56
|
ISSUE 2 2015
|
THE CHANNEL
sees this aspect of news in virtual
reality as "media less mediated". It
gives the viewer a new sense of
objectivity, and of trust. It is a
powerful tool, one that brings an
extra responsibility for the content
makers and editors.
When a cameraman or editor
frames an image in conventional
still or video photography, a
definitive choice is made on what
the viewer sees, and thinks.
“Whereas,” as Edward Miller put it
after his experience in Hong Kong,
“there’s nowhere to hide with a
360-degree camera”. The full
picture remains fully discoverable.
BEING INTHEACTION
I remember the excitement of seeing
the first rushes of
Hong Kong
Unrest.
The sense of being “in” the
action; the urge to explore; the need
to revisit, to see the story again,
from another angle. And how it
made me rethink what we see on a
city street every day, with our
standard view of about 120 degrees
in front of us. It made me rethink
how we witness, and judge, events.
Hong Kong Unrest
was launched
on 22 January 2015. On the same
day the film-maker Chris Milk
released 360-degree videos for
Vice.com and the United Nations. It
was a triple world-first for the
format. "Is virtual reality the future of
news?” independent.co.uk wrote,
"Documentaries go 360-degrees as
three are launched in one day."
To that question I would answer
that virtual reality is not just the
future of news, it’s been the future
since early 2015. The trigger for
immersiv.ly investing time, money
and research in VR was Facebook
buying Oculus Rift, the market-
leading headset for VR developers,
in April 2014. This was a headline
moment in the rapid hardware and
software advances for VR in 2014-
15. Mobile phone-based headsets
launched by Google (the $10
Cardboard), Zeiss (the $100 VR
One) and Samsung (the $200 Gear
VR) have accelerated consumer
adoption, while both YouTube and
Facebook are supporting 360-
degree video, to feed that mobile
demand. At the time of going to
press, Sony, HTC and Oculus were
scheduled to bring console-based
headsets to market in 2015-16.
UNTAPPED FORMAINSTREAM
NEWS
The console market is key for news
providers. There lies the untapped
demographic for mainstream news
– teenaged gamers, largely male,
future leaders with a powerful
stake in social sharing. Console VR
players will show just how great
VR can be with the processing
power of a PC – news, gaming and
sport – and mobile-based headsets
will show just how easy it is to
consume. Mobile promises to be a
great platform for media
companies to deploy VR to
recapture users, the leader
generation in their thirties and
forties, many of whom are lost to
mainstream news.
With VR, appealing as it does to
advertisers’ most cherished
demographics (young early
adopters), comes the opportunity
for publishers to create novel
advertising units attached to
repeatable programme formats,
and attract sponsors and
advertisers that their legacy brands
and formats have never reached. At
immersive.ly we have been
working on formats designed to
provide a new advertising or
sponsoring “unit” for ourselves and
for partner media companies.
News in VR goes beyond 360-
degree video. There is great
potential for using VR to showcase
news in all formats – audio, 2D
video, 3D video – displayed in a VR
newsroom, with a drag and drop
facility to change the content as
part of a publisher’s workflow. In
February 2015, immersiv.ly
launched Digital De Re Gallery, the
world’s first art show opening in
virtual reality. It is a space – with
hands-free navigation, and
interactive options for the viewer to
generate additional content – that
demonstrates how a virtual
newsroom can work. De Re Gallery
showcases the work of the London-
based American artist Gretchen
Andrew and was launched in De
Re Gallery, West Hollywood.
Visitors saw one picture by
Gretchen on the physical gallery
t
t
Shakespeare’s
Twelfth Night
shot in an infinity
studio
Visitors to
West Hollywood’s
De Re Gallery
looking at the
work of artist
Gretchen Andrew
t
Previous page
The Hong Kong
demonstrations
filmed in 360-
degrees
