NeuLion and Nokia have inked a partnership whereby NeuLion will help to distribute virtual reality and video 360 content captured with Nokia’s OZO VR camera and player software platform. 

Working with content owners and content rights holders, they will offer a jointly integrated platform that allows for a single stitched live video feed from OZO cameras to be sent directly to NeuLion MC Encoders for packaging and delivery to VR apps via the Internet using NeuLion’s Digital Platform.

They said they will demo the integrated offering at next month’s IBC show in Amsterdam.

Nokia’s OZO is a spherical camera with eight sensors and eight microphones for the capture and post-production of 360 video and VR content. NeuLion and Nokia noted that they recently captured a live event using OZO, which was positioned inside the arena.

“We are excited to partner with NeuLion to provide their customers with an integrated solution to deliver 360 and VR experiences over-the-top,” Tarif Sayed, director of business development for Live VR & the OZO Player SDK for Nokia, said in a statement.

“Now that live 360 video and virtual reality are hitting the mainstream, you need an end-to-end platform that includes production and delivery to make it happen. We are excited to be working with Nokia on this new capability,” added Roy Reichbach, president and CEO of NeuLion. 

As part of its multi-year partnership with The Walt Disney Studios, Nokia has helped create yet another virtual reality experience for a new theatrical release from the studio, this time for Pete’s Dragon.

Using Nokia’s 360-degree Ozo camera, “Pete’s Dragon: Elliot’s Flyover” takes viewers on a flight on top of Elliot, the dragon from the film.

The short was shot on location in New Zealand, uses CGI effects, and is “our most immersive collaboration with Disney to date,” according to Guido Voltolina, head of presence capture for Nokia.

Read more at B&C. 

Watch the 360-degree video via YouTube: 

Premium programmer Epix has launched a cross-platform, 360-degree video experience for spy thriller Berlin Station ahead of the series’ TV premiere this October.

The interactive, 360 offering is available via Web browsers at BerlinStation.com and for mobile devices such as the iPhone.

Epix is using the 360 experience to introduce viewers to the Paramount Television-produced 10-part series using extended storylines (shot alongside the main production), interactive features  and a virtual tour of the German capital. Epix shared details about this digital initiative in May, telling Multichannel News (subscription required) that it will include short videos and “hot spots” that reveal more info about the storyline and characters.

"EPIX was designed for cross platform viewing, the first premium network to launch on TV, on demand and with thousands of titles streaming online and on hundreds of devices,” said Mark Greenberg, president and CEO of EPIX, in a statement. “Now, we're tapping the latest technology to create new approaches to storytelling and deeper engagement for fans."

Epix said it teamed with three tech agencies on the development of BerlinStation.com:  Ayzenberg, which designed the digital experience and led the project development); WIREWAX, which built the in-browser interactive video experience, and Scopic, which captured the experience’s 360 video footage.

Berlin Station is billed as a “contemporary spy thriller.” It’s produced by Anonymous Content and Paramount TV, written by Olen Steinhauer and stars Richard Armitage, Richard Jenkins, Rhys Ifans and Michelle Forbes. 

Adding to its investments in the emerging virtual reality sector, Comcast Ventures has led a $6.8 million “A” round in Felix & Paul Studios.

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, LDV Partners, and Phi Group also participated in the round, which was announced earlier this week.

Comcast Ventures’ financial backing of Felix & Paul Studios follows recent investments other VR-facing startups that include Spaces, Baobab Studios, NextVR and AltSpaceVR. Comcast Ventures was also part of a group behind a $50 million “B” round in Meta, an augmented reality (AR) startup founded in 2012.

Felix & Paul Studios is focused on storytelling through cinematic virtual reality, and have developed a “full-stack” VR platform that includes proprietary 3D 360-degree camera systems and a post-production software and process. It has already developed originals such as Nomads and Strangers, worked with existing franchises (Jurassic World, Cirque du Soleil and Wild, among them), as well as individuals such as Bill Clinton and LeBron James.

“We have always wanted to invest in a team focused on premium cinematic virtual reality or live action, camera-shot, stereoscopic 360 video,” Michael Yang, managing director of Comcast Ventures, noted in this blog post about the investment in the Montreal-based VR studio. “Felix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphael were successful film and commercial directors before they stumbled upon Oculus in the early days. They convinced Oculus that virtual reality was not just about gaming, but could also be about immersing an audience in a new type of video experience.”

In addition to the investment, Yang is also joining the Felix & Paul Studios board of directors.

Oculus, the Facebook-owned virtual reality company, started shipping its high-end platform, the Rift, late last month and has been grappling with shipping delays in the early going. 

So, it’s off to a slow start despite a broader market that continues to maintain buzz thanks to the Samsung Gear VR (which also uses Oculus’s platform but requires users to pair the headset to a compatible smartphone), and the launch of the HTC Vive, and excitement over the coming Sony PlayStation VR.

But getting off to a slow start is not much of issue in the eyes of Facebook chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In fact, he expects it.

“This is very early and we don't expect VR to take off as a mainstream success right away,” he said Wednesday (April 27) on the company’s first quarter earnings call, noting that most early adopters of Rift are gamers and developers.

“It's going to take a long time to get there,” he added, sidestepping a question about Rift unit shipments. “And a lot of what we felt like we were buying there was a critical mass of the best people and the best technology to go do all the things that we needed to go do over the next 10 years to drive that home and turn that into a big platform.”

And he still sees gaming and video as the big use-cases for both VR and augmented reality.

Though he didn’t delve into Rift shipments (Facebook reiterated the VR won’t have a material impact on revenue in 2016), Zuckerberg noted the more than 2 million hours of video have been watched on the Gear VR. Also, a 360-degree version of the iconic Game of Thrones opening was FB’s most-watched 360 video, generating more than 12 million total views in a 24-hour span (it can be viewed with our without a VR headset).

“But again, I do want to really emphasize, this is early and it's going take a long time. And I know there's a lot of hype around this, and we're just focused on building this to be very good over the long term,” he said.

That said, other parts of Facebook’s business are growing rapidly.

In Q1, more than 1.65 billion people were using Facebook each month and 1.09 billion each day, up 16% year-on-year. Also, 1.5 billion people accessed FB from mobile devices in Q1, up 21%.

Revenues grew 52%, to $5.4 billion, while ad revenue jumped 57%, to $5.2 billion. 

Nokia Technologies said it has entered a multi-year deal with The Walt Disney Studios to help the content house create complementary virtual reality/360 video content for its theatrical releases using vendor’s OZO VR camera and integrated software.

Of recent note, Nokia and Disney used OZO to create two 360 videos – red carpet coverage and cast interviews -- in support of the April premiere of The Jungle Book.

Nokia launched the OZO in November 2015.

“Virtual Reality represents a new frontier in storytelling, and we’re thrilled to be bringing this VR technology to the team at Disney,” Ramzi Haidamus, president at Nokia Technologies said, in a release. “OZO will help Disney bring their film properties to life in new ways through immersive entertainment experiences, and our focus will be on helping them get the most out of VR as they begin to uncover all that it has to offer.”

“We are very excited to collaborate with Nokia Technologies to help explore the creation of VR content for our theatrical releases,” said Jamie Voris, Chief Technology Officer, The Walt Disney Studios.

 “We aim to bring extraordinary experiences to audiences around the world, and specially-created VR content is one more way we can transport people even further into the worlds our filmmakers create,” added Jamie Voris, The Walt Disney Studios’s CTO.

Fox Sports is revving up virtual reality-facing initiatives at Sunday’s Daytona 500.

The network said Toyota has hopped on board to sponsor a set of VR elements for the race in partnership with Next VR, including a “broadcast-quality” live VR feed of the Daytona 500, which gets underway Sunday at 1 p.m. ET. That broadcast will be available for free via the NextVR portal. Additionally, Samsung Gear VR owners can access it by downloading the NextVR app on any Gear VR-compatible smartphone.

RELATED: Fox Sports Goes Full Throttle To Drive Viewers To 'Daytona Day'

Fox Sports, which just announced a new, five-year deal with NextVR, said it also plans to operate VR cameras situated on the track wall inside the “robo-cage,” within a pit stall, and as part of pre-recorded features from the garage, team hauler and television broadcast truck.

Coverage also includes multiple closed-circuit VR streams from  the speedway on Friday and Saturday, and a VR kiosk manned by Fox Sports and NextVR personnel at the Toyota Fan Injector stadium entrance area.

Fox’s Lab will also capture 360-degree video from a camera embedded in the No. 78 Furniture Row Toyota team of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Martin Turex Jr., which will be shared across multiple Fox Sports platforms.

“Virtual reality is the next great frontier in storytelling and we are thrilled that Toyota is working with us to bring this experience to race fans,” Eric Shanks, Fox Sports president, COO & executive producer, said in a statement.

Elsewhere on Daytona 500’s tech front, Arris said it will provide carrier-class WiFi to most popular fan locations at the speedway’s new motorsports stadium.

Daytona International Speedway, Arris said, is the first NASCAR racetrack to feature carrier-class WiFi.  Arris’s platform at DIS will use the Aptilo Service Management Platform, Benu Networks Mobile Edge Gateway, Ruckus ZoneFlex access points and virtual SmartZone WLAN controller, and Skyline Communications Dataminer  OSS platform.

RELATED:'Virtual Reality -- Ready for a Closeup' Webinar, Feb. 24, with Andrew Trickett (Merge VR) and Tony Mugavero (Littlstar), moderated by Next TV editor Jeff Baumgartner

NextVR, a company that specializes in live-action virtual reality broadcast technology, said it has inked a five-year partnership with Fox Sports to collaborate on VR coverage of a range of sporting events.

Financial terms were not announced, but the deal comes on the heels of recent VR tests Fox Sports and NextVR conducted for some of Fox’s boxing and NASCAR coverage, as well as last year’s U.S. Open golf tournament.

Fox and NextVR said the new agreement will include VR-enabled, live broadcast sporting events. Last month, they teamed on Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) matches, and will next focus on Sunday’s Daytona 500.

They said future VR programming from Fox Sports will be announced “soon,” and will be offered on the NextVR portal, which features a section dedicated to Fox Sports. Consumers with the Samsung Gear VR headset can access that content by downloading the NextVR app on any Gear VR-compatible smartphone.

While the business model for VR is still being hammered out, “we know enough about this technology to know that it’s incredibly interesting,”  Michael Davies, senior vice president of field and technical operations at Fox Sports, said in a recent interview for this week's Multichannel News VR cover story. “It’s a very compelling way to view sports.”

“We have worked with FOX Sports for over a year to test live, virtual reality programming across several sports,” Brad Allen, executive chairman, NextVR, said in statement. “This wide-ranging agreement is proof that our technology provides an exciting and compelling option to witness great sporting events in virtual reality.”

 “It’s all about delivering something new and exciting for our viewers,” added Eric Shanks, Fox Sports president, chief operating officer and executive producer. “Virtual reality is the next great frontier in immersive experiences for fans across a wide variety of sports. It’s a rapidly changing technology, and this deal with NextVR positions us to be on the front lines for years to come.”

Virtual reality and 360-degree video have become a growing priority for the pay TV industry, particularly among programmers, so I dipped my toe into the platform to see what all the fuss is about.

My first experience with VR was with Google Cardboard, a very inexpensive way to get a taste of the technology and some of the content that’s being developed. There are plenty of Cardboard apps available, and I found the whole apparatus easy and accessible, though the experience had that poor-man’s VR feel to it.

More recently, I’ve been kicking the tires on the Merge VR, a sturdier, foam-based and higher-end display that supports all of the Cardboard apps and some other features and functions — such as easily accessible control buttons — that aren’t present in Google’s entry-level set-up. It’s a nice step up, and certainly a big step up from Cardboard.

But late last year, I was gifted a Samsung Gear VR, the Oculus-powered mobile headset that works with select smartphones, including mine, the Galaxy S6 edge plus.

The Gear VR presents a far more immersive, tightly integrated experience, offering a 3D world and a small but growing walled garden of content, including games and an array of short videos and VR experiences from partners such as Discovery Channel and Syfy. The platform’s accurate head-tracking navigation is another plus.

However, the quality of the content is hit and miss. A zip through a desert in a Star Wars setting was a fuzzy, pixelated mess, but Titans of Space, a downloadable journey through the solar system and beyond, was a sharp and interesting visual delight. VR productions/clips of recent boxing matches from Showtime and Fox Sports gave me a ringside view of the fight game that I’ve never had before.

I also enjoyed GrooVR, a funky, thematic VR experience driven by the beats and tones of one’s own music; it went as far as allowing me to link the app to my Spotify account. A puzzle/adventure game called Land’s End was another visual pleasure.

But I also couldn’t tolerate staying in these environments for more than 30 minutes at a sitting, which fits in well with why the current video focus for VR is on shorter-form fare. I did enjoy experimenting with the Netflix VR app for Gear VR, but I’d be hard-pressed to watch an hour-long TV episode on it, let alone a two-hour movie.

User tolerance, though, is just part of what would prevent me from staying in the experience for much longer than 30 minutes. A big problem is that the smartphone that connects to and powers the Gear VR headset becomes a hot potato in 20 minutes or less. More than once, I saw this message: “Your Gear VR needs to cool down to maintain optimal performance.” 

Soon after that message appeared, the video from any game I was playing would stutter, sputter and flicker, and I’d have to set everything aside so it could cool down.

For what it does well and not so well, Gear VR could serve as a gateway to even higher-end platforms. I’m not ready to make the investment required for the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive (the Oculus Rift, for instance, starts at $599, but I’d also have to spring for a high-octane PC), but I will certainly be in the market for the PlayStation VR because it will work with a device I already own — the PlayStation 4.

Editor’s note:  For much more on the emerging market for virtual reality and 360 video, check out our special section on those topics in the February 15 edition of Multichannel News.  In addition to features on how programmers and studios are experimenting with this new medium and how VC dollars are pouring into the sector, we’ll also have a Q&A with Littlstar founder and CEO Tony Mugavero.