The social TV platform provider Salin (www.salin.co.kr) signed a three-party agreement with the Israeli based company, Texel (www.texelvr.com), known for providing a platform for high-quality immersive 360-degree video using its proprietary networks aware, user aware and content aware technology ; and the Korea-Israel Industrial R&D Foundation (KORIL-RDF, www.koril.org). Under this agreement, the parties have launched a project aimed at commercializing 8K content streaming and a novel social TV platform.
As part of the project, Salin and Texel will significantly enhance the quality of VR broadcasting, supporting 8K streaming in the most efficient way possible. The parties will also jointly develop a social VR platform that gives users the experience of watching live events at a stadium or a concert hall with their friends even if the friends are continents away.
Korea-Israel Industrial R&D Foundation (KORIL-RDF), which provides funding for the project, supports joint R&D between Korean and Israeli companies, focusing on emerging industries and novel technologies with significant commercial potential.
Jason Jae-Hyun Kim, the CEO of Salin, said, “Texel is actively involved in several projects with major telecommunication companies in North America and Europe, and has secured strategic investments from European and North American partners. Among the many companies specializing in VR broadcasting platforms, Salin was chosen as a partner because of its high capacity for technology development and marketing, as well as its potential to succeed in the global market. We expect to complete the development phase by the first half of next year. Together with Texel, we will launch our platform in South Korea, Japan, North America, and Europe.”
“TEXEL is excited by our growing partnership with Salin, this collaboration will enable our combined clients, content owners, telecom and media companies to “teleport” individual viewers or group of friends into any live or on-demand event” said Amir Segev, CEO of TEXEL.
Salin was also selected as the winner in the VR category of the third SoftBank Innovation Program. It will launch EpicLive, a social TV platform, in SoftBank’s trial run of VR social TV in 2019. EpicLive is the first social TV platform in South Korea that enables users to watch TV while chatting with their friends in virtual reality. In cooperation with Texel, the company plans to introduce an 8K VR live streaming service.
About KORIL-RDF
KORIL-RDF offers conditional grants for joint development projects on a risk-sharing basis. The Foundation funds up to 50% of each company’s R&D expenses associated with the joint project. Since KORIL’s incorporate in 2001, over 165 projects have been approved with leading companies in Korea and Israel.
About Salin
Salin Co., Ltd. is the media solution company which provides new Media Platform, EpicLive. EpicLive is a VR Social TV Platform. You can invite your friends into a virtual space to chat with each other while watching 2D, 180/ 360 ° LIVE/VOD. EpicLive is an E2E solution that provides video ingestion, transcoding, streaming, virtual space and avatar management, and VR App. Companies that produce and distribute content can provide VR TV services through EpicLive platform.
About TEXEL
TEXEL provides a white label platform that enables content owners, broadcasters and telecom companies the provisioning of a immersive VOD and live 360 degrees videos of the most desired events on the planet. The platform offers the best video quality and highest network efficiencies and includes advanced social and monetization capabilities. The company, based in New York and Tel Aviv, is led by Amir Segev, Guy Zisamn and Ariel Galinsky all senior executives from the broadcast and digital media technology world.
