I started Virtual Reality Pop a year and a half ago exactly. Since then, this community has exploded.

We now have:

• Over 200 contributing writers, covering topics such as virtual reality, augmented reality, hardware, software, directing, events, and more.
• Reached over 250,000 people world wide with our content.

It has been such an amazing opportunity for me to get to know the Virtual Reality Pop writers and readers that I have talked to. The amount of information I have learned, and friends I have made, has been invaluable, and I have this community to thank.

But, here’s the thing: I shouldn’t be the only one interacting with our writers and the readers. If everyone in our community had the ability to interact with one another, we would become infinitely stronger.

This is why I am excited to announce the official private community for Virtual Reality Pop readers.

• Meet fellow virtual and augmented reality professionals and enthusiasts.
• Easily meet up with fellow readers at popular industry events.
• Discuss what you are working on and get feedback from some of the smartest minds in the industry.

To get early access to our new community, go here. I can’t wait to see you there.

Helen Situ
Founder and Editor of Virtual Reality Pop

p.s. Welcome Charlie Fink, our new Contributing Editor!

Get Early Access: Private Community for Virtual Reality Pop Readers was originally published in Virtual Reality Pop on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Virtual Reality Pop, founded October 2016, is the fastest growing virtual reality publication on Medium. Our audience is deeply passionate about virtual reality, augmented reality, future media, and immersive technology.

If you are interested in advertising with Virtual Reality Pop, please fill out an application here.

The top performing articles feature:

• Immersive design guides
• Game development processes
• Storyboarding techniques and tools
• Educational experiences
• How to break into the immersive industry
• Diversity in future technologies
• How to fund your projects

Virtual Reality Pop is excited to welcome select advertising partners whose company, product, or services align with the community.

Questions? Email us at advertise@virtualrealitypop.com

Want to reach our audience of engaged creators and enthusiasts? was originally published in Virtual Reality Pop on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Recent Funding, Sundance Premieres, and Exclusive Q&A

Welcome to Virtual Reality Pop monthly newsletter!

This month we cover top news from CES, Sundance, funding announcements, trending articles, and exclusive Virtual Reality Pop Q&A with the President of Viveport and Senior Vice President of Virtual Reality at HTC, the founder of High Fidelity and Second Life, Principal Designer at Unity, Managing Director of Comcast Ventures, and the Vice President of Virtual Reality at SuperData Research.

💌 Please forward this on and ask your friends and colleagues to subscribe by going here.

If you are interested in joining Virtual Reality Pop as a contributor, apply here.

— Helen Situ, Editor of Virtual Reality Pop

P.S. I got a VIVE this month and it is incredibly awesome! I have been playing Audioshield non-stop (doing everything I can to become as good as Kent Bye).

💥 The Big News:

• Facebook/Oculus hired Hugo Barra as the new Vice President of Virtual Reality. Read more: Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement post

💸 Funding News:

• Entrypoint raised $2 million in seed investment, led by Samsung NEXT and Two Sigma Ventures. Other investors include Indicator Ventures, KBS Ventures, Galvanize Ventures, Social Starts, Female Founders Fund and Virtual Reality Investments. Read more: Entrypoint
• Two Bit Circus raised $15 million in Series B, led by Jazz Venture Partners. The round includes participation from existing investors, including Foundry Group, Techstars Ventures, and Intel Capital. Read more: Two Bit Circus
• DigiLens raised $22 million in Series B. Investors include Sony, Foxconn, Continental, Panasonic, Alsop Louie Partners, Bold Capital, Nautilus Venture Partners, and Dolby Family Ventures. Read more: DigiLens

⚙ Platform News:

• Samsung announced at CES that it has shipped more than 5 million Gear VR headsets to consumers globally. Read more here.
• HTC Vive announced the Vive Tracker at CES, enabling a wireless connection between your attached tools and the Vive system. Developer applications open through February 7. Read more: Vive
• HTC Vive announced a $10 million program, VR for Impact, at the World Economic Forum. Read more: Vive
• Daydream by Google opens up its VR platform to all developers. Claude Zellweger, HTC Vive’s Vice President of Design has left to join the Daydream team. Read more: Daydream
• Facebook/Oculus hired Hugo Barra as the new Vice President of Virtual Reality. Read more: Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement post

💎 Content News:

• Episodic virtual reality experiences are arriving: Within announced “The Possible” series and Jaunt announced “Lawnmower Man” series.
• Dear Angelica, from Oculus Story Studio, premiered at Sundance. The moving experience was entirely created from within VR using the studio’s new tool, Quill. The experience is available for download on Oculus Rift now. Read more: Oculus Story Studio
• Asteroids!, from Baobab Studios, premiered at Sundance. This is the second animated project from the studio with interactive elements. The experience runs as a 10 minute short and will be released on the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive later this year. Read more: Baobab Studios
• Miyubi, from Felix & Paul, premiered at Sundance. This is the studio’s first scripted projects and is one of the longest VR narratives made, at 40 minutes. The experience will be released for Gear VR later this year. Read more: Felix & Paul
• Life of Us, from Chris Milk and Within, premiered at Sundance. This installation was an entirely different virtual reality experience; one that is narrative-driven, interactive, and social. The experience will be released later this year. Read more: Within
• Pearl, from Google Spotlight Stories, received an Oscar nomination in the animated short category. Available on every virtual reality platform and YouTube 360. Read more: Google Spotlight Stories

📃 Other News:

• IMAX has opened its first IMAX VR Experience Centre in Los Angeles (across from the Grove shopping center on Fairfax boulevard). It is showing games and other virtual reality experiences on the HTC Vive and StarVR headsets. Read more: IMAX VR
• Summary of ZeniMax v. Facebook/Oculus $4 Billion Lawsuit here.
• Update: Oculus ordered to pay $500 million in ZeniMax lawsuit. Read more here.

🔖 Trending Reads On VirtualRealityPop.com:

• Draw Sketches For Virtual Reality Like A Pro by Volodymyr Kurbatov
• VR Startups Are About To Die. Investors Should Relax. by Marcello E. Miranda
• Practical VR: A Design Cheat Sheet by Ryan Betts
• Google Accidentally cc’d The Entire Daydream Platform Developer List And What Happened Next Was Awesome. by Robbie Whiting
• Apple Strategy 2017. Very Important Change To iPhone Coming. by Robert Scoble

🔑 Exclusive Virtual Reality Pop Q&A:

We took some time to talk with a few key players in the virtual reality space. Here are the questions we asked them:

1. What type of virtual reality tool or experience do you wish existed today?
2. In what ways will artificial intelligence affect virtual reality?
3. What do you predict Apple will do to enter the immersive media industry?

Rikard Steiber

President of Viveport and Senior Vice President of Virtual Reality at HTC

Q: What type of virtual reality tool or experience do you wish existed today

Answer: The most exciting thing with Virtual Reality is that it is here today, it is not about the future. However, it is still early days and there are many experiences missing. I would love to see more educational experiences highlighting the big challenges we have on planet Earth, experiences that would inspire us to take action. To help make this happen I started “VR For Impact” which is a call to VR developers to create Virtual Reality experiences that will drive positive impact in support of United Nations sustainable development goals. Check out www.vrforimpact.com

Q: In what ways will artificial intelligence affect virtual reality?

Answer: There are two sides to this VR/AI coin. On the VR side — experiences have the potential to be greatly improved by using AI in everything from intelligent interaction with artificial beings and avatars to predicting our needs and behaviors to create a great user experience. On the AI side of the coin — AI could be greatly improved by simulating experiences more effectively in Virtual Reality rather than doing experiments in the real word. For example, we could train a self-driving car AI by adding a fleet of cars driving for a year and collect the data or we could simulate this in Virtual Reality and collect the data more effectively and scalable.

Q: What do you predict Apple will do to enter the immersive media industry?

Answer: I do not comment on behalf of other companies, but I believe that Virtual Reality will change the world for the better. I believe that with Virtual Reality we will finally democratize access to experiences. Experiences that were only available to the few, rich or privileged, are now are available to everyone. The power of true Virtual Reality is that you can achieve “presence” — where your brain believes you are actually there — that it is real. This makes the VR media unparalleled in its ability to deliver experiences and emotions you will never forget. Experiences that may change your life, and inspire you to change the world to be a better place.
Any media and technology company that do not grasp this and take action, will find it hard to be a leader in the future.

Philip Rosedale

Founder of High Fidelity and Second Life

Q: What type of virtual reality tool or experience do you wish existed today?

Answer: Gloves that let me talk with my hands (so I don’t have to hold a controller), and show my finger movements to the other people in-world, and also have a little button that lets me accurately grab/release things.

Q: In what ways will artificial intelligence affect virtual reality?

Answer: AI is increasingly moving toward bots that can help people (Alexa, etc). These bots will naturally want to become more like people — able to follow us around and help us. But it will be MUCH harder to do that with robots than with avatars. Therefore, I suspect that VR or AR environments are likely to be the most common places where we actually interact with AIs. Put another way… our AI children are likely to grow up in virtual worlds.

Q: What do you predict Apple will do to enter the immersive media industry?

Answer: I think they will first release some sort of neat AR glasses that connect to a phone in your pocket and let you more easily do your email or browse the web — on a larger screen. I think that they will (correctly) focus on the replacement of the desktop/mobile screen as their next step.

Timoni West

Principal Designer at Unity Labs

Q: What type of virtual reality tool or experience do you wish existed today?

Answer: Two things: I’d like to have a variety of small, flexible sensors I can attach to anything. Trackable nail polish is one of my favorite ideas, but even tiny sticker sensors would be a great start. Second, I’d love to have more Sketchup-like creation tools. I’m downloading Gravity Sketch as I type this and am tremendously excited to try it out.

Q: In what ways will artificial intelligence affect virtual reality?

Answer: 3D object recognition is a key aspect to bringing virtual and the real world together. We’ll be leaning heavily on AI to create the connections between what rigs see and what users can interact with. That’s the obvious use, and we do it all the time even now, from Snapchat stickers to filters to Tango. Voice recognition, semantic analysis, and contextual queries are also getting better all the time. Less obvious but equally useful: more accurate NPCs, better pathfinding tools, and more realistic special effects.

Q: What do you predict Apple will do to enter the immersive media industry?

Answer: When I step back and look at Apple holistically, from the 1980s to today, you can see their vision is similar to what we’re working on across computing even today: a contextually and semantically aware experience. There’s some UI, but the bulk of the heavy queries and interactions are voice commands used to bring up data. The iPad, the wearables, and even things like the Touchbar are all steps in this direction.

My guess then is that Apple might go two directions in the near future. The first option is that they will create an VR/AR experience that plays nicely with their current gestural interaction patterns. In this case I assume it will be lower-quality mobile VR, and will come out around 2019–2020. Apple has increasingly shown they’re willing to have products with good design but missing high-end functionality (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, new Macbook series). There’s no reason to think they’d switch gears to support a high-end immersive rig.

But if Apple has decided even that lower bar isn’t worth going for, I’m anticipating they’ll go embrace semi-immersive design with a combination 3D-in-the-display product. Something new, but something that fits in even more neatly with their current design patterns around gestures and voice.

Apple already has 3D touch, and Apple products work well with 3D; it’s no stretch to assume they could extend that metaphor in anticipation of making immersive hardware to scale. In this case, I anticipate they’d move directly into AR hardware whenever the necessary breakthrough happens. Speaking as realistically as possible, I don’t anticipate Apple (or anyone) making a full-coverage, fully opaque, fully tracking wireless AR headset for at least eight years.

But hey, if they announce it at WWDC in 2017, I’ll be happy.

Michael Yang

Managing Director of Comcast Ventures

Q: What type of virtual reality tool or experience do you wish existed today?

Answer: I’m intrigued with the possibilities of virtual reality in education and training. Whether it be allowing educators to teach an immersive lesson for students or for a corporate trainer to offer stimulating compliance training (an oxymoron today), I’d love to see someone transform pedagogy and leverage VR’s enablement of presence, empathy and interactivity for tomorrow’s classes.

Q: In what ways will artificial intelligence affect virtual reality?

Answer: AI technologies (machine learning, deep learning, neural networks) can help the VR industry push further ahead on the sensing side — knowing what’s in our physical environment as we are in AR/MR. VR technologies on the character creation front (be it CG rendered or volumetric captured) could be applied to AI-driven avatars or conversational chat bots to bring those interactions more to life.

Q: What do you predict Apple will do to enter the immersive media industry?

Answer: I’m not expecting any Apple VR/AR eyewear or wearables in the near future. I think they will continue to add more capabilities and functionality to the next generation of iPhones/iPads so that they will be more “suitable” for mobile VR/AR, either in a magic window mode or slotted into a 3rd party HMD. But, I suspect Apple will take their time, continuing to tinker on what the right consumer experience should be, before committing to the space.

Stephanie Llamas

Vice President of Virtual Reality at SuperData Research

Q: What type of virtual reality tool or experience do you wish existed today?

Answer: Well, I’ve always wanted to ride the Magic Schoolbus! But aside from that, I wish there was a way to traverse through real spaces in 360 video. Traveling in VR would be so much more educational and interesting if you could do more than look around. Also, with refined facial recognition and AI it would be amazing to have dinner with all my heroes — you know, that hypothetical question about having dinner with anyone from history? Being able to talk politics with Oscar Wilde, color theory with Josef Albers and comedy with Rob Williams would be incredible.

Q: In what ways will artificial intelligence affect virtual reality?

Answer: There are so many ways, but first is social. There’s a real opportunity for creating characters in virtual worlds who can interact with users in a realistic way. Secondly, VR will increasingly become a tool that can control devices and vehicles from afar. Military technology, self-driving cars, drones — those will all require a certain level of AI that can adapt to their environments and situations while considering the user’s instructions. Third, AI will help training simulators accommodate more situations in response to a user’s actions. And finally, hands-free text communication will require accurate voice recognition and response, which will primarily affect business and social applications.

Q: What do you predict Apple will do to enter the immersive media industry?

Answer: Based on their rumored partnership with Carl Zeiss and expressed interest in AR over VR, they will likely come out with AR glasses next year. In the meantime, there are some interesting AR apps that are compatible with existing smartphones, so there is an opportunity for them to grow their offerings there.

I hope you enjoyed this newsletter! If you would like to see a new one next month, click here to let me know.

❤ Thank you to Rikard Steiber, Philip Rosedale, timoni west, Michael Yang, and Stephanie Llamas.

On a personal note and as a daughter of immigrants, I urge you to make a donation to ACLU and double your donations here.

This Month in Virtual Reality — Edition #2 was originally published in Virtual Reality Pop on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Helen Situ (editor of Virtual Reality Pop) will be at Sundance from Thursday, January 19th to Monday, the 23rd. Want to talk about virtual reality with Helen at Sundance? Click here.

Thank you for all the support and kind words about our first newsletter, There will be a second edition sent out at the end of January. Please tell your friends to subscribe to Virtual Reality Pop by going here.

See you soon ❤
 — 
Helen Situ
[Say Hi on Twitter!]

Virtual Reality Pop is coming to Sundance! was originally published in Virtual Reality Pop on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

• Follow Virtual Reality Pop on Twitter.
• Join the private Virtual Reality Group on Facebook.

Virtual Reality Pop is created with ❤ by 200+ virtual reality visionaries from around the world. Apply to be a writer here.

Follow Virtual Reality Pop on Twitter. was originally published in Virtual Reality Pop on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This Month in Virtual Reality — December, 2016

Hi there! 👋

Welcome to the first Virtual Reality Pop newsletter ever. I have never created something like this before and I am so excited to hear your feedback.

I have filled this newsletter with December’s top virtual reality announcements, new funding for companies in the space, and the part I’m most excited about, exclusive Virtual Reality Pop Q&A with some of my favorite virtual reality thinkers and influencers (including Robert Scoble, Chris Milk, Maureen Fan, and more!).

💌 I’m still deciding whether or not I should send a newsletter out like this every month. If you think I should, please please click here to let me know.

— Helen Situ, Editor of Virtual Reality Pop

p.s. Interested in publishing your thoughts and ideas on Virtual Reality Pop? Apply here.

🔖 Stuff to Read at VirtualRealityPop.com:

• The Costs of Making a VR Game by Joe Radak
• UX in The Age of Augmented Reality by Alex Gurgulescu
• Prototyping in VR for VR by vrhuman
• Virtual Concerts — a New Way to Experience Music by Amy LaMeyer
• How to Get a Job in VR by Adrienne Hunter

💥 The Big News:

• Oculus Touch controllers officially launched on December 6th at $199. At launch, 54 titles became available on the Oculus Store. Read more: Oculus blog

💸 Funding News:

• Survios raised $50 million Series C, led by MGM and Lux Capital. Other investors include Danhua Capital, Dentsu Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Shanda Holdings, Shasta Ventures, and WiL. Read more: Survios
• Lumus raised $30 million Series C, from investors including HTC and Quanta Computer. Read more: Lumus
• High Fidelity raised $22 million, led by IDG Capital and Breyer Capital. Read more: High Fidelity
• AxonVR raised $5.8 million in seed investment, led by NetEase.com and Dawn Patrol Ventures. Other investors include Dick Costolo, Jon Snoddy, Keeler Investment Group, and Paul Matthaeus. Read more: AxonVR
• STRIVR Labs raised $5 million Series A, led by Signia Venture Partners. Other investors include Advancit Capital, BMW i Ventures, Presence Capital. Read more: STRIVR

⚙ Platform News:

• Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe steps into a new role to lead the PC-based virtual reality division within company. Read more: Oculus blog
• HTC announced its newest subsidiary: Vive Studios. The company has appointed Joel Breton, VP of Content, as head of operations for the new content publisher. Read more: HTC press release

💎 Content News:

• Oculus launched Quill, a creative tool for “illustrative storytelling” at Touch launch. Read more: Oculus blog
• NextVR launched its app on Google’s Daydream platform with weekly live NBA games. Read more: NextVR
• Jaunt launched its app on PlayStation VR with 150+ experiences. Read more: Jaunt

📃 Other News:

• Virtual reality hardware manufacturers Acer Starbreeze, Google, HTC VIVE, Facebook’s Oculus, Samsung, and Sony Interactive Entertainment announced the creation of a non-profit organization, Global Virtual Reality Association (GVRA). Apple and Microsoft are notably missing. Read more: GVRA press release

🔑 Virtual Reality Pop Q&A:

We took some time to talk with a few key players in the virtual reality space. Here are the questions we asked them:

1. In one sentence, what is your biggest prediction for virtual reality in 2017?
2. What is the biggest misconception people have about virtual reality right now?

Robert Scoble

Author of Age of Context

Q: In one sentence, what is your biggest prediction for virtual reality in 2017?

Answer: My biggest prediction for 2017 is that Apple will release a mixed reality iPhone, one that does both VR and AR, and will sell WAY more than anyone else has in VR space yet.

Q: What is the biggest misconception people have about virtual reality right now?

Answer: The biggest misconception is that there’s only games in VR. Partly that’s because if you have an HTC Vive or an Oculus Rift the coolest things are games. I’ve watched many things from music, to journalism, to narrative experiences (we used to call them movies), to sports, to education. VR isn’t just for games, and if you are at Disney you know that, its new Disneyland in China was designed in VR, for instance, and Ford has a special VR room at its R&D lab in Silicon Valley to design cars for the future

Shuhei Yoshida

President of Worldwide Studios, Sony Interactive Entertainment

Q: In one sentence, what is your biggest prediction for virtual reality in 2017?

Answer: Apple will announce a VR/AR product.

Q: What is the biggest misconception people have about virtual reality right now?

Answer: 2016 “The Year of VR” did not deliver.

Chris Milk

CEO and Founder, Within

Q: In one sentence, what is your biggest prediction for virtual reality in 2017?

Answer: Certainly more headsets, but personally most excited about more profound VR experiences as creators figure out the medium, and the technology advances to allow them to create what’s currently impossible.

Q: What is the biggest misconception people have about virtual reality right now?

Answer: That it’s worth debating what is “real VR”. You can be sitting, standing, or laying on the ground… if you feel presence in someplace you’re not, it qualifies as VR. What really matters as John Carmack talked about at OC3, is does the content actually deliver value to the audience.

Maureen Fan

CEO and Co-founder, Baobab Studios

Q: In one sentence, what is your biggest prediction for virtual reality in 2017?

Answer: As we enter a natural downturn in the tech lifecycle, those of us who believe in VR — Baobab, distributors and creators — will steadily do the heavy lifting to create the content and ecosystem needed to turn VR into reality.

Q: What is the biggest misconception people have about virtual reality right now?

Answer: VR is just for gamers. VR is for everyone to enjoy, whether games, films, interactive storytelling, exploration, sports, travel, science, education, medicine, and much more!

Darshan Shankar

CEO and Founder, Bigscreen

Q: In one sentence, what is your biggest prediction for virtual reality in 2017?

Answer: Positional tracking for mobile VR headsets.

Q: What is the biggest misconception people have about virtual reality right now?

Answer: Biggest misconceptions are “VR is just for gamers” and “VR makes people sick”.

Kent Bye

Host of Voices of VR Podcast

Q: In one sentence, what is your biggest prediction for virtual reality in 2017?

Answer: In 2017, we’ll see tons of new Lighthouse input devices announced at CES, more AI & VR crossover with rudimentary interactive narratives & procedurally-generated content, an explosion of VR art from artists, WebVR-enabled browsers will be released and catalyze data visualization innovation from web developers, more world-building tools for walled garden and open metaverse worlds will be launched, more gameplay innovations from small indie game devs, wider awareness of specific medical applications of VR, some of the first made-for-VR narrative content, lots of progress on VR open standards, significant advances on 3D audio hardware & software, AR will still be in the DK1 era, and I will have launched “The Ultimate Potential of VR” book and Voices of AI podcast.

Q: What is the biggest misconception people have about virtual reality right now?

Answer: The biggest misconception that I see about VR is that higher graphical fidelity will yield a deeper sense of presence, but this can actually break presence. Photorealism raises your expectations for realistic audio and haptics, but the current VR tech is no where close enough to match the level of graphic fidelity and falls into the uncanny valley. It’s counter-intuitive, but multi-modal coherence at a lower fidelity can actually yield a deeper sense of presence than striving for photorealistic graphics while ignoring spatialized audio & haptic feedback. It’s a pretty universal misconception, and so I’d encourage you to learn more from Voices of VR podcast episodes #130 & #478.

Justin Hendrix

Executive Director, NYC Media Lab

Q: In one sentence, what is your biggest prediction for virtual reality in 2017?

Answer: Sometime before the end of the year, a break-out multi-user VR experience will emerge and drive major consumer demand.

Q: What is the biggest misconception people have about virtual reality right now?

Answer: People don’t realize that the device form factor and the content of virtual reality experiences are still in relatively early days- soon mobile phones will deliver experiences competitive with today’s high-end headsets and 5G networks will allow VR to go truly mobile.

I hope you enjoyed this newsletter! If you would like to see a new one next month, click here to let me know.

❤ Thank you to Robert Scoble, Shuhei Yoshida, Chris Milk, Maureen Fan, Darshan Shankar, KentBye, and Justin Hendrix.

This Month in Virtual Reality — December, 2016 was originally published in Virtual Reality Pop on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Virtual Reality Pop, founded October 2016, is the fastest growing virtual reality publication on Medium. Our audience is deeply passionate about virtual reality, augmented reality, future media, and immersive technology.

We want to enable everyone passionate about virtual reality to have a voice via Virtual Reality Pop. This is a publication for all of us.

When you contribute content to Virtual Reality Pop, your articles will be put in front of tens of thousands of virtual reality designers, developers, investors, and enthusiasts.

If you are interested in contributing to Virtual Reality Pop, please fill out an application here.

We are looking for content in these areas:

• The implications of virtual reality.
• The future of virtual reality and media.
• Techniques for designing unique and engaging virtual experiences.
• Analysis of the virtual reality and augmented reality landscape.
• Behind the scenes on virtual reality projects.

Our featured writers include:

• Chris Milk (Within)
• Sarah Hill (StoryUP)
• Vincent McCurley (National Film Board of Canada)
• Robbie Tilton (ex Google VR)
• NYC Media Lab
• 100+ more

We can’t wait to see your contributions.

❤

Be Featured In Front of Tens of Thousands of People Interested In Virtual Reality was originally published in Virtual Reality Pop on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Live December 7th, 6:45pm PT

I’m incredibly excited to announce that our first NextVR and Live Nation concert is going to be live in virtual reality with Thievery Corporation.

Wednesday, December 7th at 6:45pm PT / 9:45pm ET. Available worldwide through the NextVR app.

Through NextVR’s partnership with Live Nation, we’ll be able to experience the concert as if you are there, immersed in the show from front-row. The performance will be delivered from multiple vantage points throughout the venue. Imagine being able to teleport throughout the concert venue, that’s exactly what you’ll be able to do in the live virtual reality concert.

“There is something special about live music that traditional media can’t capture fully. When you see a live event on TV or hear a recording it is never the same as being in the audience. NextVR has the ability to put you in the crowd, on stage and fully immersed in the moment. We can bring you the experience as it is meant to be.” — Amy Battese, Music Coordinating Producer at NextVR

As someone who has attended 50+ live concerts and music festivals, I’m madly in love with live musical performances.

Here’s why I’m excited about live concerts in virtual reality:

• Easy Access to Concert Venues: I no longer live in a metropolitan hub such as San Francisco, ripe with live music and concerts every day of the week. Seeing my favorite artists is no longer as easy as a $5 Uber ride to The Independent afterwork.
• Convenience: I’m vertically challenged. Standing at 5'3" does not help me whether I am in the front or the back of the audience, I guarantee you that there is someone taller bobbing their head to the beat right in front of me.
• Super Powers: Have you ever been at a concert and wished you could teleport from the balcony view down to the standing section without missing any of the performance? Yes! Sometimes your feet just get tired.

Thievery Corporation’s December 7th performance is part of their 20th (🎉!) Anniversary Tour. The first time I listened to Thievery Corporation was over 10 years ago in the soundtrack of one of my all-time favorite movies, Garden State. I was mesmerized by their eclectic fusion of sounds and the song “Lebanese Blonde” featured in Garden State still holds its place timelessly on my playlists.

👋 I’ll be attending the Thievery Corporation concert live in virtual reality Wednesday, December 7th at 6:45pm PT.

Thievery Corporation is a recording artist and DJ collective comprised of the iconic duo: Rob Garza and Eric Hilton. Their music style combines elements of dub, acid jazz, reggae, Indian classical, Middle Eastern, hip hop, electronica and Brazilian.

❤ If you’re as excited as I am about live concerts in virtual reality, click here.

Click “recommend” if you’re excited for live concerts in virtual reality.

Experience the First NextVR and Live Nation Concert: Thievery Corporation was originally published in Virtual Reality Pop on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The top minds in virtual reality agree.

Hi, I’m Helen Situ and for the past 2 years I’ve dedicated my life to virtual reality.

Representing NextVR, one of the most well-funded VR companies with $35M+ capital raised, I’ve spoken at numerous conferences, events, and my thoughts have appeared everywhere from Yahoo Tech to USA TODAY.

But I’ve noticed something unsettling. There are very few women in virtual reality.

To whoever is reading this, I’m sure that wherever you work, it’s true that the majority of your coworkers are male. In the tech industry, women only represent less than 20% of the workforce. We need to change this.

Inclusion of women in virtual reality is crucial.

Women bring a unique perspective. And the inclusion of them has never been more important in a technology where people are creating these incredibly powerful, emotional experiences where you’re shaping worlds.

I want there to be more women working in emerging technology.

❤ If you believe in getting more women and underrepresented groups into virtual reality, I’d love to talk to you. Click here to start a conversation with me on Twitter right now.

Follow me on Medium and Twitter, I will be sharing more of my thoughts on Virtual Reality regularly.

This Has To Happen Before Virtual Reality Can Succeed was originally published in Virtual Reality Pop on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I’m incredibly excited for today, as it marks the 1st consumer release of a Virtual Reality headset (this time around!).

The Gear VR is especially important to me, not only because it delivers an awe-inspiring reaction to virtual reality first-timers, but also because I knew that mobile would catapult virtual reality into mainstream.

It was a game changer to be able to introduce anyone to virtual reality by pulling a headset out of my bag and popping my phone into the front — regardless of whether I was in a meeting, conference, airport, party, or sushi restaurant (this is where I introduced Jane Fonda to VR).

Two July’s ago, I was introduced to Project Moonlight — the code name for this Oculus and Samsung partnership to being a high quality virtual reality experience to while leveraging a mobile device.

This was the pivotal discovery that ultimately led me to decide to uproot life in San Francisco and jump into virtual reality with NextVR.

If you haven’t already, order a Gear VR today from Samsung.

Amazon and Best Buy also carry the Gear VR, but are currently sold out.

Download the NextVR app to experience highlights from a front row seat at a Manchester United vs. FC Barcelona match and more. This is a taste of what our live virtual reality broadcasts are like. We’ll have more to announce shortly.

Follow me on Medium and Twitter, I will be sharing more of my thoughts on Virtual Reality regularly.

I am the Virtual Reality Evangelist at NextVR. I spend a ton of time flying around the world to personally give business leaders their first virtual reality experience. I champion for the best human experience in virtual reality and NextVR technology. Hired as the 4th employee at NextVR, I work at the intersection of marketing, business development, and product.

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Gear VR: Virtual Reality’s Moonlight to Mainstream was originally published in Virtual Reality Pop on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.