Huawei and VR OpenLab partners launch Dual-G Cloud VR initiative

[Shenzhen, China, April 16, 2019] During the 16th Huawei Global Analyst Summit (HAS), Huawei and its business partners of VR OpenLab including NVIDIA, BOE, Cyber Cloud, Letin VR, Skyworth VR, Pico, DPVR, iQIY, and Growlib launched the Dual-G Cloud VR Initiative. According to this initiative, the Huawei iLab and X Labs will be used as incubation centers to collaborate with content, platform and terminal service providers, as well as chip and screen vendors. This will give those involved the chance to build Gigaband and 5G Cloud VR business solutions and explore opportunities concerning gigabit home broadband and 5G. The initiative aims to promote continuous innovation in the industry, while accelerating the large-scale commercial use of Cloud VR.

The rapid development of the global VR/AR industry has become one of the key driving forces for continuous innovation in the ICT sector. According to IDC's forecast, the global AR/VR market space will exceed US$ 20.4 billion in 2019, and the compound annual growth rate will remain at 69.6% for the next three years. Cloud VR has recently caught the industry’s attention as it is the optimal channel for popularizing VR. At the Global Ultra-Broadband Forum 2017, Huawei and its partners officially launched the VR OpenLab cooperation plan to promote the Cloud VR industry, boost technological innovation, incubate business scenarios, and build a complete Cloud VR ecosystem. After more than a year of innovation practices, VR OpenLab has delivered a number of promising outcomes.

• More than 60 Cloud VR industry partners have worked together to build a Cloud VR ecosystem that covers the entire Cloud VR industry chain, including an innovative Cloud VR rendering cloud platform, carrier-grade VR content aggregation platform, and an all-in-one Cloud VR appliance.
• China Mobile Fujian, China Telecom, and other global operators have started Cloud VR commercial use trials. Cloud VR users of China Mobile Fujian now have a monthly active rate of 62.9%.

Richard Jin, President of the Huawei Transmission & Access Product Line spoke at Cloud VR industry innovation achievements press conference

Richard Jin, President of the Huawei Transmission & Access Product Line, said: "With joint promotion by industry partners and global operators, the Cloud VR industry is booming. Thanks to the extensive collaboration of all parties in the industry chain, Cloud VR has metamorphosed from concepts into real business applications."

The Cloud VR industry has now reached a key milestone, laying a solid foundation for an upward business trajectory and future prosperity. As a result, Huawei and its partners decided to launch the Dual-G Cloud VR Initiative to promote large-scale commercial use of Cloud VR by leveraging the industry synergy.

Huawei and NVIDIA, BOE, Cyber Cloud, Letin VR, Skyworth VR, Pico, DPVR, iQIY, and Growlib jointly launched the Dual-G Cloud VR Initiative

Using the iLab and X Labs for innovation projects, Huawei will work with VR OpenLab partners to innovate collaboratively on Cloud VR business scenarios in the B2B, B2H, and B2C fields. In the B2B field, the focus will be on business incubation in vertical industries such as movies, education, and healthcare, and enabling the digital transformation of enterprises through VR. In the B2H field, based on the scale effect of IPTV, the focus will be on interactive scenarios such as education, home cinema and webcasting to accelerate the application of VR in homes. In the B2C field, based on 5G networks, the focus is on lightweight interaction scenarios, such as social networking, to enable a premium VR experience for individual users. Currently 8K advanced VR products, such as the 8K hardware decoding Cloud VR all-in-one headset from Skyworth and the software decoding 8K Cloud VR all-in-one headset from iQIY, already support Gigaband and 5G Cloud VR architecture.

Mr. Jin added: "As a key part of the industry chain, Huawei will adhere to the concept of "Huawei Inside", fully leverage the platform capabilities of "connectivity + intelligence + cloud", provide basic capability support, and work with partners to build Gigaband and 5G Cloud VR business solutions to promote the Cloud VR industry.”

Based on the VR OpenLab industry plan, all parties involved in the VR industry chain, including telecom operators, will work together on content distribution, bearer network provision, and business modelling to develop 100,000 Cloud VR customers in 2019, and embrace the US$100 billion blue ocean of the VR industry.