Adobe thinks that about 50% of that will be produced video – the kind of video content in which people “take time and effort to craft their story,” he said.


Complicating how all that video content is handled is the fact that it’s “not just one type of video,” he said, noting that online video now includes standard definition, HD and Ultra High-Def (UHD) resolution all the way up to 8K, along with many different frame rates, high dynamic range, wide color gamut and immersive experiences including VR. Along with the content itself, companies and creative artists must choose which of those features to select for engaging their audiences, he said.

So, “it’s a very exciting time,” but there are also “a lot of challenges for our creators as they choose their path forward,” he said. Time is one big issue for creators and the new features that Adobe is adding stand to help them be more productive, he said.

VR video creation is being made possible via a dedicated viewing environmentin the Adobe Premiere Pro video editing app. This enables editors to review their timeline and use keyboard-driven editing for trimming and markers while wearing the same VR head-mounts as their audience, Adobe said in a news release.

Audio can also be determined by orientation or position and exported as ambisonics full-sphere, surround sound audio for VR-enabled platforms including Facebook and YouTube, Adobe said. VR effects and transitions are also now native and accelerated via the Mercury playback engine, it said.

Via the release of Team Projects, meanwhile, Adobe said it’s improved collaborative workflows on the Local Area Network with managed access features that enable users to lock bins and provide read-only access to others.

Previously just available as part of a beta test, the release of Team Projects will provide “smoother workflows” hosted in Creative Cloud and “the ability to more easily manage versions with auto-save history, it said.

Also, Adobe Audition adds flexible session organization to multi-take workflows and continuous playback while editing, the company said. Powered by Sensei AI, auto-ducking has been added to the Essential Sound panel that automatically adjusts levels by type.

The Adobe Stock image database, meanwhile, continues to build what the company called the “most comprehensive creative marketplace with over 90 million assets including photos, illustrations and vectors,” it said. Customers now have access to more than 4 million HD and 4K Ultra High-Def (UHD) pieces of Adobe Stock video footage directly within their Creative Cloud video workflows and can now search and scrub assets in Premiere Pro, it said.