Digital Domain is to capture some 250 hours of immersive 360 video at a major sporting event in Rio this year using a new bespoke camera of their own design.
Visual Effects house Digital Domain have been a familiar name to film buffs and VFX fans since the early 90s, and have produced effects work for movies everyone will recognise. But they now looking to branch out much more aggressively into the world of immersive content, and in particular 360 VR video.
The company have just announced that their recently unveiled Zeus 360 camera is to play a major part in capturing footage at a sporting event in Rio, with Digital Domain claiming they’re filming (and live-streaming) 250 hours of video content, designed to be viewed via virtual reality headsets. DD will be handling the capture and post processing pipeline entirely, even handling the packaging of content to distribution platforms, developing “custom apps for this content to be viewed globally by fans on smartphones, tablets, Gear VR and desktop computers.”
“From the early days of radio to high definition TVs, the way people have enjoyed live sports remotely has grown along with modern technology,” said Daniel Seah, CEO, Digital Domain. “Virtual reality is that next great evolutionary leap in bringing fans closer to the events they love, and it is a great honor for the team at Digital Domain to be a part of that history.”
See Also: Nokia’s ‘OZO’ VR Camera Pre-orders for $60,000, Shipping in Q1 2016
The new camera was unveiled by Digital Domain’s Chairman of the Board Peter Chou at it’s own inaugural Global and Greater China Strategy Conference. The new device, which bears more than a passing resemblance to Nokia’s own Ozo camera, is apparently capable of footage at a greater than 8k resolution at 10-bit RAW output, capturing a high frame rate of 75 fps – importantly though, that’s all monoscopic – unlike Nokia’s device. The camera is also capable of seamless 360-degree live-streaming at up to 4k resolution. No word on the cost of the device, or even if Digital Domain plan to but if Nokia’s Ozo camera is anything to go by, it’s likely to be in the 10s of 1000s of dollars.
“With Zeus, we’re confident that Digital Domain has the best camera on the market for shooting VR and live-streaming 360-degree footage,” said Mr. Chou.
