As Jaunt scoops up an Emmy award for its latest VR experience, the company announces new content for Windows Mixed Reality Headsets.

Jaunt is one of those companies that tend to fly under the radar. Although you might not immediately recognize their name, however, chances are that if you’re a VR fan you’ve experienced some of their content, whether it was hanging out with Paul McCartney or touring the Amazon Rainforest in Under the Canopy.

Jaunt has become a leading provider of VR hardware and software
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Jaunt has become a leading provider of software and integrated hardware to the industry since they were founded in 2013, yet their main drive is pushing the boundaries of VR as a creative storytelling medium. Earlier this month, for example, Jaunt Studios premiered Free The Night – its first six degrees of freedom (6DOF) original interactive experience – at The Future of Storytelling Summit (FoST) in New York.

Produced in partnership with Microsoft exclusively for the launch of its new Windows Mixed Reality headsets, the film was created and directed by Nicole McDonald, an award-winning interactive filmmaker who has previously worked on projects with the likes of Cirque Du Soleil, NASA, and John Legend. She was inspired by her own childhood experience of gazing at the night sky with her father.

The experience allows viewers to interact with the night sky
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The experience allows viewers to interact with the night sky, picking and placing lights out of a city skyline. As they move the lights around, these extinguish and re-ignite, and once a composition is complete, slight touches or swipes which will trigger real-time physical reactions such as stars swooping, dancing, and travelling all around them.

The preview was timed to coincide with the launch of their redesigned Jaunt VR App for the Windows Mixed Reality Platform, which will work with the headsets being released this month. It features a more intuitive user interface, voice navigation, and content adaptive streaming which ensures the optimal image quality relative to available bandwidth, and expands on Jaunt’s distribution capabilities. The full Free the Night experience will debut on Windows Mixed Reality in late November, and they promise to continue to regularly debut new immersive content for the platform.

Collisions won an Emmy Award for Outstanding New Approaches
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This comes as one of the company’s flagship cinematic VR projects, Collisions, was awarded an Emmy Award for the Outstanding New Approaches: Documentary category. In this experience, the viewer stands alongside Nyarri Morgan, an elder of the Martu tribe in the remote Western Australian Pilbara desert, living as hundreds of generations before them have, with no exposure to the Western world.

Nyarri’s first contact with Western culture came in the 1950’s via a dramatic collision between his traditional world view and the cutting edge of Western science and technology, when he witnessed the testing of an atomic bomb, without any context to prepare him for the experience. The film uses VR’s power for engendering empathy to focus on the need to consider future generations, as we dive head-long into the fourth industrial revolution.

“Collisions is a story for this moment and it needed these technologies to deliver it,” said the film’s director Lynette Wallworth, who said that VR allowed the impact of Nyarri’s story to be felt in a way that other forms could not have allowed, and also proved quite prescient in its timing: “As the world watches a newly emerging nuclear standoff, Nyarri’s powerful first hand account, translated into our most contemporary of mediums, is a story that has waited over 50 years to be told..”

Collisions is a story of the moment and needed VR to deliver it
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“It was exciting to leverage VR to realise Lynette’s vision,” added Producer Nicole Newnham. “It enabled the viewer to viscerally experience Nyarri’s homeland, and to witness the atomic test from his point of view. It’s incredibly emotional. The possibilities for storytelling in this medium are profound.”

Collisions premiered jointly at Sundance Film Festival and at the Davos World Economic Forum, the first VR work to be presented there. It has since gone on to provoke meaningful change on a global level forcing leaders to reconsider the effect of policies on the environment and health of the earth. Screenings have been held for decision makers at the Trimble Forum for Disarmament, Washington, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty meetings in Vienna, the Climate Action Summit Washington and the UN General Assembly meetings in New York.

Viewers of the film included representatives of some of the world’s major nuclear powers, industry leaders, celebrities and heads of state such as the President of Argentina and the King of Belgium. Hans Blix, who viewed the work in Vienna, commented that the world needed immersive works like Collisions to illustrate the truly corrosive power of nuclear weapons as they remain for most people “…an abstract concept.”

Viewers represented some of the world’s major nuclear powers
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Which makes the fact that industry players like Jaunt are committed to enabling immersive cinematic experiences – and on a broader range of devices – all the more welcome. In this day and age, having more experiences that engender empathy towards others is probably no bad thing.

Jaunt Launches New App and Content for Windows ‘Mixed Reality’ Platform #VR via @alicebonasio https://t.co/6QZuQsyg2A pic.twitter.com/JUkngz2waz

— VRScout (@VRScout) October 29, 2017

This article was originally published on VRScout

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with these exciting new technologies. 

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Creating New Mixed Reality Experiences appeared first on Tech Trends.

Getty Images and Jaunt partner up to create a cinematic Virtual Reality database of 360 degree images and video

According to a recent report by PwC, Virtual Reality will soon become the fastest growing area in the UK Media and Entertainment sector, with a predicted growth of 76% year on year. If those forecasts prove true, the VR content industry will be worth a staggering £801 million in just four year’s time.

Whether you’re a cheerleader or a stone-cold sceptic, the point is that VR is here to stay. And while we can argue about such things as hardware, field of view, mass consumer adoption rates and even what we should call various flavours of virtual experience, one thing is certain: Content –good content – will be the key ingredient in that mix.

Content is going to be the key ingredient in the VR Mix
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Which is why Tech Trends has been following Jaunt closely for a while now, including their recent amazing America’s Cup 360 experience. They are not only a leading producer and publisher of fully immersive cinematic Virtual Reality content, but they also make awesome hardware, software and applications to enable cinematic VR, and have been a leading voice in creating industry standards to empower creators of such immersive experiences.

Jaunt has the largest library of cinematic VR content in the industry
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Jaunt also has the largest library of high quality cinematic VR content in the industry with a team of highly-skilled producers filming travels and experiences, and it is now partnering up with Getty images, one of the world’s largest and most used sources of visual content, which already boasts over 200 million assets including photos, videos, and music used widely by photographers and videographers worldwide.

“Today’s partnership with Jaunt takes us into the next frontier of immersive experiences and we look forward to working with them to provide our customers with a level of VR content not yet seen in this space,” says Anthony Holland Parkin, Head of VR, Getty Images. “By including compelling VR content as part of our core offering, we are facilitating the growth of – and driving demand for – this exciting new medium that is revolutionizing the way we experience the world around us.”

This exclusive global distribution partnership is set to transform Getty’s database of imagery and content and enable it to provide premium cinema-grade VR video to content creators. The move will see customers gaining access to Jaunt’s immersive 360° stereo video experiences through Getty Images’ websites alongside its existing collection of over 25,000 360 photographs. Getty is betting on VR content to enhance its brand and business model, and this new content will be available to brands and agencies to utilise via a multitude of channels including apps, mobile phone handsets and now this new image library.  The new partnership symbolises their confidence in this pioneering technology industry, underlining their belief that VR content is going to enter the mainstream and be a key part of consumption for consumers.

“We are thrilled to be working with Getty Images to bring our high quality 360 and cinematic said “Just as meaningful as producing premium VR experiences is to Jaunt, it’s equally important to help facilitate others to create quality 360 and VR content.  We aim to do all we can for the growth of this powerful emerging medium, and this is but another step in that direction,” says Mitzi Reaugh, Global Head of Strategy & Content Licensing at Jaunt. VR footage to the wider creative community.”

The deal follows Getty’s partnership with Google, which saw the company supplying hi-res VR content from current events around the world for Google Expeditions. The company also has relationships with other big players in that space such as Oculus Rift, 360Cities.net, AirPano, Laduma and Yellowbird.

“In 2017 scepticism around VR has finally taken a backseat. What has become clear to brands and the public alike is that VR is here to stay. Undoubtedly, it has the potential to transform the way the public consumes and engages with brands. At Getty Images we are embedding VR content technologies into the core of our business and ensuring that, as use of VR continues to grow, its users are further enhancing their experience with access to the world’s best content,” concludes Parkin.

This post was originally published on VRScout

Getty Images and Jaunt Offer 360 Content for Creatives via @alicebonasio https://t.co/RnnWuAuQpr pic.twitter.com/AAgBVESByE

— VRScout (@VRScout) August 3, 2017

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with these exciting new technologies. 

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Immersive Experiences For the Creative Community appeared first on Tech Trends.

Jaunt launches colourful cinematic VR experience to celebrate #PrideInLondon

The beauty of the film is that it truly captures the feeling of being at Pride
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Love Letter from London is a nod to the city’s diversity released to coincide with the London Pride Festival. The four-minute film captures what is described as the city’s “most colourful Pride ever” (which is really saying something!) and hopes to immerse viewers in its jubilant #LoveHappensHere spirit of tolerance and inclusion.

Love Letter from London is a nod to the city’s diversity
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In the film, Tom Daley, the Olympic-medallist who came out publicly in 2013, talks about the experience of attending his first ever Pride. When asked what his personal love letter to the world today would say. Daley says: “Dear world, the one thing in the world that does not cost a penny is love, and I think that is one of the most important messages out there”.

London Pride this year took place on 8^th and 9^th July and smashed previous attendance records drawing more than a million supporters. This is also a historically significant year for the Gay Pride movement in the country, marking 50 years since the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK.

London Pride 2017 attracted more than a million supporters
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Love Letter from London gives those who weren’t lucky enough to make it to the event in person the chance to experience what celebration of LGBT+ looks and feels like; allowing audiences to immerse themselves in the thrill and vibrancy of the festival as if they’re there, walking in the parade and driving on the floats.

“The beauty of the film is that it truly captures the feeling of being at Pride, meaning attendees can virtually return to the parade, and those who didn’t make it last weekend can get a taste of the celebration, in the hope that it’ll encourage them to come along next year,” Jaunt explained in the news release.

The neon feathered production was made by an all-volunteer team in partnership between Visualise and Belong@Jaunt (Jaunt’s diversity team) as well as Whitecoat which contributed graphics and design resources. The production consisted of a five-person field crew operating a stereoscopic Jaunt ONE camera (the first professional-grade stereographic cinematic VR camera built from the ground up) and several other vehicle and body mounted 360 cameras. Presenter and YouTube star Claira Hermet helpfully volunteered both as host and Samba dancer.

“In the world’s current climate we wanted to show how love conquers all, and we couldn’t have done it without the full team effort,” enthused the film’s director Canaan Rubin.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan – an ardent supporter of Pride and champion of inclusion in the capital – also makes clear his commitment to this year’s #LoveHappensHere Pride theme:

“One of the greatest things about London is that you’re not simply tolerated or accepted by who you are; you are embraced, respected and celebrated. There’s nothing better for me as the mayor of London than to walk in the front of the parade and celebrate what is a great thing about London… you are free to be whoever you want to be, you are free to love whoever you want to love,” Khan says.

Here in London you are free to be who you want to be and love who you want to love. Happy Pride London!! #PrideInLondon #LoveHappensHere pic.twitter.com/UiNVey1cRY

— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) July 8, 2017

That echoes  the sentiment of other progressive world leaders such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who marched – together with his wife and children – at Toronto’s Pride parade this year (also sporting a very fetching pair of rainbow socks which read “Eid Mubarak”. I think it’s safe to say that world leaders really showed their true colours at various Pride events in 2017…

When Justin Trudeau marched in Toronto’s Gay Pride Parade, he wore rainbow socks that said “Eid Mubarak” https://t.co/earPehWNuc

— NYT Fashion (@NYTFashion) July 1, 2017

Projects like this continue to show the broad scope, value and potential of VR experiences, and Tech Trends is very much looking forward to seeing how that continues to develop. Watch this space.

For companies looking to get into VR/AR/MR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance on how these technologies can enhance and support your brand strategy. 

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post A Virtual Love Letter from London appeared first on Tech Trends.

Jaunt launches three new cutting edge 360 VR experiences to mark the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup and let you sail with the Land Rover BAR team

As a nation built on sailing, the fact the UK has never won this most prestigious race rankles more than a little, so in a bid to finally put that right, newcomers to the race Land Rover partnered with BAR (Ben Ainslie Racing) to ensure the UK’s top talent are on board, giving us the best chance of taking that trophy in 2017.

It's surprising that Britain, a nation built on sailing, has never won the America's Cup
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Design and testing of the BAR team's new racing boat - the R1 - has been kept strictly under wraps
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The design and testing of their sleek new racing boat, the  R1, has been kept top secret until now, with massive investment in bleeding edge tech to give the team every possible advantage. Competition has been tough as usual with some dramatic action in the semi finals this week underscoring the amazing skill level required to race in this elite event, as well as the very real dangers involved. It really is no exaggeration to say that this is “F1 on the water”. Take a look at the highlights video below, thankfully everyone in New Zealand’s Team Emirates boat were OK, and these boats can – similarly to F1 cars – be repaired very quickly, so everyone should be back on the water for the next rounds.

“Certainly the most exciting, exhilarating sailing I’ve ever been involved in” –@AinslieBen on today’s racing. More: https://t.co/uLIGdTWX5f pic.twitter.com/NfvsvHWywY

— America’s Cup (@americascup) June 7, 2017

Jaunt flew off to Bermuda to capture the America's cup in 360 VR
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To promote Land Rover BAR’s challenge for the cup this year and put you on board with the team as they train, creative production and cinematic VR company Jaunt flew out to Bermuda (it’s a tough life sometimes) and did what they do best – push the limits of what is possible in 360 filmmaking. So even those of us not lucky enough to sail to those paradisiac settings can now experience it by downloading the Jaunt VR app (available on Android or iOS) and donning a mobile VR headset (you can also watch it on a normal desktop computer if you don’t have one, but it’s worth getting at least a cardboard to experience the more immersive version I think).

Above and Beyond Experience 3D VR with the exhilaration you’d expect only from Land Rover BAR. This #AboveAndBeyond experience features heart-stopping action scenes on crystal clear Caribbean water. From the adrenaline rush of flying at 40+ knots on board Land Rover BAR’s R1, captain the America’s Cup as if it’s your’s to win! WARNING: These are no ordinary athletes and this action film will leave you BREATHLESS!!

Meet Land Rover BAR From Captain to Grinder meet England’s home grown America’s Cup team. The 12 man crew open up to SKY TV’s Georgie Ainslie. From the camaraderie to the cut-throat competition, you’ll feel like part of the team. So grab your seat next to Sir Ben Ainslie, ‘Catflap’ and the courageous Land Rover BAR crew.

Discovering Bermuda Take a sun-drenched trip around Bermuda in 3D virtual reality with Sir Ben and Georgie Ainslie at the wheel of the all-new Land Rover Discovery. A light-hearted driving film set in the rugged rural beauty of Bermuda. Olympic Gold Medal Winner Sir Ben Ainslie opens up candidly about the excitement and challenges he and his team face in their bid to #BringTheCupHome

If you haven’t heard of Jaunt yet, you will, in fact if you keep up with movie related VR you have probably already seen their work with Warner Bros. Entertainment and Disney to produce VR experiences promoting movies including Fantastic Beasts and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

If you haven't heard of Jaunt yet, you will as VR continues to boom
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Launched in Palo Alto in 2013 Jaunt has so far raised over $100 million dollars investment from partners including The Walt Disney Company, Evolution Media Partners, China Media Capital, Highland Capital Partners, Google Ventures and Sky and this exciting company is now established in Europe with offices in London and an engineering and development office in Amsterdam.

I met up with Dominic Collins, General Manager of Jaunt VR International and Canaan Rubin, Director of Content & Production at Jaunt’s International HQ in London to find out about their expansion into Europe, the VR production technology Jaunt has developed, and how they produced the Land Rover BAR films.

“We’re extremely excited to have landed at scale in London,” Collins told Tech Trends. “Virtual reality is playing a huge role in the future of technology and brands everywhere are looking to differentiate themselves by creating the most compelling experiences for their audiences. Expansion into Europe allows us to further our mission to bring immersive cinematic realities to everyone. At the same time, our teams in the Bay Area and Los Angeles will continue to tap into the creative community and build best-in-class technology.”

Brands everywhere are looking to differentiate themselves by creating compelling VR experiences for their audiences
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Not only have they designed and built the best 360 camera currently out there – the Jaunt One –  but they have invested a lot of time and resources into developing a high-tech end-to-end production pipeline for creative VR production. In line with their collaborative ethos, Jaunt makes all this infrastructure available for hire at very low cost to anyone out there who needs to shoot, edit, colour grade, re-touch, finish, export in the right format and distribute their VR films on a budget.

“Making VR content can be hard, but we try to make it easy,” explains Collins “We bring a turnkey solution, that includes the camera, all the cloud-based render solutions, automatic stitching (bypassing the laborious and time-consuming hand-stitching) as well as the distribution technology with the Jaunt app. We are platform agnostic so everything we do goes from Facebook to YouTube all the way through to Daydream, Gear, Oculus, Vive, PlayStation and we have an SDK around that as well so that other people can build for their own custom platforms and consumer experiences too.”

We are constantly inventing new ways of shooting in VR
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Rubin and Collins were both super enthusiastic about the tech and pushing the boundaries of VR production and creative storytelling. They went on to explain how they dealt with some of the challenges faced when producing the Land Rover BAR films and how surprisingly easy it was to get the dedicated, busy sailing team to be involved in the filming.

“If you’re BAR and on that crew you’re there to win the America’s Cup and they are very dedicated to that and anything that gets in the way of that, like shooting a promo video, can seem a bit of a chore but actually when we rocked up with VR they were totally on board,” Collins recalls.

Drones were used to film the experience's most ambitious 360 shots
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“Once they saw that camera they were like, wow, game on,” adds Rubin “It was, ‘How long do you need us for?’ They loved it. The first shot we did with the team was in the gym, we put the camera in the centre of the room and had them all work out around it and that won them.”

“We are constantly inventing new way of shooting in VR,” Rubin says. “One of my favourite shots in Bermuda was when we put the camera on a long metal pole hung underneath a drone and submerged it, hovering the drone above the surface so you are underwater, then we pulled up so you broke through the water and then flew along side the boat. We flew in our drone pilot from the UK, we brought on the absolute best people to do this. It took us two trips to Bermuda to get that shot of the boat flying over us, so we basically built, in the swimming pool of the hotel we were staying at, we built a floating device with wings on it to keep the camera stable, we gyro stabilised it, and went nuts trying to nail that shot. Oh and then we had to recalibrate it as the fresh water in the pool was different to the salt water, so yeah, it was fun!”

“This is an action film, so we want you to feel the speed of the racing,” adds Collins. “With that much action and that much movement you wanted to cut fast, also so people don’t start to feel sick as a dog. We kept the shots short to avoid this and we were using a range of cameras on the boat and body cams so the editing had to be quick to hide differences in picture quality.”

Nominated for best Mobile App at MWC this year, alongside the likes of Pokémon Go, Jaunt is definitely becoming a force to be reckoned with. Even the big boys in VR, Apple, Google and Facebook don’t  encompass the entire ecosystem of hardware, software and content production/distribution, so it’s no wonder that they already count names such as Disney, Warner Bros. and Sky among their investors and customers. Definitely one to watch as the VR space continues to grow.

Jaunt is working with Disney, Warner Bros. and Sky
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Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with these exciting new technologies. 

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post Sailing Above and Beyond VR appeared first on Tech Trends.