Lei Feng Network Press: Author Dong Hao, founder and CEO of Wei Rui Film, VR Director. This article is an exclusive draft of Lei Feng.
Nokia OZO via: gadgets.ndtv.com
I believe every 80th has a wonderful memory of Nokia. Yes, the first personal mobile phone. When I was excited with Nokia's "bricks", I knew that this Finnish company was destined to change the world. However, as everyone knows behind, Nokia has become the overlord of mobile communications. Later, China's old saying "Hedong for 30 years, Hexi for 30 years" is only Nokia's glory lasts only 10 years. Just another decade later, Nokia came back. This time, Nokia still came with its familiar figure. It was just Nokia's VR virtual reality camera.
The lean dead camel is bigger than the horse. Since Nokia released the OZO camera, its exposure to Nokia's technology brand has suddenly risen. There is no longer any news that can be seen everywhere. I'll talk from an experience point of view. .
| Nokia OZO camera background of the birthIn 2014, with the heat of OCULUS, VR virtual reality became a household name for new technologies. For virtual reality video content creation, cameras are essential, and OCULUS only concentrates on developing terminal playback devices and platforms. Traditional camera manufacturers did not launch a clear plan for shooting equipment. Occasionally, several companies were still behind closed doors to do R&D. The old equipment manufacturer Ricoh launched the civilian equipment, Theta, and fired all over the country.
Nokia has developed and designed a one-stop solution OZO camera based on its own patents in the research and development of mobile phones and communication equipment. It solved the pain point on the market: Traditional camera makers have not yet launched powerful equipment, and the civilian market has started to popularize concepts. The market for mid-range commercial devices remains blank . Nokia took this opportunity and the OZO camera can be said to be the highest-end and most complete one-stop solution for design ideas and engineering in front of the market (camera + front-end)
The author's company (Weirui Film), as the first VR company in mainland China that got cooperation with Nokia OZO, conducted related tests on OZO and recently produced a DEMO sample. Before using OZO, our R&D team also tried to use the current high-end equipment in the film industry as the basis for the development of one-stop solutions. It was introduced to the market in April this year. This solution is far higher in terms of final presentation quality and precise control. At OZO, however, it is also limited by many disadvantages such as cost and productization, which determines that the production equipment and solutions are only suitable for projects with the ultimate pursuit of quality.
In addition to high-end devices, I also tested various mainstream RIG panoramic stands on the market, including the most common GOPRO HERO series. However, regardless of the foreign support solution or the “one machine†of China’s countless startup companies, the problem that has to be avoided is that in the mid-end market, the positioning, strategy and product performance of OZO are all the best . If you must find out OZO The disadvantage is that it was previously priced at $60,000.
The reason why Nokia is the dominant player in the communications industry in the last decade is to lay the foundation for its unique industrial design. Nokia's industrial design focuses on Design Thinking .
OZO's HMD fisheye lens and microphone, clear positioning of 3D + panoramic sound, integrated integration of the fuselage, real-time splicing software and post-synthesis splicing software are all current VR panoramic camera design and engineering implementation of "just need", and Nokia really One-stop integration through OZO. A director with OZO can complete all the shooting production projects, and WYSIWYG can be previewed in real-time through panoramic mosaic, OCULUS DK2 head real-time panoramic preview guide performances. The current effect of OZO is no less than Canon’s 5D MARKII. Almost everyone who has seen the OZO real machine will be full of praise for the Nokia OZO shape design, of course, if touched OZO, it will also evoke some people's "memory."
Nokia One-stop Solution Device OZO
From the perspective of professionals, OZO's workflows and one-stop solutions are highly appreciated. Compared to the DIY RIG support system that requires its own, Nokia OZO has solved the unnecessary manpower, financial resources and efforts of the production team. loss. Thinking about the time we were testing the various stent systems, it almost became a “scientific small person†and the money was also leveraged. OZO's late-stage work flow is slightly concise, but it can basically guarantee that it can obtain a certain quality of video from shooting to output. With the promotion of OZO's marketing, the conventional synthesis software, special effects software, and splicing software used in the later stage gradually support OZO's introduction and work flow, facilitating more precise and complex processing in the later period.
| Can Nokia OZO be the device hegemony in VR virtual reality production?When referring to Nokia OZO, it is necessary to mention that JAUNT, which is currently competing with OZO, is a VR startup company. It is active in the capital market, and its VR virtual shooting equipment has also become one of the devices widely used in the mid-end market. There is also a lot of cooperation between JAUNT and NOKIA at the equipment level. In addition to JAUNT, another benchmark in the market is the launch of Facebook's recent Surround all-in-one, but Facebook does not have the intention of mass production, but the release of open source. This move has led to a large number of startup companies in China copying.
None of this seems to be an anxious rival for Nokia. The most fearful opponents are those who have not yet appeared . According to the grapevine, RED (American Digital Cameras), SONY Sony, and several other traditional equipment manufacturers are all developing equipment. By the time these companies enter the field of VR equipment, it will be an unprecedented chaos, but for content creators At that time, it may be the real “golden age†.
From our experience using OZO, we still prefer OZO as a mid-range solution, and its shooting results can basically meet the needs of mid-range content projects. With regard to the current understanding of the VR content market, OZO's innate advantages have been highlighted, one-stop solutions, Dachang brand durability, China localization, the most important thing said three times, the current pricing has been reduced to 320,000 RMB. However, do not think that 320,000 yuan is the final price, because to use OZO creative effectively, you must also be equipped with SDI line, capture card, MAC PRO or MAC BOOK, DK2 and disk array. So if you want to use OZO efficiently, you must invest at least RMB 100,000 in these (necessary) equipment.
Image courtesy of Verivision, Nokia OZO Live Preview
| Nokia OZO What room for improvement?Unspokenly, without a perfect device, there is no perfect lover. The premise for deciding whether to purchase or use a device is project needs and budget. OZO's price has restricted its widespread use. Of course, for domestic "money-rich" VR startup circles, this is simply not a thing! However, it is still quite stressful for some PGC teams to purchase OZO. This is also Nokia's third-party leasing business in addition to retail sales in the United States. Here to share some of the problems that Nokia OZO has in practice, perhaps these issues are the direction of future Nokia OZO upgrade software or hardware:
1. The real-time panorama preview has a delay of 3 seconds + which will affect the director's immediate judgment of the performance.
2, slightly heavier body, if you need to hang the aircraft eight-axis stability.
3, the fuselage has a blind area, need to be outside the safe distance to get better images.
4, high demand for late hardware performance, OZO's own stitching synthesis algorithm takes a long time.
Nokia OZO is a good product, which is why we tried to use OZO to create VR virtual content. Recently, we created a DEMO content and tried several extreme tests of OZO, such as dim light, ultra close shot, crevice movement, sources of sound in all directions, superposition of sound levels. As the VR video is still in production, we will share it with the content production itself at a later opportunity.
In the future, we will also use Nokia OZO for more VR video content production. If you are interested in device and content creation, you can also contact us.
Lei Feng Network (search "Lei Feng Net" public concern) Note: This article by the author Dong Hao, Wei Rui Film Founder and CEO, VR Director. "New Weekly", "Contemporary Movie", "Economy", "Wen Wei Po", "Shanghai Daily" and many other media conducted an exclusive interview on VR video content creation. Reprinted, please contact Lei Feng network authorize and retain the source and author, may not delete the content.
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