GoPro Unveils New VR Platform and Rigs

GoPro is riding the virtual reality wave hard, revealing its new VR video platform, alongside its six-camera and sixteen-camera VR rigs. The GoPro VR app – available for free from today on PC, Android, and iOS – is effectively a rebranding of Kolor Eyes, the website and software inherited by GoPro following its acquisition of French VR outfit Kolor. “The platform allows users to experience the immersive world of 360˚ video and transforms users’ screens into a virtual portal, showcasing original content from GoPro and a global community of artists,” according to GoPro.

To make the most of this new VR platform, GoPro has launched two VR camera rigs; one designed to be entry-level, and another aimed at professional photographers and filmmakers. The entry-level model, the Omni (pictured above), features six GoPro HERO4 Black cameras, capable of “over-capture” at 8K resolution, stung together in the shape of a cube, to create 360˚ videos. The Omni is priced at $5,000 and is available for pre-order from today.

The Odyssey (above) – available only through GoPro’s Limited Access Program, the company’s professional-only scheme – sports sixteen HERO4 Black cameras, synchronised down to the pixel, aligned in a carousel. Images shot by the Odyssey are stitched together in Google’s cloud-based Jump Assembler software to construct 8K30, stereoscopic panoramic videos that can then be uploaded to YouTube. Priced at $15,000, the Odyssey is available to film professionals now.