Advocates of a mainstream existence for virtual reality and augmented reality content generally bet that the pathway to that existence is a header — as in helmets, goggles or something else people wear on their heads. Mobile devices rate a distant second, as in smartphones or Google’s Cardboard product. But after Digital Hollywood’s annual Media Summit last week in New York City, all bets are off.
The media and entertainment company is launching DMG VR, a new unit focused on immersive storytelling. As part of that effort, DMG is unveiling Arcturus, a company focused on interactive narrative experiences and technology, that it incubated under the DMG VR umbrella.
CNN is making a grand entrance into the immersive medium of VR with a new effort called CNNVR. It says it is launching the VR unit to “transport users to the front row of global events.” CNN has already worked on nearly 50 pieces of 360-degree content, so the main news is that there is now a more centralized home for viewing the content and a more formalized internal structure for producing it.
Done right, interactive videos can be a big hit with consumers. But high costs and fickle audiences can make them risky.
On Stage, the new virtual reality show co-produced by Hulu and Live Nation, launched on Hulu’s VR app Thursday. The first episode features performer Lil Wayne, while the second, featuring Major Lazer, will debut later this year.
Exclusives
Probably not, says Erin Griffith, who recounts her recent experiences with the tech at CES. She likens VR to 3D printers in their early days, when hype would have it that everyone would have one in their homes, “except every home didn’t need one, and they remain an expensive curiosity to most.”
A new generation of virtual reality technologies seeks to significantly expand the social and physiological effect of virtual experiences, with profound implications for journalism. Journalism inside these new virtual worlds will require an entirely different set of skills and approaches, and will challenge three core journalistic concepts: representation, witnessing, and accountability.
“Massive consolidation” is headed toward the virtual reality industry, and there’s a vale of tears between now and mass adoption. That was the general view that surfaced at Wednesday’s Virtual Reality Intelligence conference, where startups were advised to hunker down and be wise about spending (if they want to retain autonomy), and raising too much money is akin to hanging a noose around a company’s neck at this early stage.
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The second annual NAB Show Shanghai will feature “enhanced” educational programming, including three core conferences, four conference tracks and a new exhibit floor. Produced by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the International High […]
It will be a nine-part, limited series exclusively made for the Google Daydream virtual reality headset by NFL Films. The series will cover “life in and around the NFL — from players, to coaches, to executives, to cheerleaders, to the fans themselves — detailing how each prepares for game day,” according to a press release. The first episode will be Thanksgiving Day on YouTube, with the VR version dropping at an unspecified date before year’s end.
It’s called VRtually There, launched in partnership with YouTube and Toyota, and new episodes will drop each Thursday at 2 p.m. ET. Content will be available on the USA Today app, within the VR Stories app and VRtually There’s YouTube channel (where there is 60-day exclusivity).
Ad executives gathered for the Virtual Reality 2020 Summit Monday agreed that the time to experiment in the medium now, but expecting any kind of immediate gratification was folly with a mass audience at least a year or two away. Most marketers agreed that VR was a medium they couldn’t ignore, and opportunities to sponsor VR content from media companies were ever-expanding.
According to a new Frank N. Magid Associates survey, 42% of U.S. consumers ages 8-64 are very or somewhat interested in virtual reality. In terms of applications, consumers are interested in using VR for watching movies and TV shows, as well as playing games and travel.
Fox Broadcasting is teaming with the Google Spotlight Stories to create a special virtual reality experience for The Simpsons couch gag to commemorate its milestone 600th episode.
Oculus hasn’t quite been the virtual reality home run Facebook hoped it would be: the hardware maker has been beset by shipping problems, a high-than-expected price and vigorous competition from the likes of Sony and HTC, among others. Founder Palmer Luckey’s controversial political views haven’t helped, and now Facebook finds itself in the rare position of being on the back foot in a space where CEO Mark Zuckerberg has soaring ambitions.
It’s still early days for sure, but some broadcasters are beginning to stream over the top virtual reality and 360-degree coverage of news and sports to viewers equipped with VR headsets or touchscreens like smartphones and tablets. The goal is twofold: immerse viewers in an experience in a way that’s simply not possible with conventional television and to get a jump on the next wave in consumer viewing.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sony isn’t the first to make virtual reality a reality, but in waiting, the company has delivered a worthy experience that’s cheaper, more comfortable and more […]
Google’s Oct. 4 event isn’t just going to be about its new Pixel phones and OS news. It will also be trotting out its new Daydream virtual reality headset, which will reportedly be priced for as little as $79. The device can be used in conjunction with either of the new phones.
Entravision, owner of Univision- and Unimas-affiliated stations, will launch a digital content initiative through an investment and partnership with Chanclazo Studios, a digital production studio that creates and distributes short- and long-form 3D animation, virtual reality and augmented reality content for Hispanics.
NBC News is planning a wealth of election night virtual reality coverage of its Democracy Plaza events, and the company sees it as a first step to creating a community that can eventually be monetized. “The audience just needs to be big enough that we can get some response from them, both in terms of how they use it as well as talking to people who have used it. And that will [shape] the experiments to come,” says Nick Ascheim, its digital SVP.
Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Asia President Atsushi Morita appeared at a Tokyo event Tuesday, ahead of the Tokyo Game Show annual exhibition opening later this week. He announced the company’s preparing music, movies and other kinds of entertainment to augment games on its virtual reality headgear.
Both augmented reality and virtual reality offer different results for publishers. Here’s a look at some of the best AR and VR practices and strategies currently being used by media. What works for one might not work for another, but if your kids were hunting for Pokémon this summer (or maybe even you were), then read on to see what the buzz is all about.
Global MSO investment in virtual reality platforms seems to be ramping up as providers look to be in on what could be the next wave of in-home entertainment. However, VR is going to require a new set of technology and new thinking in terms of network infrastructure in order to deliver services like 360-degree video. Questions about how to do that will likely be a big focus at next week’s IBC conference.
NBC will provide 85 hours of virtual reality programming for the Rio Summer Olympics, but it will only be available to users of Samsung Galaxy smartphones with its Gear VR headset. The video will include opening and closing ceremonies, men’s basketball, gymnastics and track-and-field events.
The tech is already there via NextVR, which has been working with media companies to broadcast events live in VR for the complete immersive experience. Having made early experiments with sports events and the Democratic and Republican debates, NextVR has its own cameras and transmission equipment, but says there are cheaper alternatives available for publishers to begin trying it out.
Splurging on a high-priced VR headset is just the beginning. The computer hardware needed to run Oculus Rift and HTC Vive can cost several times as much.
How a teenage Palmer Luckey created Oculus Rift in his parents’ Southern California garage, sold it for $2 billion and may have launched a digital revolution.
YouTube will be a direct beneficiary of parent company Google’s virtual reality endeavors. Its new VR app will be available on Daydream mobile VR devices later this year, and it’s giving VR cameras to some content creators to help nudge along immersive video. Monetization plans are also in the works.
Virtual reality specialist Oculus is trying to dazzle consumers by adding more entertainment and educational options to the Samsung Gear headset. They join a menu of more than 250 apps designed for the Gear VR since its consumer model was released nearly six months ago.
Mary Lou Jepsen, the executive director of engineering at Facebook and the head of display tech at its Oculus virtual reality arm, is leaving the social-networking giant after a little more than a year on the job to focus on curing diseases using MRI images in the form of a consumer wearable.
It’s too soon to say how the four-week delays will affect Oculus, much less the overall acceptance of virtual reality, a technology that submerges users in realistic artificial worlds. The delay, naturally, has sparked online grousing and even some data-based activism, including the creation of a crowdsourced spreadsheet for tracking who received their prized VR gear and when.
VR’s Imminence Comes Into Sharp Focus
Virtual reality was a major strand of the tech/media/marketing conference Collision this week, and one of its most breathtaking media applications came via The Guardian’s new “6X9” project. NetNewsCheck Editor Michael Depp susses out the strong signals pointing to VR’s coming mass adoption, along with the pressures of platform publishing and ad blocking that have surfaced as more immediate — and unabating — issues for publishers.
