The months after the commercial release of the first Oculus VR headset were an exciting and innovative period. The talented folks over at 37 Ninjas were one of the first groups to approach the unique challenge of bridging the gap between traditional broadcast and emerging VR entertainment. I was fortunate enough to work with Team CoCo and 37 Ninjas on the first ever Virtual Reality broadcast of the Conan O'Brien show in front of a live studio audience at the 2018 San Diego ComicCon.
A few days before showtime, 37 Ninjas needed a custom coded playback system that would correctly display feeds from their 360 camera arrays in real time. I programmed the video playback software that Conan himself would use on-stage during the broadcast using the Unity game engine and suite of video processing tools from Renderheads .
This effort was well received by audiences in person and at home, starting a wave of innovative engagement efforts by Conan and his team. I look forward to tackling even more immersive cinema work in the future since the technology that drives it has advanced so rapidly.
Big thanks to 37 Ninjas for including me in their visionary work and of course to Team CoCo for their openness and commitment to quality entertainment.
