Outside of gaming, Stereoscopic 360 video is an area of huge potential for VR.

When Facebook bought Oculus, Zuckerberg made a big fuss of the potential for VR coverage of concerts and sporting events.

On the Oculus Rift, aside from increasingly sophisticated pornography, most of the available video content has been demoware – landscapes and street scenes. With the announcement of Samsung’s Gear VR (powered by Oculus), 360 video took centre stage. Indeed it was a 360 video – not a game – that was demoed on stage at the Samsung event.

A cynical mind would say this is because the Note 4 couldn’t handle a real VR game. However, this is not only unfair, it is also potentially overlooking one of the most important developments hidden away in this week’s big announcements. 360 video is a core function of the Gear VR and promises to become an ever growing function of all VR displays.

On Thursday I interviewed DJ Roller and David Cole from NextVR – one of the companies behind the Gear VR’s 360” video app and learned that quality VR video content – not just novelties and demoware – may be just around the corner. Perhaps, even, accompanying the launch of the Gear VR itself. Gear VR will ship with an SD card loaded with some free content (what exactly is still TBC), but it was suggested there might be a mix of nature videos, sports and concerts. One of the big issues with Stereoscopic 360” video, particularly for mobile VR, is that the file sizes are enormous for long-form 3D content, and the storage on mobile devices is at a premium. So the most interesting thing about the 360” Video app on the Gear VR is that it is really designed to stream stereoscopic 360” video content to the device. This streamed content could even be live broadcasts – a huge step for sports coverage.

NextVR, formerly Next3D, have a strong pedigree in this kind of clever compression for live broadcasts and streaming – having been working on live 3D broadcasting since 2009. Their software compresses most of the video, and delivers the high res imagery only to where you’re looking or are about to look, in order to be able to stream what would otherwise be huge files. Though it may be hard to believe, they are able to transfer compelling 360, stereoscopic 3D VR video, well within the bit rate of the average streaming service. As the business is really a delivery system, it is both capture technology agnostic, and display technology agnostic – meaning that their streamed Stereoscopic 360” content could well be appearing “on all viable VR platforms” in the future.

As their technology relies on knowing where the user is looking, the delivery platform could theoretically be used to deliver partially interactive VR video content in-stream as well – opening up an array of fascinating options for creative filmmakers (and marketers). David was keen to stress, however, that while this kind of interactive video could be delivered through NextVR’s app, there is plenty of opportunity in non-interactive 360” video capture to be explored before that point -sporting events, nature, stage plays, VR filmmaking and educational content.

NextVR did not drop any names, but alluded to being in talks with a wide range of content producers – expecting to see an initial tranche of content appearing free, or sponsored, with the model later evolving into pay-per-view, or season subscription. Samsung, too, has it’s own relationships with other content creators to bring content to the platform. Presumably a lot of that detail is to be decided, based on the state of the market and consumer appetites.

Whatever your doubts about Mobile VR, in terms of render performance, it sounds like VR Video is set to explode onto the scene and has the potential to justify the mobile VR devices existence. Depending on the kind of content that appears for it – and NextVR were bullish about how imminent quality content is – Stereoscopic 360” video could have a profound impact on the uptake of VR and the shape of the market for the next few years. This little pre-loaded app could prove to be the biggest announcement of the week.

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