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Insta360 today announced a range of new technologies aimed at simplifying the VR production workflow at every step. The tools include an extension for integrated VR post-production in Adobe Premiere Pro, a long-range video transmitter for use during filming, and a technology enabling playback of high-resolution immersive content on smartphones and VR headsets.

Adobe Premiere Pro “No-Stitch” Editing Extension Released in Beta

One of the major bottlenecks in VR production is the time investment and learning curve involved in stitching and editing 360° video. Insta360 has taken a major step toward solving this problem with its new extension for Adobe Premiere Pro.

The new extension for Adobe Premiere Pro CC allows creators to save time and work smarter.

With a free beta version available for download soon, users can stitch 360° video captured by the Insta360 Pro directly in Adobe Premiere Pro.

A traditional workflow requires users to spend hours selecting and stitching super-high-resolution footage – only a portion of which will actually be used – before importing it to Adobe Premiere Pro. The new extension allows them to directly import unstitched footage, and then preview the final result in their Adobe Premiere editing interface at the same time that they edit.

The extension stitches full-quality footage during final export, minimizing compression and maximizing quality.

At the final step, during export, the full-quality stitch is completed, and only the footage that made the final cut is ever stitched together, saving time, hassle and processing power. Find more details here, and download the beta version of the new extension here when it’s available in June, as part of Insta360 Stitcher 1.7.0.

All-New Insta360 FarSight Enables Long-Distance Preview and Control

A perennial challenge for VR filmmaking is the fact that a director and crew must remove themselves from the set to avoid appearing in the scene. This means that remote video transmission is essential to let creators control and monitor a scene from a distance.

The Insta360 Farsight consists of a receiver and transmitter and allows for high-quality, low-latency transmission.

So far, manufacturers have attempted to solve this problem with WiFi connectivity, but the range is too short and the potential for interference far too high for a professional shoot. That’s why Insta360 has developed a new video transmission system tailor-made for VR production.

Called Insta360 Farsight, the new system uses a pair of receiving and transmitting devices to connect to a camera and stream stable, high-res video at remote distances — giving filmmakers reliable, real-time control and preview of their productions.

Key capabilities include:

1080p video transmission

.31-mile (500 m) range ground-to-ground; 1.86-mile (3 km) range air-to-ground

5.8 GHz broadband, allowing for interference-protected, ultra-low-latency connection

32 channels, with intelligent switching to optimal channel

Connection to Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, tablets, routers

The Insta360 Farsight will be released this summer.

CrystalView Offers 8K Playback on Mobile

The great irony of the pro VR industry is that camera resolution continues to race skyward – to 8K and beyond – while most viewers are unable to play back anything beyond 4K on their phones and headsets. Insta360’s new CrystalView technology is designed to solve this problem.

New CrystalView divides a spherical video into segments, allowing for full-quality rendering of the segment a viewer is watching.

CrystalView starts by converting a 360 video into a special format that breaks it down into many segments, each representing one small area of the full spherical panorama. Then, by selectively rendering the segments of this video that a viewer is actually looking at, while down-resing the parts they’re ignoring, high-resolution playback is made possible — even on smartphones that wouldn’t otherwise be up to the task.

CrystalView technology will have applications for local playback of 360° content, as well as for online streaming and video-on-demand. It will allow mass-market smartphones and VR headsets to play back VR content with resolutions of 8K and up.

CrystalView will be introduced on Insta360 Player, Insta360’s free 360° video playback app, this summer. Versions are planned for iOS, Android, Oculus Go and Gear VR.

Additionally, Insta360 will make an SDK available, allowing developers to integrate CrystalView into their own products and media players.

For updates on all of these new technologies, sign up for Insta360’s mailing list or follow the latest news at the Insta360 Blog.

Keep up with the latest in 360 photos and video by joining Insta360’s user group on Facebook.