Revolutionising the Media Industry: Introducing XReco

XReco, an acronym for eXtended Reality mEdia eCOsystem, is a groundbreaking project co-funded by the European Commission to revolutionise the media industry. The objective is to create a novel, data-centric ecosystem that facilitates data sharing, exploration and retrieval, while fostering the development of news and entertainment content in XR (Extended Reality).

XReco’s mission is to facilitate the integration of XR content into the media industry by creating an innovative ecosystem that enables frictionless content transformation, creation, curation and transaction. Using cutting-edge technology, XReco aims to improve content creation, search and delivery, creating a more efficient pipeline for clients and users in the media industry.

The project started on September 1, 2022, and will last for 36 months until August 31, 2025.

XReco aims to close the gap between occasional integration and regular inclusion of XR media content in the industry. By leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as AI, blockchain and NeRF, XReco aims to provide media producers, consumers and creators with improved access to content and optimise the process of creating XR experiences.

XReco consists of 20 partners in 12 countries and brings together different competences and visions to enable the seamless exchange of media data, discovery, recommendation and transformation of content from a wide range of media organisations of different types and sizes.

After the successful launch in September, which included a General Assembly, another General Assembly has already taken place in Barcelona after six months of operation, where, among other things, the architecture of the ecosystem was defined. Currently, the project is in the second phase of technical realisation and core development.

In addition, the project was presented in its initial phase at Stereopsia 2022 and Immersive Tech Week 2023.

The core of the ecosystem is a Neural Media Repository (NMR), which promotes the exchange of content between organisations and improves access to content for media creators. In doing so, smart legal contracting and blockchain will solve the issues around copyright and intellectual property rights management. Complementing the NMR are AI-based media transformation services that facilitate the creation of novel media and XR experiences, such as 3D neural reconstruction, neural-based device localisation, image stitching, de/re-lighting and free-viewpoint video technologies.

To validate and demonstrate the capabilities of XReco, the project will implement two application scenarios: XR-based broadcasting and automatic and customised multi-target news publishing in the news media sector, and location-based information and entertainment content with applications in tourism and the automotive industry. These use cases will serve as test grounds to demonstrate the essential components of XReco and show its potential in real-world environments.

To ensure successful use of XReco, the project takes a comprehensive approach. Key components include market and customer analysis, development of exploitation strategies, joint business clinics, development of value propositions and commercial strategies, intellectual property rights management and consolidation of results with a user-centred approach. These components form the basis for identifying key project outcomes with potential for exploitation at both joint and individual partner level.

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