My focus, and that of the Open Lab, is to develop tools that other journalists can use. We're making complex hardware or software easy to use, and easy to make, so that storytellers without technical experience can use the tools we're developing. In short, it's my job to figure out how to make something work so that you don't have to.

With this in mind I assembled a 360 video camera and audio kit for Ali Watkins, BuzzFeed News national security correspondent, to take on a two week solo reporting trip to Cuba. Ali had no prior experience operating 360 degree camera systems, so kitting her out presented some design challenges:

1. The camera has to be really easy to shoot with.

2. The gear has to be portable -- she's traveling alone and has plenty else to carry.

3. Setup should require as little fussing as possible -- she should be able to start recording on a moment's notice.

4. Logistically the system has to be easy to manage. A backpack journalist has enough to deal to with.

Currently there are three basic 360-degree camera options: the six GoPros ball, a consumer level camera like the Ricoh Theta S, or the two GoPro system I've been testing in the lab.



A six GoPro ball takes great footage, but it is too complex for a solo reporter in the field. Before you can film, you have to turn on WiFi on each of the six cameras, and sync all six cameras to remote. Once the film is rolling, you have to clap loudly to give the stitching software an event to sync to. When you're done recording, you have to turn the WiFi off on all six cameras or you won't have any battery left. And you have to keep track of six batteries and six sim cards. It isn't horrible, but it is a lot for one reporter to manage when she's got plenty else to do.



With it's candy bar size and user-friendly interface, the Ricoh Theta S would be the perfect camera, but the video quality just isn't good enough. We used both the Theta S and my dual GoPro rig on our Valley Fire 360 video project last fall, BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, which helped produce the video, told us not to use the Theta S for any future productions because the video quality wasn't good enough. But they were happy with the dual GoPro image quality, which is what Ali took to Cuba.