Why Google Jump is the New VR Hero

There is increasing demand from content creators to get professional-grade VR-ready cameras in market. Companies like Jaunt and Nokia have pushed the industry forward and now Google’s Jump has arrived, signifying a real step change. Jump is much more than just a camera, it’s an entire ecosystem for creating 360 degree videos, and it’s making VR more accessible to both create and consume.

Jump is a system for creating high quality panoramic full 360 stereoscopic video or ‘VR video’ as it’s otherwise known. The multi-camera rig is the actually called the Odyssey and is created by GoPro, consisting of 16 4k HERO4 Black Cameras optimised and modified to work with the Jump Assembler  - a cloud based system for converting the raw footage into a VR video. The Jump Manager uploads footage from the camera to the Jump Assembler for stitching and then downloads the stitched video. What does this all mean? It means that creating VR video is now a hell of a lot easier, and faster.

The stitching process used to take hours, days, even weeks, with results that always needed manual work to remove ‘ghosting’ and blends in imagery. Now it’s done in the cloud. One of the major pain points have been taken away. The knock-on effect? Content producers can be more experiential and take bigger risks knowing that the shoot to watchable rushes production time / overheads have been significantly reduced. Plus we can create more content, and more content means more VR users, which in turn will create more demand for content ensuring the VR industry continues to thrive and grow.

At REWIND, we are very privileged and proud to have been selected by Google to have the first commercial Jump outside of North America. It allows us to test and experiment, when we might not have in the past, plus turn around projects much faster, without too much of a quality compromise. Assembled VR videos are high resolution, the equivalent of five 4K TVs playing at the same time. It allows us to put effort, time and budget back where they belong: on-set production, much needed post production, grading and even visual effects… and not just blow the entire budget on fixing stitch errors. Jump is a much needed system that will drive the industry forward. It’s a big deal and we’re excited to be part of it.

Sol Rogers is the Founder/CEO of REWIND