5 real situations where 360° video totally beat a normal one!

But before that, what is 360° video?

360° video in true sense is 360° x 180° field of view and what it is not is; it’s not Virtual Reality video. A system of cameras work in conjunction to capture a full 360° video along x-axis and 180° along y-axis. It can work in opposite axes as well, but it’s a matter of choice. The cameras recording the entire panoramic view from a fixed point in space results in an interactive video where user can click & drag or simply move the screen to adjust the view point around a single point.

Where can you find them in abundance?

The best source of 360° video content are YouTube and Facebook. While YouTube introduced it in March 2015, Facebook added 360° video capability to their new feed in September 2015. Both of these giant houses introduced this technology for Android and Web first and later released for iOS.

Cameras available to capture video in 360°

YouTube support following cameras:

• Ricoh Theta
• Kodak SP360
• IC Real Tech Allie

According to YouTube’s advanced guidelines, it supports 360° video with 24, 25, 30, 48, 50, or 60 frames per second and recommend uploading 16:9 aspect ratio stitched videos in 4K (3840x2160) resolution. 360° videos can also be created using custom camera rigs and third party stitching software like Kolor Autopano.

Facebook requires the video to be shot by a 360° video camera or a spherical camera system that adds 360 meta data in the video file. In addition to above mentioned cameras Facebook suggests two more options:

• Giroptic 360cam
• 360fly

Real Scenarios where 360° video totally crush a normal one

1. Car Racing Events

2. On Ground War Zone

3. Underwater Exploration

4. Sporting Events

5. Live Events

Well, there can not be just 5 scenarios. As we grow, this technology will keep on amazing us.

Future of 360° video with VR

Whilst 360° video content can be viewed using VR headsets, maximizing the immersive effect, this is not essential to the experience. Such content is designed to be used on a plain old 2D display.

But when Mark Zuckerberg revealed that his company is focusing on VR Tech and with a hefty $2 Billion takeover of Oculus VR, no doubt he would want news feed to be more immersive, especially when consumer version of Oculus Rift will be available for purchase in Q1 of 2016.