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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Moving ahead of iPads and mobile requests, Marriott has introduced ‘VRoom Service’ for the guests at two of their prime properties in New York and London. They are offering room service delivery of virtual reality kit powered by Samsung Gear VR for the guests to experience ‘VR Postcards’. These VR Postcards are short 360 degree 3D tours to Andes Mountains in Chile, an ice cream shop in Rwanda, and the streets of Beijing and feature travellers sharing stories about the value of travel.

The VR kit arrives in an elegant steel case

This isn’t the first time Marriott has made a move towards virtual reality. They joined hands with Framestore last year as well to come up with virtual teleporter, booths to give 4D experience with Oculus. Marriott has always been among the first movers when it comes to new technology. They were ready with their Apple Watch app the day it was launched and also introduced mobile check in & requests to simplify user experience.

Why the move towards VR?

Marriott has always tried to position itself as a hospitality brand quick in adopting new media technologies. The VR Postcard hardly serves them a strong purpose but makes them the forerunner in the race. Earlier this year, they announced a partnership with Netflix. The ‘VRoom Service’ will position them as a preferred choice for digital travellers. The number of millennial travellers is going up fast and with these innovations, they are trying to attract them towards the brand. Their ‘Get teleported’ activity last year, which involved setting up kiosks in public places, was focussed more on marketing but the VR Postcards are about offering the guests a new experience.

“Travel expands our minds and helps push our imagination,” said Matthew Carroll, vice president, Marriott Hotels. “Our guests want to be in inventive spaces that help foster their creativity and thinking. VRoom combines storytelling with technology, two things that are important to next generation travelers.”

What does VR hold for the industry?

VR is usually related with industries like gaming and entertainment but many brands have showcased how it can find a place in travel industry. Qantas joined hands with Samsung to offer the travellers a VR tour. The idea was to inspire more people to travel to Australia. Google announced Expeditions for virtual educational tours during the announcement of Google Jump project.

While content creation is tough, the viewers have become affordable. This has led to many adventure tour operators using virtual experiences to get more people to try out adventure sports for real. Travel inspiration has moved from text to images to videos and now a new breed of content creators is coming up armed with VR content. Very soon we might see more activities like ‘VRoom Service’ from other travel brands with a wider choice of content and viewing options.

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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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