On 26th June 2019, Kandao held an expert workshop “Immersive Media’s Potential & VR Applications” in Berlin, Germany, discussing how VR has been used in various industries together with three professional filmmakers and Peter Lorenz from VRBB as the host.

Viki Yuen from Kandao first provided an extensive overview of immersive media. The promise of immersive media technology is it transports the audience into an experience as if you were there, thus it brings opportunities to various industries. To take advantage of the new technology, a good VR camera is a must to create immersive experience. Viki then shared her thoughts by taking Kandao’s flagship camera Obsidian as an example. Easy to use and reliable VR camera with good workmanship, high image quality, high dynamic range, accurate calibration and stereoscopic stitching for comfortable VR experience, all these factors contribute to a high-end VR camera.

Furthermore, this is not an ordinary camera. In addition to capturing images in 3D 360, you can also see depth. The depth export feature of Obsidian camera allowed you to embrace 6DOF, space reconstruction and so on. Also, in the coming 5G era, high-resolution live delivery is expected to provide a true sense of reality and Kandao’s live streaming was also on display, a proven 8K VR live solution for 5G Network.

The workshop featured 3 speakers talking their production stories with Obsidian cameras for production in different industries.

First is Ignacio Ferrando Margelí, co-founder of Abaco Digital who has been working intensively on hundreds of VR projects from 360 photography to stereo 360 video since 1998. He was director of photography of the award-winning VR documentary ‘The Journey‘ directed by Charlotte Mikkelborg. Shot by Obsidian camera, the film takes people on a journey of the most challenging environments on earth. In his talk, the BTS footage of shootings revealed how he worked in tough situations in remote locations such as Antartica, Pakistan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Niger and so on. Ignacio was very happy with Obsidian’s image quality and the performance on hard conditions, even in challenging shooting environments with extreme temps and humidity like at 42ºC in Africa.

3D 360° VR, as a new way of educational knowledge transfer, changes the way brands and companies communicate with audience. Kevin Fuchs, founder of Visual Vitamin, discussed the benefits of 360° VR for business like trade shows and exhibitions with real case studies. For example, “EU Saves Lives“ Roadshow 2018/2019 project used Obsidian camera for shooting and took people out of their comfort zone to places they could normally not visit like refugee camp. VR allows them to experience the EU in action in a more memorable way than a told story. He also showed some creative uses of the Kandao´s depth map features as a first step to 6 DOF, point clouds and New HMDs with eye tracking.

Head of Storytelling at IntoVR, Christiane Wittenbecher shared how they help clients deliver message by creating compelling immersive stories in journalism, fundraising, marketing, education and art. “If you don´t feel it, you won´t remember it“, said Christiane. The golden rule of storytelling fits even better for 360 and VR as it transfers the audience to places that don´t exist anymore, or are difficult to access. Thus, they prefer to be where the major social conflicts are actually happening and record the moments in an innovative way with professional 360 3D cameras like Obsidian camera. Audience do not forget the good VR experiences as if he or she were there through the immersive videos, which is hard for other media to touch people’s hearts in this way.

During this event, Christian Fuhrhop was the lucky guy who won a QooCam in the prize draw. And audience all had chance to experience Kandao’s cutting-edge technology in the hands-on session including 8K live and 6Dof, embracing VR in a new way.