Will VR Be The Next Big Thing? I Hope So.

WILL VR BE THE NEXT BIG THING? I HOPE SO.

By Randi Altman

When I started in the industry, oh so long ago, virtual reality was already a thing. I remember people waiting in line at a Siggraph for a chance to strap on a bulky headset and see some really blocky animation representing a weird CG environment. While the technology might not have been ready back then, the idea of getting lost in a world you would never get to see in real life was attractive.

Fast-forward 15 years or so and virtual reality is officially a thing. I am a newbie to this, but I am jazzed. I heard people talking up virtual reality at NAB but didn’t have the opportunity to get a full-on demo. That happened, oddly enough, in a cigar bar in New York City. Jaunt VR’s Miles Perkins plugged a Samsung Note 4 phone into a GearVR HMD (head-mounted display) — you can purchase this Samsung Note 4 or S6 HMD for around $200 at Best Buy — and blew my mind. As conversations went on around me, I was transported to the Grand Canyon. There was beauty everywhere I turned. Up, down, to my sides, and below. If you have a fear of heights, watch out for the below view. Amazing. Then I was at a Paul McCartney concert, but I was seeing it from his perspective. Even more amazing.

So, I guess I’m officially a believer. Unlike 3D stereo, which failed to really launch anywhere except for animated films playing in theaters, this is going to happen, particularly for concert films, games and when providing viewers with immersive, one-of-a-kind experiences, like the Grand Canyon.

While headsets from the likes of Oculus Rift (coming in 2016), Sony, and Samsung cost hundreds of dollars and offer a more high-end experience – higher resolution, higher frame rate, better color — there are many more affordable and just as fun options for people to get their hands on, which will make the adoption of virtual reality a sure thing. In fact, Jaunt is HMD agnostic, acknowledging you don’t have to pay hundreds of dollars to see virtual reality – just check this out from Google https:// www.google.com/get/cardboard. It’s called Google cardboard, and it costs more in the range of $20 to $30 — if you’re lucky you might even find Google Cardboard for as little as $5, and, in some cases, luckier you might get it free as a promotional item.

And companies such as Jaunt — which just announced the opening of Jaunt Studios in Hollywood, aimed to be a major VR content provider, sort of “Netflix of virtual-reality content” — are making sure if you want to experience virtual reality, you will have the chance.

What about the audio side of the experience? Dolby aims to help with Atmos format, which provides object-based sound in a 3D space, so when you turn your head, the sound stays where it belongs – locked to the object that made the sound. So incredibly cool.

Randi Altman is editor-in-chief of postPerspective.com