What is GoPro’s Omni VR and Why
Content creators can capture 360-degree, spherical, VR content and publish it in superb quality.
GoPro made a revolution in extreme sports and photography by inventing a great durable camera of high quality for any weather conditions. And it was really a question of time to see GoPro doing the VR thing.
Launched earlier in April (sales started in August), Omni has been the company’s only major launch this year. Touted as an “end-to-end content creation ecosystem”, Omni allows content creators to capture 360-degree, spherical, VR content and publish it in superb quality.
What is Omni
Omni is a cube-shaped device, comprising six action cameras coupled with necessary hardware and software necessary to mesh the footage into 360-degree video, in a compact aluminum rig. The latest device is packed with a host of features including, pixel-level synchronization, error-proof shooting, heat dissipation, greater durability and metadata/SD Card management techniques to pleasure tech-savvy customers.
With one button you can start and stop recording on the Omni. There’s no need to worry about synchronizing footage using a clap or audio track as the rig automatically does this for you. With the Omni, the camera labeled “one” is the brains of the operation. Change the settings on it and they all follow suit.
The process of converting a footage to VR video is surprisingly simple. The company’s Omni Importer feature will allow users to preview, stitch and publish the content they capture seamlessly. GoPro VR can distribute content over the web and can work with VR headsets like Oculus.
At $5,000 you get the complete Omni kit. This includes six Hero4 cameras, microSD cards, batteries, an external battery pack, stitching software and more. It costs $1,500 to buy the cage rig separately and bring your own Hero4 cameras.
GoPro “Karma”
In spite of the fact that GoPro launched its Omni, the results of GoPro Q3 reports are sad. The maker of action cameras said its net income dropped 330% from last year and swayed to a loss of $84 million, or -$0.60 per share.
GoPro had originally hoped to release the Karma drone in the spring of this year but opted to wait until late fall to unveil both the Karma and GoPro’s new flagship action cameras, the Hero5 Black and the Hero5 Session. Essentially, the company was banking on gangbuster holiday sales, with a stated target of $625 million for Q4.
Unfortunately, with regard to the new cameras, GoPro called its production schedule “compromised” and admitted that it anticipated meeting demand. Combine that with the now-recalled Karma and things look, in a word, bad (GoPro should recall all 2,500 Karma drones just 16 days after its release because of spontaneously losing power midflight and falling out of the sky).
With the announcement of the recall, GoPro’s already struggling stock dropped another 8 percent in after-hours trading, hitting an all-time low of $9.80 per share, though it has since rebounded slightly to $10.40. For context, in October 2014, GoPro’s stock peaked at nearly $87 per share.
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