France Télévisions is partnering with the French Tennis Federation to offer 360-degree live broadcasts in 4K and virtual reality of all French Open matches played on the tournament’s three main courts, the broadcaster said in a Monday announcement. An RG360 virtual reality app, created by French startup FireKast and available for free on iOS, Android and Samsung Gear VR, will let fans view live or replayed matches in “full immersion” 360-degree 4K, it said. To make the content available to everyone, France Télévisions will also be trying out new functions on the YouTube Live 360 player on the French channel francetvsport, it said. And 360-degree replays will be available through francetvsport’s YouTube and Facebook platforms, it said. For the fourth straight year, the French Tennis Federation and France Télévisions also will offer a special event channel for the men’s and women’s singles semifinals and finals matches, it said. A French telco will broadcast these matches in Ultra HD on digital terrestrial TV in the Paris area and by satellite for the rest of France, it said.
Some 2.3 million U.S. broadband homes own a virtual reality headset, said Parks Associates, which said 5 percent of U.S. homes plan to buy one this year, up from 1 percent who bought one in 2015. Driving purchase plans are gaming systems that can deliver immersive experiences with superior sound and graphics, said a Parks survey of 10,000 U.S. broadband households. “The mass market is more likely to adopt mobile VR, which will be less expensive and uses a tool -- the smartphone -- that the majority of U.S. consumers own,” said analyst Barbara Kraus. As VR headsets become part of the consumer IoT, they will become an interface for other connected devices in the home, said Kraus. Parks recommends that CE companies provide simple ways to manage multiple content streams while giving users the tools to personalize their experiences with a VR headset. "The CE industry is moving from one defined by hardware to a business of virtualized products, OTT content, and new advertising models, which could be integrated into a VR interface for users to control and interact with their homes," Kraus said.
The Audio Engineering Society plans its first international conference on audio for virtual and augmented reality, the group said in a Monday announcement. The event will be Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, co-located with the 141st AES Convention at the Los Angeles Convention Center’s West Hall, it said. “The two-day program of technical papers, workshops, tutorials and a manufacturer’s expo will throw a unique spotlight on the creative and technical challenges of providing immersive spatial audio to accompany virtual-reality and augmented-reality media, which is demonstrably the fastest-growing section of the entertainment-audio markets,” AES said. The conference will attract content developers, researchers, manufacturers, consultants and students, in addition to audio engineers seeking to expand their knowledge about sound production for virtual and augmented reality, it said. A “companion” Expo will feature displays from “leading-edge manufacturers and service providers looking to secure industry metrics for this emerging field,” it said.
GoPro “has an opportunity to be a leader in consumer [virtual reality] VR just as it has been a leader in its current market” of action cameras and professional VR solutions, by “enabling new perspectives that weren't possible before in differentiated forms of capture,” CEO Nicholas Woodman said on an earnings call. “We think that our brand and our reputation translate directly into virtual reality and it's something that we're extremely excited about,” said Woodman, whose company used the NAB Show to showcase its prowess in professional VR content capture. But Woodman openly thanked analysts on the call for not asking questions about GoPro's consumer VR product plans. GoPro’s promised first-half introduction of Karma, its first drone, is one of many 2016 “initiatives” on which “we won’t deliver,” Woodman said Thursday. As late as last week, GoPro thought the Karma's launch was on schedule for June, Woodman said. “However, Karma includes revolutionary features that differentiate it from other drones,” he said. “To give ourselves more time to fine-tune these features, we have made the difficult decision to push Karma's launch to the holidays.” GoPro can’t share any information “about how Karma may or may not evolve as we get closer to launch,” but the company remains “incredibly excited about this product,” Woodman said in Q&A. “The upside to the delay is that it does allow us to launch Karma at a terrific time of the year and we do expect it to benefit from the holidays.” Woodman also gave scarce details on GoPro’s distribution plans for Karma, other than to say he expects Karma will “benefit from our global distribution.” Karma “is very much in line with the types of value proposition that have resonated with consumers so far from GoPro,” he said. “So expect consistency there, but beyond that, we can't share any information about our distribution plans for Karma.”
In-store demos of the highly touted Oculus Rift virtual reality headset are coming Saturday to 48 Best Buy stores with Intel Experience stores within a store, Best Buy said in a Monday blog post. Best Buy “is the first and only U.S. retailer where customers can try out Rift headsets in stores,” but only “limited quantities of headsets” will be available for purchase until the summer, Best Buy said. “The demos allow you to experience Rift firsthand by getting immersed in two virtual reality experiences.” Dreamdeck transports the viewer “to impossible places,” like the top of the tallest skyscraper, it said. The Climb is a game in which one “can scale new heights” through the thrill of virtual rock-climbing, it said. Oculus recommends a PC with an Intel i5 or i7 processor “for a full Rift experience,” it said. A small number of Rifts also will be available for purchase online from Amazon and Microsoft, starting Friday at 9 a.m. PDT, Oculus said in a Monday blog post. “Quantities will be extremely limited while we catch up on Rift pre-orders.”
HTC is leading a global accelerator program called Vive X targeted at virtual reality startups, said the company Tuesday. The program is designed to support the VR ecosystem by providing expertise, access to advanced VR technology, financial backing, mentorship and go-to market support, HTC said. Vive X will launch in Beijing, Taipei and San Francisco and roll out to other worldwide hubs in the future, it said. Vive X will pilot next month in Beijing, when selected startups from around Asia are invited to apply for the program. Companies from any industry that are creating content, tools, applications and accessories for the VR ecosystem can apply, it said.
IDC sees worldwide shipments of virtual reality hardware skyrocketing in 2016, with total volume reaching 9.6 million units worth $2.3 billion, the research firm said in a Thursday report. In 2016, the first major “tethered” VR devices from Oculus, HTC and Sony "should drive combined shipments of over 2 million units," IDC said. "When you combine this with robust shipments of screenless viewers from Samsung and other vendors launching later this year, you start to see the beginning of a reasonable installed base for content creators to target." IDC expects augmented reality hardware “to take longer to bring to market,” it said. "While development kits from players such as Microsoft, Meta, and others point to a strong future in AR hardware, these devices are dramatically harder to produce than VR products."
AOL agreed to acquire virtual reality studio Ryot, to enhance content on AOL's news properties, the buyer said in a news release Wednesday. Initially, Ryot will contribute films, linear video, 360-degree content and virtual reality experiences to The Huffington Post, AOL said. The news website previously worked with Ryot on a report covering the refugee crisis in Greece. Later, other AOL properties will gain access to Ryot’s virtual-reality capabilities, AOL said. AOL didn’t disclose terms of the deal.
NextVR took the wraps off a virtual reality (VR) production truck at NAB and will roll it out to cover live sports events and concerts beginning in July, it said Monday. The custom-built truck is designed to be “plug and play” and has the computing horsepower required to produce live VR content, said Ryan Sheridan, NextVR senior vice president-imaging and production technologies. The truck was designed to fit into a large cargo airplane to reach international markets, it said.
LG Electronics seeks U.S. registration of a basic-word trademark for “vrChannel” for software “for downloading and playing virtual reality games on smartphones,” among a multitude of other uses, its April 5 application (serial number 86965142) at the Patent and Trademark Office showed. LG’s South Korea parent group filed a similar application (application number 4020160019062) with Korea trademark authorities March 15, PTO records said. LG also envisions using vrChannel for wearable devices, motion sensors, digital signage, operating-system software for smartphones and TVs, its application said. The vrChannel trademark disclosure, "covering a possible ecosystem related to VR software for a range of portable devices and accessories, speaks for itself," an LG spokesman emailed us Tuesday. "For competitive reasons, I’m not in a position to amplify at this time." Two months earlier, Samsung applied to register a “VR” stylized logo for goods and services similar to those listed in the LG application for vrChannel (see 1602230058). While VR is the common abbreviation for virtual reality, there was no mention of virtual reality goods or services in the Samsung application as there was in the LG application, PTO records showed.