VR is increasing becoming the most popular medium for travel brands to inspire travellers and get in the spotlight. After some hotel brands exploring the medium, airlines are moving onto VR next. Air New Zealand offered virtual tours of its fleet of Boeing 777-300ERs. Now Etihad, with their brand ambassador Nicole Kidman, has come up with a VR experience aboard Etihad’s A380 superjumbo. They first introduced a promo video of the sae and few days back, introduced a full length VR video through YouTube and their mobile apps.

The video offers a 360 degree look inside the interior of the Airbus A380 which is headed from New York to Abu Dhabi during which the actress Nicole Kidman is seen preparing here lines for a movie role and wandering about the cabin. There is no clear story or message that is communicated through the video but it manages to highlight the experience of travelling with Etihad. It also gives a closer look into Ethihad’s private suite The Residence.

Nicole Kidman, Academy Award winning actress and Etihad Airways’ brand ambassador, said: “The film is a culmination of Etihad’s vision to tell the airline’s story in an extremely innovative way and a commitment to engaging with the public as has never been attempted by an airline before. It was a great challenge but one which has definitely paid off and it was great to be part of such an exciting project.”

YouTube supports Cardboard viewer for watching videos and the Reimagine experience by Ethihad makes use of that. Users can also watch the video on desktop and look around using their mouse pointer but that doesn’t offer an experience similar to the cardboard viewer. To offer an even better experience, they have introduced Reimagine app for Android and iOS devices on which the users can first download the VR video in high quality and then watch with or without a cardboard viewer. We took the Android app for a spin and came back quite impressed. The entire video is seamless and hasn’t got even the minor flaws generally seen in VR videos. An app for Samsung Gear VR is also coming soon. Etihad recently did a successful campaign with the actress and the Reimagine campaign is the next step forward.

Shane O’Hare, Etihad Airways’ Senior Vice President Marketing, said: “This immersive VR film is a massive step-change in the way we present the Etihad Airways brand and product to the consumer using highly innovative new mediums. Based on the success of our recent campaign with Nicole, the decision to take this partnership to the next level was an obvious one.”

The VR film took more than six months of effort and was filmed in Abu Dhabi. It has been recorded using a custom rig capable of shooting 6K videos. The video also features stereoscopic sound to further enhance the experience. The aircraft was highly customised to accommodate the camera and lights used to capture an experience as close to real as possible. The film was produced in association with Barbarian Group, a subsidiary of Cheil Worldwide and MediaMonks. You can see highlights of all the work that went into making the VR video in their ‘Making of film’ video.

You can head to vr.etihad.com to find more details about the video or download the app for your devices.

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YouTube introduced 360 videos in March last year and Facebook followed closely with the feature rolled out in September 2015. Live videos also arrived on these video platforms and both the features saw good adoption. The initial push to live videos was given by Periscope (and Meerkat to some extent) and travel brands used the platform in interesting ways. Soon this shifted to YouTube and Facebook with YouTube getting the relatively serious kind of content and Facebook getting more of ‘on the go’ broadcasters.

Now YouTube is taking the game a step further with support for 360 degree live videos. This makes it the first platform to offer live 360 degree streaming at a large scale. Facebook does both 360 and live but a combination might be a long way off for them.

3D, 360 and VR is still a complicated puzzle for many and by simplifying the access and opening the gates through 360 videos will go a long way in paving the road for VR technologies that we will see in future.

The possibilities

For brands this new development will offer new opportunities. 360 videos are best experienced on mobile devices and would attract new young tech savvy users to the platform. This means the brands will have wider audience to reach out to.

Travel is the perfect market for the use of 360 videos and the live feature adds yet another option for marketers to explore. Marketing travel requires selling through emotions and what better way to emotionally connect with the audience than replicating the experience in realtime. Brands like Marriot and British Columbia have explored the format in the past to set an example how travel brands can use 360 videos and live will certainly push them to think of new possibilities.

A challenge with live 360 videos would be to keep the content engaging. Even at this point, some of the 360 videos get dull after a while and the novelty factor won’t keep them afloat for long. Destination marketers can use them well and we have seen some interesting 360 video campaigns around them. However they have been created by other travel brands trying to market using the destination connect.

YouTube 360 live allows the content creators to use even some of the most affordable equipment available on market today. With cost of decent 360 degree cameras like Ricoh Theta starting around $400 mark, travel vloggers can explore the possibilities. The end results will offer better experience and early adopters will certainly gain advantage. We might see a new crop of 360 vloggers as more OEMs get into the 360 camera space.

The challenges with 360 live

There are certain challenges with connectivity taking the top spot. 360 videos are data hungry and aren’t seamless even on fast internet connections at times. YouTube will support 1440p videos at 60 fps and live would require fast and stable connection which pushes out most of our cellular connections out of equation.

That said, it is still a promising step in the right direction. Expect more announcements around this at the upcoming Google I/O.

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Open the app categories on Google Play store and Photography proudly sits on the top. As the OEMs continue to improve the cameras with every new device, a large number of people, especially the ones who travel a lot, are giving the elbow to their DSLRs. That is why we have listed down some apps that will take care of your photography needs while travelling.

#1- Google Camera

I have tried using various camera apps but Google Camera continues to be my favourite. While it might not offer you the wide array of options you get on other camera apps, it takes the cake when it comes to simplicity. Switching between camera modes is fast which is good as you don’t want to miss a good shot from the train window because your camera was on video. It offers other camera modes like panorama, wide angle, fisheye, photosphere and lens blur which work very well. There are no filters for you to use but then you can always add them later using some other app.

Download link

#2- Snapseed

If you want an app to process your photos, Snapseed is the right pick. You can use it to fine tune the image settings, alter the perspective, fix badly exposed parts, heal patches and do a lot more you would otherwise use Photoshop for. Using the app is also pretty simple and it largely relies on gestures. Scroll vertically to select setting and scroll horizontally to change it. It can also process RAW images so you can transfer your DSLR images and process them on your smartphone. It also offers some filters but there aren’t many options if that is what you are looking for.

Download link

#3- Camera360

I have been using this app for years now and it has never disappointed. While it first started off as a camera app that also offers some filters, it now doubles up as a quick photo processing tool. You can use it to shoot photos and have more options than your stock camera app or you can choose from the wide range of filters to put on the images you have captured already. New filters can also be downloaded inside the app. It also offers the option to fine tune some image settings if filters are not your thing.

Download link

#4- Cardboard camera

If you think shooting photographs is too mainstream, you should download the Cardboard Camera app. It can shoot 360 degree panoramas that you can later view in your Cardboard viewer. It doesn’t work very well if you are shooting objects too close so make sure you capture the beautiful landscapes you encounter while travelling. It can also record audio along with that so a flowing river and chirping birds will add to your viewing experiences. If you don’t have a cardboard viewer, you can buy one online for really low prices.

Download link

#5- Google Photos

You will click photos, save edited copies, shoot videos and then do all of that again until you eventually run out of space. Then you will start filtering through the images to make space for more. You can save all the trouble if you use Google Photos. You can use your Google storage to save photos and free up space on your device. If that isn’t enough, you can have unlimited storage if you allow them to keep a slightly reduced size of the image. It also makes sharing images and collectively contributing to the same album a breeze.

Download link

What other photography apps do you use while travelling? Do share with us.

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A few days back, Google rolled out the update to its YouTube app and added more features for the Google Cardboard users. While YouTube featured 360 degree videos since March, it announced VR videos only recently with this new update. The difference is that while the 360 degree videos were flat, the videos being termed as VR are stereoscopic with an illusion of depth in them. With this addition, they have also added a new playlist of VR videos.

Until now, the uses of Google Cardboard have been limited by the number of apps and VR videos but with YouTube giving it a push, we might see more people adopting Google Cardboard. They have introduced the option of watching conventional YouTube videos in Cardboard to give a feel of virtual movie theatre. It will offer an experience similar to Oculus VR Cinema, only with an easier transition.

Virtual reality has got wide range of applications in travel industry. Brands offering activities can use VR to drive inspiration, hotels can offer virtual tours of their property, destinations can showcase the tourist attractions and this will be just the start. With the technology available to everyone at low cost, more brands can experiment with VR and reach more audience.

(Image: By othree (Google Cardboard) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons)

With the new additions, especially the stereoscopic 360 videos. VR content creators will have a good platform to share their work. Anyone with a cardboard and an Android device can start watching the videos. Earlier Google introduced the Jump project to ease the process of developing VR content for creators. It offers stitching capabilities on cloud taking some of the pain out of processing these videos. In a recent conversation with the co-founder of Ascape, an app that offers VR travel content, we learned that stitching these videos take lot of effort and with Google easing the process, we will see the creators offering even better experiences as they will focus more on the creative aspect of the VR videos. This could be just the push VR needed to reach every traveller.

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Virtual reality is a great way to explore beautiful destinations before actually visiting. For travel brands it is a great tool to drive inspiration and give the customers a good idea of what to expect so that they have more confidence to book. But then this industry is still growing and there are many speedbumps. Generating VR content is costly because of high equipment cost, skills required and limited processing tools available to content creators. On the other hand, content creators often don’t get the right platform to showcase.

Ascape offers the enthusiasts a great way to explore amazing travel VR content while offering the creators a great platform with right audience. The app interface is very simple and you can start watching immersive 360 degree videos in no time. The videos can be watched with or without Google Cardboard viewer.

The Ascape team consists of four members. Daniel Moroz, Valeriy Kondruk, Blake Montgomery and Blaine Hodge. Daniel was doing web/app design for a few different projects before Ascape, Valeriy is a partner of a venture fund with a management experience, Blake is a video editor with an experience in VR and Blaine is their lead developer – he’s been in games for over a decade, working on major positions at EA and Rockstar games. We had a chat with Daniel about Ascape and the future of VR. Here is an excerpt from the conversation:

What was the inspiration behind Ascape?

Every member of our team shares a passion for virtual reality and travel. The moment I have tried VR for the first time, I quickly realised that the potential is far bigger than gaming. Cinematic VR is so immersive nowadays that you can literally travel places without moving. We want to inspire people to travel and explore our beautiful world with a help of VR.

What are the challenges with VR content at this moment?

The challenge with VR content is that there simply isn’t enough of it There is no high-quality user generated content, so only people with a right equipment, software and skills can make good VR content. And it is expensive. But we expect it the price to come down, making capture/post-production technology accessible to everyone and the quality to increase.

How much will projects like Google Jump help?

Google Jump is a stitching software in a cloud. We haven’t had a chance to try it but if it really works like Google claims than it will definitely help a lot! Every content producer dreams of eliminating stitching stage and concentrate more on a creative editing.

Will YouTube or Facebook 360 videos be a speedbump in your journey?

We focus on being a curated platform. That means hand-picking videos and making sure they are delivered in a highest quality possible. Plus we are focused on travel/exploration. We want to be #1 destination for travel content, so that when people think “VR” and “Travel” they think of Ascape. In that way we are not really competing with YouTube or Facebook.

What brands do you see as competition?

Discovery Channel has a similar vision for VR and there was one VR video from National Geographic too. There are a few more but I’d say that those are the biggest guys on a street.

One year down the line, where do you see Ascape?

As I said previously we really want Ascape to be a place where you can discover great VR travel content. We’ll try to be on as many platforms as we can make (currently Android only, iOS and Gear VR coming soon) and keep it as accessible as possible

We have been exploring the Ascape app with Google Cardboard for over a month now and would highly recommend it. It offers great VR experience for absolutely free. Even if you don’t have a cardboard viewer, you can watch the 360 degree videos on your phone. You can download the Ascape app for Android here. iOS version will be coming out soon.

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Google I/O was recently concluded and there were many announcements to be excited about. New mobile operating system, new mobile payment system (Apple and Samsung take note), free online media storage, improved offline maps and new virtual reality projects. While we can go on for days about how we love the idea of offline voice guided navigation on Google Maps or how Android Pay is going to go against the rivals, we are particular interested in where virtual reality is going with Google.

Google Cardboard

Most of you must be aware of Google Cardboard, a combination of cardboard, lenses, magnets, rubber band and your smartphone to provide you with virtual reality experience. While at first it appeared that Google was having fun with a trend, it turned out to be a serious move. This year they have released a new version which is simpler to assemble and can house bigger phones (well that was an obvious move considering the size of Nexus 6). Now iPhone is also supported with a new SDK and Cardboard app for iOS.

VR devices have been around for a while now but the real problem has been the content. It isn’t easy to create content for a virtual reality system. The equipment costs a bomb and then there is all the post processing to create content worth being consumed by the users. Google has taken the job in its own hands with Google Jump. It is an ecosystem for creating virtual reality content that would be easier to create and consume.

The camera rig consists of 16 GoPro action cameras

Google Jump consists of three simple parts. The first part is a camera rig they have made with GoPro. The good brains at Google did the maths and decided on a layout for the cameras. It consists of 16 GoPro Hero 4 cameras arranged in an array. Clay Bavor, Google’s vice president of product says that content creators can use other cameras as well but for now GoPro is on the job of making these rigs. Using some low cost cameras can bring down the initial cost (Xiaomi Yi maybe). The next part is Assembler. The raw feed from the cameras goes to the Jump Assembler which then processes it to create seamless virtual content. The end result will then go up on YouTube and will be viewable on any smartphone using the Cardboard.

Travel marketers have been looking at the option of virtual reality tours but the cost & accessibility has always been an issue. For viewing, you can pick a Cardboard viewer for under $20 or just make one yourself if you are a fan of DIYs (not a very easy one though). Samsung VR would cost you north of $200 for a similar experience. Google is trying to put a VR device in everyone’s hands here.

Until now luxury properties, travel agencies and destinations have been using videos and images to advertise. Google Jump would open a new world of possibilities for them. We have been keeping eye on some startups that appeared in the virtual reality space with virtual tours of destinations but for them, creating the content hasn’t been easy. This could bring down the costs for them (and eventually their customers).

If you are a content creator and have already cooked up plans in your head to use Gear, you can apply to be a content creator here. Google will make the Jump rig available to selected ones soon and we might be watching the first Jump videos on YouTube in the month of July.

Google didn’t leave it all on us to think of good use cases. They also introduced Google Expeditions, an educational tool that would allow students to take virtual field trips while the experience is controlled by their teacher using a tablet. The content for these virtual tours will be created using Google Jump or other tools and will be viewed using Cardboard viewer.

The release of cardboard marked an entry point for virtual reality but there was no ecosystem in place to give it a push. Google Jump will provide the required ecosystem for Cardboard and many other VR projects. This wouldn’t be the year of VR but it surely is coming sooner than we expected.

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