http://www.ibc.org/page.cfm/action=library/libID=14/libEntryID=97/listID=3
It's
hard not to feel a sense of déjà vu about Virtual Reality (VR).
Exponents claim it offers 'best seat in the house' experiences that
can't be achieved watching standard telly. Viewers have to don facial
hardware. Production is complex and there's talk of needing new
editorial grammar.
3D
TV didn't work out the way many in the industry expected and it is no
great surprise that Sky has finally shuttered its 3D channel.
There
are reasons to feel differently about VR though – not least at Sky
which is an investor in VR hardware developer Jaunt.
For
a start, there's no need to buy a new TV set. Anyone with a
smartphone can receive VR content provided they pay around £150 for
it to be temporarily converted into a headset via Google Cardboard or
Samsung Gear VR. It will most likely exist as a second screen adjunct
to cinema and TV programming until someone comes up with a killer
app.
Some,
like US VR technology and production outfit NextVR, believe they've
already found it. “Live transmission is really the killer app for
virtual reality,” declares co-founder DJ Roller, “it enables
viewers to witness sporting events as they happen from locations
beyond a front row seat.”
Sports
federations in the US including NASCAR, NHL and NBA have trialled
live and recorded VR sports action, even using multiple outside
broadcast camera positions.
It
is likely there will be some VR content shot around the 2016 Rio
Olympic Games too, and English Premier League football clubs
including Manchester United have expressed interest. Sky has
test-shot boxing and football in the format. According to NextVR, the
first pay-per-view live VR stream will happen next year.
“The
holy grail is live VR and how you integrate that across platforms,”
says Sky's Director of Operations, Keith Lane.
Meanwhile,
Jaunt is launching Jaunt Studios in Los Angeles, CA to create
live-action VR experiences. Publisher Conde Nast has signed to
produce scripted VR shows at the studio for distribution on its
online video platform.
VR
is part of two wider trends which will be evident at IBC2015. The
first of these is panoramic image capture from 360° camera
rig systems and video stitching software applications. The number of
such systems is multiplying and already opening up new applications.
Panoramic
applications
BT
Sport's Owl cam, trialled at Rugby Premiership matches this season,
takes video from a pair of 4K cameras into a software programme. It
stitches the images to provide a panoramic angle from which four
virtual camera positions can be extracted. These can be used by
directors to zoom in on aspects of the picture (in HD) or for
analysis of action not 'seen' by the main gantry camera.
Isreal's
Pixellot has taken this a stage further with a 50-megapixel 10-camera
array for extraction of even more virtual camera angles. Its ultimate
application may lie in the remote production of an event in which
case the need for a traditional OB truck and crew to be on-site is
not necessary.
Germany's
Fraunhofer Institute recorded the 2014 World Cup Final for viewing on
360° or 180° displays using the OmniCam, a rig which captures a
360° panorama
from ten 36° mirror
segments on multiple small HD cameras.
IC
Real Tech's Allie camera can create a 720° view
by stitching two 360° camera
feeds together. Action camera maker GoPro recently acquired French
image-stitching developer Kolor to enable users to create 360° video
for VR apps.
Mixed
reality
The
second trend is Augmented Reality (AR), viewed as a softer, more
comfortable entrée into mixing the virtual with the real.
Smartphones are once again the key display device bringing the
technology, which has been around for many years, to mass market. AR
is set to generate $5.2bn in revenues by next year, suggest research
analysts Juniper. It predict there will be 200 million AR users
worldwide by 2018.
The
blurred area between AR and VR, sometimes called Mixed Reality, is
also a source of considerable activity. Google (with Project Tango),
Intel (with RealSense) and Leap Motion are developing combined
infra-red sensor and camera devices that are able to provide greater
depth information to fuel AR experiences.
Such
devices gives AR software a better sense of the space and objects
around it, helping to convince the user of the veracity of a scene.
Applications
include the obvious ones of gesture control of virtual reality games
or smartTV navigation and improved object recognition. It also
includes object avoidance for UAVs, the ability to change which
layers of a still photograph or video are in focus, and realtime
video chats with animated avatars.
Microsoft
is developing Hololens, an AR headgear that uses depth sensor Kinect
to display holograms. Google and Qualcomm are two investors in Magic
Leap which is gaining considerable buzz, not least because of its
secretive marketing. It is reported to have cracked the problems that
bedevilled stereoscopic 3D by projecting virtual images directly into
a viewer's eyes from a tiny projector (presumably mounted on a form
of glassware).
Founder
Rony Abovitz has dubbed the technique 'cinematic reality' and
Framestore, the Oscar-winning VFX house behind Gravity, will debut a
project using it in Manchester this summer.
Is
this the future of cinema? AR and VR will infuse IBC2015 and The IBC
Big Screen Experience this September.
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