Virtual reality (VR) offers users a unique, “immersive multimedia experience,” by transporting users into real, or often times, imaginary worlds. The technology works by replicating physical environments and artificially creating sensory stimulants. Discovery, known for digging “deep into our world’s mysteries,” is now utilizing VR to take viewers on adventures like never before. Its Discovery VR service will offer users point-of-view movies that can be watched on both conventional screens and headsets.
DISCOVERY VR TAKES YOU ON THE ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME
For decades, Discovery has “told stories like no one else,” sparking the curiosity of millions of people around the world. Now, modern technology is paving the way for these stories to be told in an entirely immersive manner. To capture these videos, cameramen utilized virtual reality cameras, which can record 360-degree footage, according to PC Mag. A few of the movies viewers can choose from include a tour through shark-infested shipwrecks to a free-boarding adventure down Lombard Road, the windiest street in the world.
To watch the movies, users can implement a variety of different media-viewing platforms, such as a computer screen, a smartphone device or a standard virtual reality headset, such as the Samsung Gear VR or the highly popularized, Oculus Rift. The Discovery VR app for iOS and Android can also be downloaded.
According to Conal Byrne, Discovery Communication Inc.’s senior vice chairman of digital media, the purpose of the project is to find out what works and what doesn’t on the rising platform. Users, for example, can frequently feel ill or dizzy after experiencing virtual reality and this needs to be factored into consideration in order to further advance the platform.
“It must be repeated that we’re experimenting quite a bit,” Byrne says. “There are borders and limits that we’re actually going to attempt to push.”
In the meantime, Discover VR will continue to upload a host of new content each week for the next 12 months at the very minimum, according to Suffield Times.
