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Vast Media VR Round-Up: Moon Landings, Award Shows and Amazon
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Here’s a run-down of recent virtual reality-related entertainment items, via Berlin-based research and consulting company Vast Media.
A&E and VR production company VOKE teamed up Dec. 11 to broadcast the 22nd annual “Critic’s Choice Awards” live in virtual reality, with both the red carpet event and awards show available for owners of the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR. The VR presentation offered viewers the ability to switch between camera angles during the event.
On the dedicated VR headsets, the experience required owners of the Rift and Gear VR to download the VOKE VR app, however A&E made sure smartphone owners and online viewers could watch a 360-degree version via its app.
• Just days ahead of the season three debut of its comedic music drama “Mozart in the Jungle,” Amazon Dec. 6 went to its dedicated Amazon Video YouTube channel to debut a 360-degree experience for the show.
Accompanied by classical music, the “Mozart in the Jungle 360-Degree Season 2” recap offering places viewers in a room with a half dozen portraits, all highlighting key scenes from the second season of the original series.
• The sequel to one of BBC’s more-beloved documentary series, “Planet Earth,” hit the airwaves in November. And for each episode, the network has given the series a new 360-degree sidekick, taking fans on a virtual tour of the locations featured in the series.
What makes the additions fun is that each installment matches perfectly with the theme of the episodes of “Planet Earth II,” covering jungles, deserts, mountains and cities.
Narrated by the same man voicing the series (David Attenborough), the clips are available via YouTube.
• Debuting a new series in the traditional broadcast space is harder than ever today. So for its new sci-fi drama “Timeless,” NBC took little time beefing up the offerings around the series with a late-November VR experience.
Available via YouTube, the VR content tied into to episode “Space Race,” and put users in the series’ “lifeboat” time machine, letting them experience America’s famed moon landing. The five-minute-long VR episode bounces between NASA headquarters, the set of “Timeless,” and the moon landing itself.
