Category: InstaVR

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InstaVR Secures Series B Funding Round

Virtual reality (VR) authoring, publishing and analysis company InstaVR has announced the successful close of a Series B funding round, which is designed to help the company continue its mission of creating enterprise-level VR applications.

The company received $5 million (USD) in additional capital, which will let InstaVR continue its work in developing its technology.

The funding round included new participants YJ Capital, ITOCHU Technology Ventures and Mizuho Capital Partners, who joined existing investors GREE Ventures, COLOPL NEXT and The Venture Reality Fund.

The company has created a technology platform which allows businesses to quickly and simply create and publish interactive 360-degree VR apps that are compatible will all currently available major VR headsets.

InstaVR have worked with a host of major firms, and the company says that since 2016 over 30,000 clients have used the InstaVR platform to launch VR content, including Toyota, Hilton, TUI Group, the US Navy and the UK Government.

Daniel H. Haga, Founder of InstaVR, said: “As VR has gained more widespread adoption, companies are seeing the value of utilizing the technology for creating impactful and memorable immersive experiences, such as new employee onboarding and ongoing training. This round of funding helps InstaVR accelerate our plans to empower major corporations and organizations to more fully realize the benefits of VR.”

Usage of the InstaVR authoring platform doesn’t require knowledge of coding, so businesses can use the technology to create immersive, interactive scenarios for applications such as employee training quickly and simply.

VR office tour of TOYOTA HIGH SYSTEM Incorporated - Authoring screen on InstaVR

“The future of employee learning is immersive,” Haga continued, “Being able to quickly build and distribute VR training modules is a huge competitive advantage for our clients. We’ve worked with thousands of clients to understand how we can give them better tools to make VR effectively. We’re proud to continue leading the way in making VR accessible to all businesses.”

For future coverage of the latest news from the VR industry, keep checking back with VRFocus.

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InstaVR Raises $5M Series B to Further Grow Its Enterprise VR Authoring Platform

InstaVR, a VR authoring, publishing, and analysis company, announced it has successfully closed a Series B financing round, which the company says will help further its mission in providing enterprise customers the tools to create their own VR apps. The company received $5 million, bringing its total funding to date to $7.2 million. Series B participants include YJ Capital, ITOCHU Technology Ventures, Mizuho Capital Partners, GREE Ventures, COLOPL NEXT, and The Venture Reality Fund.

InstaVR boasts that its software suite can help businesses “quickly and easily author interactive 360-degree VR apps and publish them for all major VR headsets, as well as desktop and mobile devices with a single click.” InstaVR’s no-coding approach to VR content creation aims to make content authoring and publishing on multiple VR platforms a simple process.

The company says in a recent blogpost that since its release in 2016, over 30,000 clients have used InstaVR to publish 200,000+ VR pieces of content, with clients including Toyota, Hilton, TUI Group, PwC, US Navy, and GOV.UK.

The company says the new funding round will be used to expand the InstaVR team and further invest in the company’s enterprise offering, InstaVR Central, which is aimed at larger businesses looking for VR-based employee training.

“As VR has gained more widespread adoption, companies are seeing the value of utilizing the technology for creating impactful and memorable immersive experiences, such as new employee onboarding and ongoing training,” said InstaVR Founder Daniel H. Haga. “This round of funding helps InstaVR accelerate our plans to empower major corporations and organizations to more fully realize the benefits of VR.”

Businesses looking to try the software for free can sign up here, which includes support for Gear VR and Android/iOS Cardboard. The full, paid suite can output to Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Google Daydream, Gear VR, Oculus Go, Android/iOS Cardboard and standard monitors.

The post InstaVR Raises $5M Series B to Further Grow Its Enterprise VR Authoring Platform appeared first on Road to VR.

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InstaVR Raises $5M Series B to Further Grow Its Enterprise VR Authoring Platform

InstaVR, a VR authoring, publishing, and analysis company, announced it has successfully closed a Series B financing round, which the company says will help further its mission in providing enterprise customers the tools to create their own VR apps. The company received $5 million, bringing its total funding to date to $7.2 million. Series B participants include YJ Capital, ITOCHU Technology Ventures, Mizuho Capital Partners, GREE Ventures, COLOPL NEXT, and The Venture Reality Fund.

InstaVR boasts that its software suite can help businesses “quickly and easily author interactive 360-degree VR apps and publish them for all major VR headsets, as well as desktop and mobile devices with a single click.” InstaVR’s no-coding approach to VR content creation aims to make content authoring and publishing on multiple VR platforms a simple process.

The company says in a recent blogpost that since its release in 2016, over 30,000 clients have used InstaVR to publish 200,000+ VR pieces of content, with clients including Toyota, Hilton, TUI Group, PwC, US Navy, and GOV.UK.

The company says the new funding round will be used to expand the InstaVR team and further invest in the company’s enterprise offering, InstaVR Central, which is aimed at larger businesses looking for VR-based employee training.

“As VR has gained more widespread adoption, companies are seeing the value of utilizing the technology for creating impactful and memorable immersive experiences, such as new employee onboarding and ongoing training,” said InstaVR Founder Daniel H. Haga. “This round of funding helps InstaVR accelerate our plans to empower major corporations and organizations to more fully realize the benefits of VR.”

Businesses looking to try the software for free can sign up here, which includes support for Gear VR and Android/iOS Cardboard. The full, paid suite can output to Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Google Daydream, Gear VR, Oculus Go, Android/iOS Cardboard and standard monitors.

The post InstaVR Raises $5M Series B to Further Grow Its Enterprise VR Authoring Platform appeared first on Road to VR.

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View Your Work-In-Progress With InstaVR’s New Live Previewer Tool

View Your Work-In-Progress With InstaVR’s New Live Previewer Tool

There are various platforms that help to foster that creative process in VR. InstaVR is among them, aiming to easily let you get an app onto all of the major VR headsets. The company announced a Live Previewer which is a tool that will improve efficiency by allowing creators to see what the application looks like without having to package and download it first.

The smallest issues can completely derail an experience and having to package and download an app only to see that there’s a crucial error is a frustrating experience in addition to burning a lot of time. The Live Previewer should open the door for real-time feedback that will lead to cleaner and more complete final products and also help with the collaboration process if you’re not a solo creative.

“Our mission is to simplify and improve the VR app creation process,” said Daniel Haga, Founder and CEO of InstaVR, in a prepared statement. “Live Previewer allows our clients to more quickly and effectively author applications, without having to deal with packaging bottlenecks. As the speed of app creation increases so too does the productivity of our clients.”

If you’ve yet to use InstaVR but have been itching to give VR application creation a shot, there’s a free option available to get you started. There are some limitations but you should still be able to get a good idea of what you’re in for. At this time, Live Previewer works on iOS, Android, and Gear VR.

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InstaVR Platform Adds Streaming Support for VR Content

Sharing virtual reality (VR) content such as 360 degree or 3D videos can still be difficult for many content creators as there’s not many good ways to reach all of the available head-mounted displays (HMDs) on the market. Luckily, InstaVR are making it easier than ever to publish VR content on their platform.

InstaVR plans to expand the services available to creators on their platform, allowing for streaming direct to HMDs. Videos can be of any length, and are compatible with Gear VR, Daydream, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Web VR platforms.

Most impressive of all, the streams can be hosted in high-quality 4K 2160p, or even 8K 4320p – though streaming at those resolutions is going to require some impressive servers on the InstaVR’s side, and some decent download speeds from your ISP – though if it all works smoothly as planned, it’ll be incredibly impressive VR videos of concerts, performances and more.

InstaVR’s founder, Daniel Haga, wants InstaVR to be the reliable content platform that creators turn to first; “We’re very proud to announce the launch of our long-form video streaming service. As our clients expand the length and quality of the 360 media they capture, we want to make sure to provide them with a platform to easily and reliably share their content. Our new long-form streaming service does just that.”

InstaVR’s new streaming service will be available to creators very soon.

For everything on the latest VR platforms and services, make sure to keep checking VRFocus.

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InstaVR Introduces Spatial Audio Support to Improve its Online VR Creation Platform

Audio forms an important and oft-neglected part of the immersive experience. The audio experience isn’t just about music, it also covers sound effects, dialogue and background sounds that from a vital part of creating an atmosphere. InstaVR have recognised the need for more support for immersive audio, so have launched Spatial Audio Support.

Spatial Audio allows sounds to be presented to the virtual reality (VR) viewer that are both inside and outside their field of view. This allows for the developers to draw the users attention to a particular area or object using a directional sound cue.

The spatial audio feature has already been used by some professionals, such as Steven Poe, a VR Producer for Mandala Health, a company that produces healthcare treatment for pain management and psychology. Poe said: “The soundscape is more than 50% of the brain’s transference. We hear sound faster and more accurately than we see. Unfortunately the ability to playback spatial audio has been lagging compared to advancements in 360 video,” noted Poe. “InstaVR solved that by allowing VR Producers to upload spatial audio files once and deliver across all the popular VR viewing platforms.”

“We’re very proud that our clients can now incorporate spatial audio into their VR experiences,” said Daniel Haga, Founder and President of InstaVR. “Our goal has always been to empower clients to create the most immersive, engaging, and awe-inspiring virtual reality. Supporting spatial audio gives our most savvy clients the opportunity to do just that.”

Further information on Spatial Audio can be found at the InstaVR website.

Last year InstaVR secured $2 million USD in a funding round led by The VR Fund to build its web-based solution for the authoring of 360-degree VR apps. This February the company announced the software would support HTC Vive, with Japanese firm Toyota being among the first to utilise the new option.

VRFocus will bring you further news on Spatial Audio and other developments in immersive audio as it becomes available.

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InstaVR To Produce Content For Hello Kitty Theme Park

InstaVR To Produce Content For Hello Kitty Theme Park

Likely due to the costs and complexity of virtual reality setups, theme parks are often referenced as prime homes for VR installations and rides. Amusement parks not only have the funding that can go into individual attractions providing fully immersive VR, but also the square feet to do so with few barriers. Companies like Optitrack are working on solutions to make the roll-out in parks and arcades easier while places like SeaWorld are already diving into virtual rides. A newer development has Sanrio Entertainment Co tapping InstaVR to create VR content for promotion of their Hello Kitty theme park.

Yes, there’s a Hello Kitty theme park.

InstaVR, created by CANDIFY VR Technologies, is a platform for fast and easy VR content creation and publishing. Sanrio is expanding their promotional efforts with VR and InstaVR is meant to allow them to work quickly.

“Due to the high productivity of InstaVR, production of mockups usually taking 2-3 weeks were completed in one week,” says a representative for Sanrio in a press announcement. “We were able to take more time to fill out the details, and we were able to improve the quality. As for the final cost and delivery time, production was completed at half of our initial cost estimate, and actual delivery date was realized in 3 weeks, from beginning filming to app delivery.”

InstaVR also includes a VR tourism heat-map that shows where virtual patrons gaze the most and Sanrio will be using that data to shape interactive features in the VR content. The first app for the Hello Kitty theme park was released in early February and they’re planning to invest more in virtual content during the Spring. The app features Hello Kitty characters that guide viewers on a tour around the park. Using VR for promotions allows people around the world to get a taste of what a far off destination offers, and Hello Kitty is the latest example.

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InstaVR’s VR Authoring Software Now Supports HTC Vive

InstaVR a virtual reality (VR) authoring, publishing and analysis company has announced support for HTC Vive, enabling software customers to create long-form immersive experiences, with Toyota being the first.

Many 360-degree or VR videos tend to be short in length due to file size constraints or headset limitations – ensuring a video works on both mobile VR and PC-based VR means certain sacrifices have to be made. But some companies require much higher duration content, for employee training, communication or educational purposes. Which is why InstaVR has added HTC Vive compatibility, so that businesses using its software can produce immersive videos in excess of 25 minutes then distribute them to the headset easily.

VR office tour of TOYOTA HIGH SYSTEM Incorporated - Authoring screen on InstaVR

The first company to make use of the new functionality is Toyota High System Inc., (part of Toyota Industries Corp). Toyota has used it to create a series of immersive office tours so the recuiting team can increase interest in working for the company.

“Initially, we created a ‘VR Office Tour’ for enabling candidates to virtually visit our offices using InstaVR’s Gear VR output feature,” said Osawa Takehito, Solution Sales Department. “By supporting HTC Vive, it is now also possible for our app users to watch far a longer time with higher picture quality. Toyota can broaden the range of VR experiences we produce by utilising HTC Vive output capability.”

Last year InstaVR revealed the closure of a Series A funding round, securing $2 million USD in investment, lead by The Venture Reality Fund.

InstaVR offers a free account sign up to test the VR app creation platform. For the latest updates on InstaVR, keep reading VRFocus.