Now & Next Podcast E06 – VR and AR: Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You
On this episode – acronym alert – we’ll be talking about VR and AR. Both VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) can be thought of as new technologies, but in many ways they’re not really new at all.
Early sensory simulation devices go back about 100 years. But if you think about it, those Viewmasters we played with as kids were a kind of virtual reality. So we’ve long wanted to be able to see and experience things that weren’t there in the physical world, and to use technology to help us do so.
On this episode of Now & Next we’ll hear from Alexis Macklin, an analyst with a San Francisco-based firm called Greenlight Insights that specializes in market intelligence on the VR and AR industries.
Alexis will explain where we’re at in the tech and content development cycles for VR & AR and how the use cases and consumer adoption for these enhanced experiences vary around the world, particularly for location-based entertainment.
In this episode, we:
• Ponder whether VR/AR are close to significant consumer adoption (2:43)
• Identify some emerging opportunities for content producers and creators (6:16)
• Map the key differences between Asian and Western VR/AR markets (10:08)
• Talk about the sought-after skillsets in the VR/AR sector (16:00)
Here’s an extract of the interview. Full transcript of the conversation is also available.
“One of the, I'm going to call it the worst kept secret right now in VR, is location-based VR, so these are the VR arcades, VR in movie theaters. It's still an emerging sector I would say especially for North America, it's more developed in Asia, especially in China, Japan, Korea.” – Alexis Macklin, analyst at Greenlight Insights
Useful Links
- An article published on Trends on how to make money with VR;
- A talk by Alexis Macklin on How VR is shaping future of eSports;
- Pulse on VR's website, on which you can fin multiple case studies on the virtual reality ecosystem in Canada.
About Now & Next
Now & Next is a podcast featuring in depth interviews with experts for a closer look at emerging trends and the digital transformation of the media & entertainment industry. Now & Next is produced by the Canada Media Fund and is hosted by Leora Kornfeld.
*Please note that a French adaptation of the podcast is currently in development and will be released in the upcoming months.
