Engineers, designers and creatives will unite in Hollywood in September for Oculus Connect, the first dev conference ever hosted by Oculus VR. The Irvine-based tech company, brought to fame for its $2 billion March acquisition by Facebook, chose Hollywood as Connect’s host city because it’s more of a virtual reality hub than you might think.
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Since it sits at the center of the world’s entertainment industry, Hollywood is holding the future of virtual reality in the palm of its hand. Hollywood’s creators and virtual reality engineers need each other to bring hungry audiences something way more thrilling than 3-D films could ever give them. Recently, The Los Angeles Times highlighted what an important role Oculus’s Rift product, a virtual reality headshot, could play in Hollywood: “To put on the Rift headset is to have the kind of out-of-body experience for which even the most compelling 3-D cinema doesn't quite prepare you."
Reportedly Oculus showed up at the Tribeca Film Festival this year to strut its stuff - and some directors have already started to develop content for it like Mark Romanek who said he is “intrigued by the intimacy” of Rift in the theatre.
Another virtual reality startup, Palo Alto-based Jaunt, has been making connections in the LA entertainment industry over the past few months to meet studios, directors and producers that are willing to develop content for its hardware and software.
These big industry players will unite at Oculus Connect this fall to get direct feedback during labs, sessions and keynotes - and also to get wind of an “upcoming Oculus technology.” Applications will be accepted starting July 10.
