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High tech time-lapse videos of Dubai hit YouTube

Dubai - A 24 hour time lapse of the Dubai International Airport - was shot in 8K resolution, 16 times the resolution of other HD videos.

Viewers around the globe can now get a high-tech glimpse of Dubai through two recently unveiled 360-degree, 8K-resolution YouTube time-lapse videos of the Dubai Airport and Shaikh Zayed Road, the first two of their kind.

Officially launched in January, Dubai360 - which produced the videos - specialises in interactive, state-of-the art 360 degree images which allow users to explore over 1,200 parts of Dubai - from the iconic Burj Khalifa to the backstreets of Satwa and Deira - without ever leaving the comfort of one's own home.

But the first of the new YouTube videos - a 24 hour time lapse of the Dubai International Airport - was shot in 8K resolution, 16 times the resolution of other HD videos. Until recently, YouTube only allowed for 4K videos to be uploaded.

"I don't know if there was even an official YouTube announcement, but all of a sudden they switched on the ability to replay 8K video," said Dubai360 Operations Manager Gerald Donovan. "Hardly anybody on the planet has a monitor that can replay 8K video. But where 8K becomes interesting is in 360-degree videos."

In a normal 4K 360-degree video, there are about 1,000 pixels available to the viewer across his or her 90 degree field of view. With 8K video, however, that resolution is doubled to 2,000 pixels in a quarter of that same field of view, allowing for significantly higher fidelity images.

"We were very quick in turning this around, because we were very keen in trying to get the very first 8K, 360 video on YouTube," Donovan added. "The video has a million views in less than three weeks." Just a week ago, Dubai360 uploaded a second 360-degree 8K 24-hour time-lapse video, this one taken from the top of the 328-metre tall Yaqoub Tower on Shaikh Zayed Road.

Dubai360 will be adding significant amounts of new content around Eid, including a number of nighttime panoramic images of the city, Donovan added. In the future, Donovan said Dubai's rapid growth will provide enough material for high-tech videos for years to come. "If Dubai stopped growing now, we'd still have plenty to go and shoot for the next few years. There's so much interest out there," he said. "But Dubai continues to grow, and there are new areas which we would go and shoot, or that we'll have to go re-shoot as they change dramatically."

Additionally, Donovan noted that Dubai360 already has the technological capability to shoot even higher-resolution videos than the 8K ones currently in circulation.

"We were shooting 12K content over a year ago, and only now are we able to show 8K," he said. "We just got new cameras that shoot in higher resolution, so when we go and shoot these time lapses now, the source files will be closer to 30K resolution. There is no technology on the planet now or probably for the next two years, maybe even longer, that will be able to play a 30K video."

Donovan said he believes that Dubai is one of very few places where the production of such videos is possible. "Everyone in Dubai is very supportive of Dubai, the way it is positioning and pitching itself," he said. "People buy into initiatives like this, I think in a way they simply wouldn't in many other cities in the world."

bernd@khaleejtimes.com