The VR had its shy appearance last year at NAB Conference, but early adopters were excited about it.
This year on NAB it was a highlight of the show and there was even a VR Pavilion. It was not big. Without the official presence of the Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, Microsoft HoloLens, Meta or the famous snake’s legs: MagicLeap, the “VR” was almost completely reduced to 360 video (is it VR?).
I have been hearing so much about VR that hearing “we are” triggers the same brain cells.
There were a few new 360 cameras, software and plugins presented. Nokia presented 360 camera OZO, but demos were not too exciting, and I completely forgot to take a photo of the camera itself.
There were many camera array systems. Presenters did not have good experience with those: “If you plan 6 camera shoot, bring 18 GoPros”. One of them mentioned GoPros going out of sync on shots longer than ~10minutes(?).
There will be at least a one year more dealing with a lot or improvisation, and it even though it was obvious everything is still in its infancy, there was still a lot of excitement around it.
I was hoping for seeing more forms of storytelling. Most experiences were 360 videos and the most obvious choice: standing in a concert or at a sport event.
Sports
The only notable one in this category was from company Voysys AB, combining view of the playing field with floating closeup camera views.
GoPro showed modular cameras that could be mounted in caps and worn by referees (monocular for now).
I am wondering: What will happen in the future, and to this industry once when already excited sports fans find themselves in VR on the actual field, looking through the eyes of the person with the ball, and they start dropping dead in their sofas from heart attacks from overexcitement?
I do not watch sports, but I would be more interested in Augmented Reality experience of a sports event. I believe watching sports is a shared experience. Microsoft had a better vision of this future.
New 360 camera
I was playing the last weeks with Ricoh Theta S, the 360 camera. Even though photos are pretty good, the video is hardly useful even on smartphone-sized screen at this point. It records two fisheye images on 1080p canvas and then unwraps it into Equirectangular 1080p footage. It is clear that such a high transformation will swallow a lot of data, so it is not even the 1080p.
But on NAB a new VR camera was announced — Condition One “Bison” VR camera. It records 360 stereoscopic 3D video at 5.7K and with 48fps. The best part is: it has one button operation and no need for clap-syncing and stitching.
Kaleidoscope VR fastival
There were Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Samsung Gear VR stations where visitors could enjoy the VR experiences (first image).
The problem with these were cables. This reminded me how using the HoloLens was freeing. The Vive kept on winding around my neck. Someone should make a VR experinece where a user fights snakes, and incorporate the headset cable into it. I think I played the same one as the person in the above gif. This one had more of a meditative-therapeutic effect than anything else, no story, but I still liked it.
The experience that I was most impressed with was “Notes on Blindness”. Artists used this new medium to tell a story which would otherwise not be as effective.
Talks and Panel Discussions
This year there were so many VR related talks everyday, that they even overlapped.
I expected to learn something new but actually all the challenges the presenters faced, were actually obvious and they did not offer any solutions. We are still in the domain of obvious, improvising every step of the way. I did not like that most presentations were without any slides, presenters with body-language of insecurity, occasionally touching their noses, making me wonder how much of all of that was true.
Panel discussions were more interesting. I cannot say that I returned to NY smarter, but at least more inspired.
The Future for Virtual Reality
On Wednesday there was a Technology Luncheon. Theme was The Future for Virtual Reality Presented by Ted Schilowitz, futurist at 20th Century Fox.
In a room full of broadcasters, the talk about VR sounded surreal to me.
As if someone in 1890 came to a luxury mansion builder conference and said: “We have built a skyscraper building. We take people to a high floor, they look through our floor-to-ceiling/wall-to-wall windows, and go: ‘wow’. They really want to live in skyscraper apartments, and not in houses”.
“But do not worry, you still can contribute. We will still need trucks to bring the material, and some of the furnishing is the same, But, unfortunately we will be using different tools. We will also use different materials, sorry. Now, you can add bigger windows on your houses, clearer glass windows, but your children will probably get an apartment with panoramic windows eventually. Your current house is the last house you will ever buy. Apartments in skyscrapers are the future”
“We still do not have elevators, and people will have to use stairs with a lot of cables hanging around. We do not have cranes, all builders speak different languages, European bolts and American nuts might not fit perfectly, but we will still be able to make OK skyscrapers with the current tools, until we get proper tools in a 2–3 years”.
So…
In the last 10 years there was no new medium that presented us the opportunity to be first at something, and offered that feeling of exploring an uncharted territory. For us who like this feeling, it is very exciting. The rest will get there soon.
In the meantime play with Google Cardboard, play with cheap 360 camera or wait for Samsung Gear 360 camera (supposed to be 4K for $399), inspire yourself by reading (or listening to) “Ready Player One” and “Armada” by Ernest Cline, “Fear Saga” by Stephen Moss… lets force industry to grow, so we can get the whole NAB North Hall soon… or even better the separate big conference for AR/VR only.
