In December 2016 Facebook launched its Live 360 service, allowing users to share immersive stories, places and experiences in 360-degree live video. Today the company has announced the expansion of Live 360, enabling all of Facebook’s global users to upload and enjoy immersive video.
The announcement means anyone with a 360-degree camera can go live in 360 degrees on Facebook tomorrow.
Alongside this, Facebook has integrated Live 360 with several camera manufacturers to make the process even more seamless – accessible right from the camera interface. From the camera users will be able to log in, set post privacy and write a description and then once live see comments and reactions.
Currently, consumer compatible cameras include the Samsung Gear 360, Giroptic IO, Insta360, and ALLie Camera, while professional options include Z Cam S1 and Nokia Ozo. Facebook plans to continue working with other manufacturers to integrate additional cameras in the future.
That’s not all. Sound plays an important part of any 360-degree video so Facebook will be introducing spatial audio, so that users can enjoy proper immersive sound with any experience. Cameras which feature support for spatial audio in Live 360 are due soon, plus the company will also allow spatial audio to be added manually through an ambisonic microphone.
Facebook has been massively pushing virtual reality (VR) and 360 content since its acquisition of Oculus. This month saw the Facebook 360 app arrive for Samsung Gear VR, so that users can access 25 million 360 photos and more than 1 million 360 videos posted to date.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Facebook, reporting back with the latest announcements.