Youtube Introduces Support For 360-degree Live Streaming And Spatial Audio
YouTube is rolling out live 360-degree streaming, giving you a chance to watch that concert or special event as if you were there. It'll get its first use with "select" performances at Coachella this coming weekend, but we'd expect it to take off anywhere that VR-like video works.
YouTube is also introducing spatial audio to on-demand clips, so you'll know exactly where that guitar is coming from. Spatial audio allows you to listen along as you do in real life, where depth, distance and intensity all play a role.
Youtube is working with companies like VideoStitch and Two Big Ears to make their software compatible with 360-degree live streams or spatial audio on YouTube and more will be available soon. Google's Youtube will also make 360-degree live streaming and spatial audio technologies available at all YouTube Space locations around the globe.
Alphabet subsidiary Google is trying to make YouTube the catch-all place for videos, and is investing in new technology like live 360, as well as original content, to draw people to the site. It has also built a 360-degree camera with GoPro, named Jump and developed software to make it easy for people to create virtual reality-friendly videos.
Google is competing with Facebook along with traditional TV channels for advertising budgets, spurring the companies’ to develop technology to draw people to their platforms.