Advanced Television

VR

Roland-Garros app for UHD 360° VR

Some matches at upcoming French tennis open Roland-Garros will be offered by France Televisions in VR 360° and in Ultra HD quality from a dedicated mobile app. The virtual reality app, RG 360, designed by French company FireKast, is available free of charge on iOS, Android and on Samsung VR headset Samsung Gear. Viewers will […]

May 10, 2016From Paoli-Lebailly Pascale in Paris

NBC VR coverage for Kentucky Derby

NBC Sports made its first foray into virtual reality on May 7th by airing VR footage from the 142nd Kentucky Derby, in partnership with NextVR. NBC and NextVR used seven virtual reality cameras – five placed trackside to capture the race, and two cameras in the paddock area to show the horses before parading to […]

May 9, 2016

Netflix doubts on VR

VR is being touted as the next big thing but it’s not a priority for Netflix, said CEO Reed Hastings in an interview with VentureBeat. “I think it’s going to be huge for the video game market,” Hastings said but he believes it’s a different story when it comes to watching content. There are two […]

May 6, 2016

Half of Westerners no interest in buying VR (yet)

Newzoo’s latest round of consumer research in 16 countries has investigated VR awareness and buying intentions. Across key countries in North America and Europe, an average of 11 per cent of the online population between 10 and 65 state that they are planning to buy VR products in the next six months. Half of Western consumers […]

April 29, 2016

Facebook profits soar, ‘VR is for the future’

Shares in Facebook have hit record highs after its latest financial results smashed expectations, with profits rising threefold. The first quarter numbers beat analysts’ forecasts with the social network, also the owner Instagram, reporting net profits of $1.5 billion compared to over $500 million in the same period last year. Total revenue rose to $5.4 billion […]

April 28, 2016

Gaming console adoption in significant decline

Parks Associates has published European research showing a steady decline in gaming console adoption in France, Spain, and the UK while remaining flat in Germany. Continued consumer adoption of mobile gaming as well as the availability of gaming on streaming media devices has played a key role in the decline. “France’s gaming console adoption dropped […]

April 27, 2016Nik Roseveare @ TV Connect

IDC: Over 9m VR headsets to ship this year

More than nine million virtual reality (VR) headsets will be shipped in 2016, according to research by analyst firm IDC. Some of the growth will be down to the first consumer-ready versions reaching customers, said the firm. However, most numerous will be the “screenless” systems that use smartphones as their main display. IDC said it […]

April 22, 2016

YouTube debuts VR

YouTube unveiled a 360-degree live-streamed video and spatial audio in the immersive video experience at the NAB. YouTube partnered with tech site The Verge to air the first live-streamed 360-degree content this week, with YouTube chief product officer Neal Mohan reporting an explosion of interest in virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree video. Mohan said YouTube […]

April 19, 2016ATV @ NAB

Technicolor chief ponders future of ‘Virtual Experiences’

While new developments in technologies have driven much of the headline-grabbing coverage of virtual, augmented and mixed reality, artists have an absolutely critical role to play in wringing the full promise and potential out of emerging immersive experiences in the field of entertainment, according to Tim Sarnoff, President of Production Services for Technicolor. “I take […]

April 19, 2016ATV @ NAB

Ericsson, Fox enable next-gen content on UDN

Ericsson has announced that as part of its global partnership with the Fox Innovation Lab, Twentieth Century Fox’s research and development centre, it is collaborating on a proof of concept for delivering a wide variety of Fox content. The proof of concept include new release and library movies, 360° audio/video, virtual reality (VR) and augmented […]

April 18, 2016ATV @ NAB