NAB 2016 Virtual Reality Overview

NAB 2016: Day 2 – The Virtual Reality Wrap-Up

doddleNEWS by James DeRuvo Tuesday at NAB I walked around and caught some pretty fun tech. Since the buzz word this week is all about virtual reality, I swung by some booths, saw some cool products, and interviewed a few of the leading names in VR. But I also caught a glimpse on what some of the plugin makers are doing to make our filmmaking lives easier. First thing that morning, I swung by the Zeiss Optics booth and caught a glimpse at their new VR ONE headset. Now Zeiss isn’t the first name I think of when I think virtual reality, but Zeiss has dove into the virtual pool with both feet and they’re making their usual high tech refinements to give users a much better experience. Built on the Google Cardboard experience, the VR ONE has chosen to use the mobile platform at the heart of the virtual reality experience, rather than built an overpriced headset that would require you to upgrade your computer platform to so-called “approved standards.” This not only gives users the ability to be more mobile, but relying on the smart phone platform for all its’ computing can keep the price down, and still provide about 80% of the experience. Zeiss is going to let developers worry about the backend of the virtual reality experience, while they work on refining the Cardboard like design. The headset has a hard plastic shell and houses custom made trays that slide in with your mobile phone. When you order your VR ONE, you tell Zeiss which platform you have and they include it in your order. If you have both iOS and Android phones, it’s a simple matter of paying an additional $10 to get another slide-in to house the phone. Where Zeiss has really put its special touch though is in the twin ocular lenses that magnify the stereoscopic virtual reality imagery into the viewers eyes. ...[continue reading]