i3 - January/February 2016 - 20

Luckey believes
that in the
future, the very
concept of the
living room will
evolve into a
sitting room
optimized
around AR and
VR usage.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

VR IS NOT JUST FOR GAMING

While videogames will be a key driver for virtual reality, entertainment will play
a key role in the future of VR. Tim Merel, managing director at Digi-Capital,
forecasts that VR and AR film and TV will generate more than $10 billion for Hollywood by 2020. Google and GoPro have partnered to allow film and television
creators to purchase the Odyssey custom 16-camera VR rig designed to film 4K
360-degree video for $15,000. And other companies like IM360, Bubblcam, and
360Heros offer more affordable alternatives to capture entertainment, or the
world around us, in a new way. Roddenberry Entertainment has even released
the first 360-degree video short film, White Room: 02B3.
IM360 creative director Ryan Whitehead recently worked with MTV to
livestream the red carpet of the Video Music Awards and the Latin Billboard
Awards with 360-degree video. IM360 has developed livestitching technology that allows broadcasters to cut between traditional 4K video content
and 360-degree video content on the fly.
"VR is going to give everyone a front row seat to wherever they want to
be, whether it's a concert or a sporting event," Whitehead says. "You can
be transported there with your headset. It's not going to replace standard
broadcast, but it's going to shine as a second screen experience to feel that
excitement and more interactivity. VR users will be able to watch and switch
in-headset between a live feed 2D feed and a 360-degree feed."
Hollywood mogul Peter Guber has invested in NextVR, which also is an
alternative 360-degree livestreaming product built for VR. The owner of the
NBA Champion Golden State Warriors believes the NBA and other leagues
will adopt this technology. Guber experimented with the technology last
season, streaming a Warriors game to the NBA league office in New York City.
"It's going to be a period of experimenting and growth, but you can see
that the big dogs like Google and Facebook have really put a lot of capital
against VR and they believe that it's going to be very effective not only in
sports and entertainment, but also in other sectors like travel and shopping,"
Guber says. "NextVR has the ability to be social and participatory without being at the location of the event, which I think is the secret sauce."
John Koller, vice president of marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment,
believes games will be important for VR, but not the only draw.
"On the non-gaming side, 360-degree video is a stage for music or in a
sports arena or wherever you might be, to simulate the human experience,"
Koller says. "That's what's most important as we see, hear, and look around.
The same can be true within virtual reality."
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

Mario Anzuoni/Corbis

TVS ARE NOT GOING AWAY, YET
While Luckey sees a VR future, he admits that
in the near-term traditional TVs (which are
migrating to 4K in homes), aren't going away.
There's simply too much content for TV, and
the big screen integrates more naturally into
everyday life. Plus, the pricing on early VR
technology will be very expensive when you
factor in the cost of a high-end PC. Piper Jaffray Senior Research Manager Gene Munster
estimates that only 20 percent of household
PCs will be able to run Oculus Rift or HTC
Vive. But Luckey believes hardware prices
will drop quickly on the HMD front, and PC
technology is always improving at a lower cost
thanks to Moore's Law.
At launch, even Sony's PlayStation VR will
cost an estimated $350-the same price as a
PlayStation 4 console. But Sony has dropped
hardware prices consistently in its history
and the goal with all of these companies is to
attract first the early adopters and later more
mainstream audiences.
Luckey believes that in the future, the very
concept of the living room will evolve into a
sitting room optimized around AR and VR
usage.
"Tablets and smartphones decrease the relevance of the living room," Luckey says. "In the
future, you'll be able to access rich media anywhere you are and seamlessly bring things in
and out of the VR world. You could choose to
project a big TV floating in your living room.
The living room itself could be a box and you
could make that appear to be any living room
by wearing glasses or contacts that project TVs
virtually anywhere you want."
That concept sounds a lot like the Star Trek
Holodeck.

https://immersivemedia.com/ http://www.bublcam.com/ http://www.360heros.com/ http://www.nextvr.com/

i3 - January/February 2016

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