TCL sets summer launch for world’s first TV with THX Certified Game Mode
Gaming-focused feature will arrive with TCL's next-generation 6-Series TV
29 Halloween Horrors Come To VRrOOm Via The Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival
As you will all no doubt be very aware the onset of October means only one thing (two things if you count shops start putting up Christmas displays for some reason) and that is a deluge of all things spooky, scary and skeleton-filled. Halloween is coming, and there is quite literally no stopping it.
Today the latest horror tinged announcement comes from France as The Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival (SEFFF) looks to bring its Halloween selection of twenty-nine scary short films (6 in regular and 23 in 360 degree format) to VRrOOm’s XR platform. For a month, beginning today and ending on November 8th 2018, VRrOOm’s XR platform will host a variety of SEFFF experiences that will appeal to lovers of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror.
The partnership announcement with SEFFF comes a month after the app, developed with Paris-based agency Bemersive, was launched in partnership with the Venice Film Festival. VRrOOm also plan to announce their next program later this month.
“The VRrOOm’s XR platform is dedicated to providing a virtual stage to the world’s finest festivals and cultural events, reflecting on how today’s exhibition and distribution of films go hand-in-hand in a fast-changing landscape of how art and artists relate to their audiences across all media.” Said the company in a statement. “The app also features a virtual cinema room designed according to THX’s certification program guidelines. The THX Certified Cinema virtual auditorium is a celebration of the art of filmmaking, allowing the audience members to experience the power of storytelling in the world’s most personal cinema.”
The app is free to access for interested parties to download and ais available on both iOS and Android, with support for Google Daydream headsets. Additionally the app is also available on the app is also available on both Viveport and the Oculus Store, with support for the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR.
The full list of experiences and short films are as follows: Kinch And The Double World, Portal, King of Infinite Space, Crackle, Going Home, Mister Vampire, The Ghostbusters, Space X Girl VR, Your Spiritual Temple Sucks, Voyager, Damage Control, Babs, Just After Midnight, A Loft In Paradise, Saint Hubert, Knives, Seance, Mirror Man, Burlap, The Invisible Man, 11:57, Blood Room, Coyote, Death Van, Fan Club, Joy Ride, Teddy’s Bear Picnic, Last Man Standing and Zombie Apocalypse.
VRFocus will bring you more news on the developments in VR film very soon.
29 Halloween Horrors Come To VRrOOm Via The Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival
As you will all no doubt be very aware the onset of October means only one thing (two things if you count shops start putting up Christmas displays for some reason) and that is a deluge of all things spooky, scary and skeleton-filled. Halloween is coming, and there is quite literally no stopping it.
Today the latest horror tinged announcement comes from France as The Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival (SEFFF) looks to bring its Halloween selection of twenty-nine scary short films (6 in regular and 23 in 360 degree format) to VRrOOm’s XR platform. For a month, beginning today and ending on November 8th 2018, VRrOOm’s XR platform will host a variety of SEFFF experiences that will appeal to lovers of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror.
The partnership announcement with SEFFF comes a month after the app, developed with Paris-based agency Bemersive, was launched in partnership with the Venice Film Festival. VRrOOm also plan to announce their next program later this month.
“The VRrOOm’s XR platform is dedicated to providing a virtual stage to the world’s finest festivals and cultural events, reflecting on how today’s exhibition and distribution of films go hand-in-hand in a fast-changing landscape of how art and artists relate to their audiences across all media.” Said the company in a statement. “The app also features a virtual cinema room designed according to THX’s certification program guidelines. The THX Certified Cinema virtual auditorium is a celebration of the art of filmmaking, allowing the audience members to experience the power of storytelling in the world’s most personal cinema.”
The app is free to access for interested parties to download and ais available on both iOS and Android, with support for Google Daydream headsets. Additionally the app is also available on the app is also available on both Viveport and the Oculus Store, with support for the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR.
The full list of experiences and short films are as follows: Kinch And The Double World, Portal, King of Infinite Space, Crackle, Going Home, Mister Vampire, The Ghostbusters, Space X Girl VR, Your Spiritual Temple Sucks, Voyager, Damage Control, Babs, Just After Midnight, A Loft In Paradise, Saint Hubert, Knives, Seance, Mirror Man, Burlap, The Invisible Man, 11:57, Blood Room, Coyote, Death Van, Fan Club, Joy Ride, Teddy’s Bear Picnic, Last Man Standing and Zombie Apocalypse.
VRFocus will bring you more news on the developments in VR film very soon.
THX Creates Certification Program for AR and VR Glasses
THX is a name that will be recognisable to most people who have been to the cinema. A leading firm in the area of audio-visual experiences, THX has partnered with Osterhout Design Group (ODG) to create a set of standards for head-worn virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) devices with the new THX Virtual Cinema Display Certification program.
Recognising that maintaining the quality of the audio-visual experiences for users of VR and AR devices is critical for ensuring that the hardware enters mainstream awareness, THX hopes to set the bar for future head-mounted devices. The ODG R-9 smartglasses will be the first device to receive the certification, which aims to ensure that all certified devices can provide cinema-quality sound and video.
“Augmented reality is the future of audio and visual advancement,” explained Bill Rusitzky, CRO of THX Ltd in a statement. “We chose to partner with ODG to certify their product’s best-in-class cinematic experience because we are dedicated to establishing high standards in next-generation technologies, as we have achieved with existing technologies over the past 30 years. We are excited to continue this commitment to consumers, and come together with ODG to deliver premium AV experiences in a very new way.”
“Certification from THX is a testament to our many years of hard work building and refining high–end smartglasses that deliver an exceptional quality visual experience,” said Ralph Osterhout, Founder and CEO of ODG. “We are honoured to work with THX and receive feedback from expert users that the quality of our imagery is unparalleled in the industry – no visible pixels and the ability to read 8-point font with photo-realistic clarity. ODG is pioneering a new medium of heads up, hands free computing that will transform how we consume, interact with and discover information, people and objects in the world around us, and we are pleased to be setting the gold standard in display quality.”
ODG will be showcasing their new Smartglasses at the Augmented World Expo later this week in Santa Clara. ODG will be located in booth 411.
VRFocus will continue to bring you news on new industry standards for VR and AR devices.
THX Creates Audio Chip Positioned for VR Claimed to “best every other amplifier product in the marketplace”
THX has announced the development of a new audio amplifier chip which the company claims offers “the world’s lowest levels of distortion and noise,” along with “incredibly low power consumption,” positioning the amplifier for mobile VR headsets, wireless headphones, and VR PCs.
The THXAAA chip, as the company calls it, is an ASIC chip that’s being made in conjunction with Triad Semiconductor, a firm who has also worked with Valve to create components of the HTC Vive’s Lighthouse tracking technology.
The chip is an audio amplifier which THX claims “bests every other amplifier product in the marketplace.”
[The THXAAA] reduces harmonic, intermodulation, and crossover distortions by 20-100x for an unbelievably realistic and fatigue-free listening experience, and reduces power consumption by a factor of 10 for incredibly long battery life. THX AAA™ accomplishes this using a patented topology to cancel conventional distortion mechanisms and reduce bias current. THX AAA™ improves audio fidelity, shrinks battery size and extends playtime. The flagship THXAAA-0 amplifier boasts nearly un-measurable distortion of -137 dB, high output power of 63 mW, and only 5 mW of quiescent power consumption.
The low power consumption combined with high fidelity audio positions mobile VR among the THXAAA’s best suited applications, the company says.
Founded by famed Star Wars director George Lucas, in 1983, THX has traditionally functioned as a badge of quality assurance, giving their stamp of approval to studios, cinemas, consumer electronics, content, automotive systems, and more. The company was recently acquired by gaming lifestyle company Razer (who is a founder of the OSVR initiative). The THXAAA chip is the company’s first step into component offerings.
While the chip could be useful for mobile VR, it could also bring about THX-certified wireless headphones and ‘VR Ready’ PCs for high-end tethered VR headsets as well, says Reid Wender, Triad Semiconductor’s VP Marketing & Sales.
“For me, the three pillars of immersion in VR are 360 degree movement, visuals, and audio. I think VR will make people audiophiles again without them even knowing it. The AAA solution from THX is truly quiet when the source audio is quiet (low noise) and delivers sounds as they were created at the source (high fidelity). As VR goes wireless in the next couple of years, wireless headphones will be key,” Wender told Road to VR. “The THX AAA is quite disruptive to the audio amplifier market because it also uses low power over a wide dynamic range of audio levels. Lower power means longer battery life. This is a benefit that users in the VR and wireless headphone market will appreciate.”
THX and Triad plan to show off the first THXAAA solutions at CES 2017 next week.
The post THX Creates Audio Chip Positioned for VR Claimed to “best every other amplifier product in the marketplace” appeared first on Road to VR.
Razer Acquires THX To “play a leadership role” in VR Audio
Here’s an acquisition we’d have never seen coming; gaming peripheral maker and OSVR leader Razer has this week acquired THX.
That’s the very same THX that was established by Star Wars creator George Lucas in 1983 and has since become one of the leading names in cinematic audio. Razer has acquired the “majority” of the company’s assets, a press release states, though no financial details have been revealed. THX is expected to carry on its work in cinematic audio, as well as other strands of its business like delivering sound for live musical performances and partnering with others to include its technologies in other products.
It may also mean big things for VR audio. THX CEO Ty Ahmad-Taylor addressed the technology in a blog post announcing the news. “We are interested in providing superior audio-visual experiences,” he wrote. “As gaming bridges into VR, we expect to play a leadership role in the audio portion of that experience, which is crucial for completion the immersion into virtual worlds.” The press release also mentions an expansion into VR, augmented reality and “their enabling devices” in the future too.
Ahmad-Taylor later expanded on his VR comments to The Wrap. “What we’re primarily focused on is the acoustic environment for VR,” he told the site. “All you’re getting now in VR is called binaural, which puts the sound in the middle of your head.” He explained that the company is interested in creating “and immersive sound environment” for VR
It sounds like this deal could be relevent to both VR software and hardware. When it comes to the latter, Razer has its OSVR Hacker Dev Kit (HDK), which we were far from impressed with. Opening up THX’s tools for VR developers to implement into their experiences, however, could be a very good thing.
Razer Acquires THX and Will Play Leading Role in VR Gaming Audio Development
Razer, developers of high-performance gaming hardware and software, has bought THX, who will carry on to operate independently, but there is no dubt that the creation of virtual reality (VR) hardware will be elevated substantially.
In a statement made by THX regarding this deal, it is said that: “Moving forward, THX will focus on the expansion of its current certification program to include new technologies, such as immersive audio and HDR, and the introduction of whole new programs, such as headphone certification and, in the future, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality experiences and their enabling devices.”
CEO of THX, Ty Ahmad-Taylor, went into more detail regarding VR gaming: “We are interested in providing superior audio-visual experiences. As gaming bridges into VR, we expect to play a leadership role in the audio portion of that experience, which is crucial for completion the immersion into virtual worlds.”
There is more than enough evidence to come to the conclusion that this acquisition can only mean good things for VR and AR audio, and that THX will be able to flourish under the coporate parental guidence of Razer.
For more on the latest developments in the world of VR regarding both hardware and software, as well as all the news, updates, and features in the world of VR, make sure to check back with VRFocus.
Razer takes a big step beyond gaming with acquisition of audio tech icon THX
Razer might be best known for computer and gaming peripherals, but the company wants to branch out, and it’s taking a big step in that direction by acquiring THX, the audio technology company founded by George Lucas in 1983.
The post Razer takes a big step beyond gaming with acquisition of audio tech icon THX appeared first on Digital Trends.