Nokia's Ozo camera now broadcasts live VR
Virtual reality streaming and TV just became much more practical.
Now that live virtual reality is hitting the mainstream, you need a camera to make it happen, don't you? Nokia is happy to help. It's creating a live VR broadcasting option for its Ozo camera that will show 360-degree video as it happens, complete with spatial audio. You aren't likely to use this yourself when it costs about $60,000 to get an Ozo, but it'll be a big deal for streaming providers and other broadcasters that want to experiment with VR. It'll reach a handful of partners in the spring, and should be widely available this summer.
Nokia is making it easier to produce VR of all kinds, too. Its Ozo Creator tool is arriving for free this month with VR stitching, taking the headaches out of creating seamless videos. There's also a VR player developer kit (coming later in the spring) that will help bring VR playback to your apps. Companies will need to take up the Ozo before you notice a difference, but don't be surprised if immersive videos are that much more widespread in the near future.
