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This innovative music broadcaster is building a virtual reality concert venue
BI Intelligence
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Pioneering music broadcaster Boiler Room is partnering with Inception, a provider of 360-degree video and virtual reality entertainment, to create a venue in London to film and broadcast live music events in VR.
Since its unassuming debut in 2010, Boiler Room has grown into an iconic music platform.The company has produced shows and DJ sessions at secret locations across more than 100 countries, spotlighting local music scenes and events, in genres all across the spectrum from UK Grime to Detroit house, Montreal beats to Syrian folk music.
This VR venue is a progression of Boiler Room’s mission to bring unique music events to millions of fans online by:
Recreating live Boiler Room events. Millions of people tune in to Boiler Room broadcasts to revel in music events they can’t attend in-person. Leveraging VR brings a new level of immersion to the spectator experience, and is the closest thing to teleporting fans to a Boiler Room event for real.
Building a VR venue with content in mind. The venue is designed to tie in music and VR to create dynamic, interactive, two-way experience for viewers, rather than just a passive 360-video viewing experience.
Building a VR venue with the artist in mind. Inception and Boiler Room are also designing the venue so that any artist can create a VR show. The aim is to provide a home for artists – musical and visual alike – to build live music VR experiences for the masses.
Broadcasting in VR on multiple platforms. The venue will launch in early 2017, and streams will be broadcasted on Facebook, YouTube and inception’s platform. Boiler Room is also in talks with other technology partners and social platforms interested in being part of the project.
The tech industry has promoted the prospect of VR for the past few decades. But only now, with headsets backed by big names like Sony and Facebook, is VR finally becoming a concrete product with mass market potential. While VR technology is largely associated with the gaming industry, the platform offers a new set of content opportunities in entertainment, advertising, and more.
But where is it all going?
BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on virtual reality content that examines how various VR headset categories will shape VR content development and looks at the trajectory for mobile gaming revenues to get a sense of how spending on VR content might develop. The report also lays out what types of content users and developers can expect on VR platforms, including gaming, video entertainment, and advertising.
Here are some key takeaways from the report:
VR headset manufacturers are driving both the development and distribution of VR content by investing significant technical and monetary resources in developers, in an effort to build up an exclusive content library.
High demand for VR headsets by mobile and console gamers will fuel demand for VR content. The VR content market will take an increasing portion of the mobile gaming software industry.
Beyond gaming, VR video entertainment will remain short form until demand for VR headsets increases.
Ads featured on VR headsets will likely have higher view-through rates than standard video ad spots.
Other industries are also beginning to experiment with VR content. Travel companies, publishers, e-commerce merchants, and social platforms are beginning to see potential in this new category.
VR content faces major hurdles that could keep developers from investing: The VR experience must be good enough for people to take up the devices. In addition, developers need to know that a sufficient user base exists to be worthy of the resource investment in VR content.
In full, the report:
Provides a breakdown of each type of VR headset, what platforms they run on, and how content will differ for each.
Includes estimates for global VR headset shipments by category.
Includes a mobile gaming forecast to give a sense of the most important market that will drive spending on VR content in the next five years.
Lays out what other industries are developing VR programs.
Discusses some of the potential barriers that could dissuade developers from investing in VR content.
To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the VR universe, choose one of these options:
Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
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The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the world of VR.
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