360 degree video coming to facebook
Soon, Facebook will be showing the impressive 360-degree ultra-widescreen videos that currently can be seen from virtual-reality headsets. Anyone using Facebook will have the ability to see these videos on their news feeds.
According to an article by USA Today, Facebook will launch these videos on Wednesday, showing content from the upcoming Star Wars film, the Discovery Channel, GoPro, basketball star LeBron James, Saturday Night Live and Vice. They will be viewable from computers as well as Android phones, and will come to iPhones later in the year.
YouTube also has been showing 360 degree videos on a channel called #360Video. This week YouTube used the channel to launch content about NBC’s series Heroes, and much of their other content showcases “spherical experiment” by filmmakers. The channel also has many videos from giving 3D tours of the Video Music Awards to tours of the Grand Canyon to scuba diving.
Filmmakers must put many cameras all together to record all 360 degrees of a scene, and then each piece is put together using video-editing software to create a finished product showing a 360 degree experience. However, you do not have to be a professional to create a 360 degree video.
GoPro recently announced a 16-camera 360 degree video system called Odyssey for $15,000. However, more affordable setups for users are also on the market, like Ricoh’s “Theta” for $350.
This new update on Facebook News Feeds is very exciting and opens the doors for great content to come.
“In the future, imagine watching 360 videos of a friend’s vacation to a small village in France or a festival in Brazil — you’ll be able to look around and experience it as if you were there,” Facebook wrote in its online news release about 360 videos.
How these impressive videos will change marketing and advertising will be exciting. In the future, you may very well be able to get a full 360 experience of one of our beautiful Miami properties without even leaving your home!