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VR is the future say BBC

Ben Rayner
April 9, 2015

Virtual reality is the future, according to the BBC.

With Microsoft focusing on holographic technology thanks to their HoloLens, the rise in popularity and amount of competitors in the VR industry has prompted many to assume that VR, along with 4K, is the future.

The BBC clearly agree as their chief technology officer, Matthew Postgate, has taken to the BBC Blog in a bid to clarify the corporations interest in moving away from “traditional” means of broadcasting content.

“The digital world is changing broadcasting fast and the technology making it all possible is, essentially, the internet. We will increasingly use the internet to deliver programmes and services to you in the future – whether that’s to the big screen in the living room or the smartphones and tablets scattered over the house.

This opens the door to entirely new forms of content that are much more data-intensive than audio or video – things like Ultra-HD or virtual reality for example.

Although this may sound like a declaration of the BBC entering the already crowded market of VR, don’t expect to see a bland, leather clad headset from them anytime soon. Let alone any VR broadcast programmes.

“I’m not saying these technologies will take off overnight, or that they’ll take off at all for that matter, and traditional broadcast technology will continue to be critically important for many years,”

“Today we can already film broadcast quality content just by using a smartphone app. Using internet technologies in new ways is another major opportunity for the BBC’s engineering, digital and editorial experts to pave the way. That makes me truly excited about the future and my focus right now is on making sure we’re as prepared for that journey as we possibly can be, and that we’re flexible and efficient enough to adapt along the way.”

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