MTV says Virtual Reality is the Real Deal

For last nights VMA awards show MTV shot Live 360 Virtual Reality from the red carpet, which is now available on demand. MTV is making a big bet on Virtual Reality and based on the feedback and viewing patterns of their audience, they don;t think it's a passing fad like 3D. They see it as a new genre that adds a new level of complexity and workflows.

Streaming Media by Troy Dreier MTV has a message for anyone unsure about the future of virtual reality: This isn't a passing fad like 3D. This is something completely new. On Sunday, MTV makes its first big bet on virtual reality when it offers viewers a live 360-degree look from the red carpet of the 2015 Video Music Awards. MTV will also create 360-views from the awards show itself, which will be available on-demand once the show is over. 3D never caught on because it involved buying an expensive new television set, Jacobs says, while VR works with any smartphone. The VMAs won't be MTV's first encounter with 360-degree video. The network has been experimenting with virtual reality for 6 months now. Most of those efforts were learning experiences and were never put online. In fact, MTV has only released one VR experiment so far: It shot and distributed a segment fromAmerica's Best Dance Crew, one of its most popular shows. In the show, dance crews compete and one is voted off each week. During the season 8 premiere on July 29, the show opened with all 6 of that season's crews performing with R&B star Ne-Yo. That performance was captured in 360-degree VR. Called "ABDC 360: The Ne-Yo Experience," that video has to date been watched more than 300,000 times. Instructions at the beginning of the video tell viewers to use a Google Cardboard viewer or to hold their phone up to pan around the performance space. Anyone using a desktop browser can pan around using a mouse. read more...