Category: Alaska Airlines

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First Class Tickets Get VR Movies On Some Boston Routes

First Class Tickets Get VR Movies On Some Boston Routes

What better way to forget the experience of a coach passenger than to don a VR headset in first class and watch Ready Player One in 3D?

That’s the pilot project being tested by Alaska Airlines with a basic VR headset built only for 3D and 360-degree movie viewing. The service is called “Allosky Cinematic VR” from a company called SkyLights and it is being tested as a first class amenity on-board Seattle-Boston and Boston-San Diego routes.

What’s interesting to me is the use of specialized hardware here instead of, say, an Oculus Go or Gear VR. Instead, this is a headset purpose-built for 3D movies and 180-degree or 360-degree VR films. I fully expect some comments on this article to argue whether you can have a “VR experience” in this kind of system at all.

The headset is said to offer “a selection of 2D and 3D blockbusters” including “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Spielberg’s Ready Player One in 3D, and Ferdinand for the kids.” It also comes preloaded with some 360-degree films.

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Alaska Airlines Begins Offering VR Movies on Some Flights

For many people, travelling by air is not a pleasant experience. It is often cramped, crowded and uncomfortable. As a result, the use of virtual reality (VR) to escape from the pressurised environment inside the aircraft cabin is on the rise. A trend that Alaska Airlines has picked up on, as they are beginning to roll out VR to some of its passengers.

Passengers on the Seattle to Boston and Boston to San Diego routes will soon be able to try out the SkyLights Allosky Cinematic VR headset, which will provide access to a range of forward-facing 3D and 360-degree films.

The SkyLights VR headset is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and is said to provide HD resolution for each eye, while offering films from the company’s partner studios, including 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros and EIM.

As well as full-length movies such as Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Ready Player One in 3D and Ferdinand, passengers will also be able to explore a collection of VR short films, which cover subjects such as freediving, classical music and acrobatics.

According to the SkyLights website, the headset is also capable of allowing users to watch saved content that they have previously paid for on services such as YouTube, Netflix and Hulu, though at this point it is not known if this feature will be available to Alska Airlines passengers.

SkyLights is beginning to become known as a provider of VR in-flight entertainment, just last month the company announced a new VR system called Skykids, which was designed to entertain children aged 6-12 on long-haul flights, with the system being tested on French airlines XL Airways.

A number of airlines have been experimenting with offering VR entertainment to customers, and it seems that SkyLights is angling to be a leader in this specialised field. For future coverage of VR and airlines, keep checking back with VRFocus.