Enjoy a full album of photos from UCLA Anderson's LeVRage conference
By Carolyn Gray Anderson
We live in a future-oriented culture. But sometimes innovation is already right in front of you.
That was the message at LeVRage, which explored monetizing virtual reality and augmented reality from every angle — whether in a blockbuster movie or a scrappy marketing startup. Organized by UCLA Anderson’s Center for Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment & Sports (MEMES), the conference and expo convened panels of veterans and newcomers to make pronouncements on the most practical ways to scale new VR and AR experiences.
MEMES executive director Jay Tucker (’09) opened the day-long event by asking the question, “What if VR and AR tech grew the entertainment industry by $100 billion?” While experts were cautious about tying the profits from storytelling and technology innovations to a hard number within a specific industry, animated discussions ensued as they both agreed and disagreed about what’s going to make the next big difference in a vast number of consumers’ lives. Some observed that it makes more sense to market add-ons to existing products than to require consumers to buy a new gadget for every upgrade — though members of the audience gleefully waved their latest Apple mobile products in response.
All Five Senses
Keynote speaker John Canning, VP of interactive experiences at NBCUniversal, teed up the roster of speakers with his own remarks about the pace and rhythm of the industry, from that “weird and heady time” when the World Wide Web had our jaws dropping to now, when we see a spike in industry activity around immersive experiences that are much more than just visual.
Canning is excited about the Internet of Things and its potential to generate haptic or even olfactory immersion. This, he said, is where investors are active. But he also said that 2016 was “the year of ‘because we can,’” glutting our senses with gratuitous VR. Canning is also chair of the Producers Guild of America and he said that amid an onslaught of new mediums “not every experience has to be immersive, digging into a narrative also counts.”
Meanwhile, a surfeit of substandard products may be distracting consumers from the gem that glints underneath.
Vinay Narayan, executive director of VR for the HTC Vive, a sponsor of the event, reminded audiences that the immersive tech space hinges not only on flashy hardware but also on platforms that enable the experiences people will pay for. “Thirty million PCs are one upgrade away from VR,” he said.
Who’s Leading the Way?
“This is much more than a headset,” said Narayan, pointing out that the world’s leading companies are involved in a new wave of VR and AR consumerization. He and many other LeVRage participants cited VR and AR breakthroughs in science and medicine as forging new territory for gaming and Hollywood to explore. The health care industry is burgeoning, and technology is a driving force. Research and design are enhanced when a team of engineers and artists can collaborate before a product like an automobile is realized — and make corrections in real time. A huge monetization opportunity arises when communities within and across industries are contributing simultaneously to developing a product.
Practical applications for training — nurses, NASA technicians, UPS delivery personnel — can provide a mentally engaged immersive experience that also scales businesses and engenders a sense of empathy. Imagine, for example, training wildfire fighters virtually instead of trying to orchestrate controlled burns in the field. It’s much cheaper, yet the whole visual and haptic experience can be manufactured, complete with the noise, heat and thrust of a fire hose to produce actual adrenalin and true physical reactions.
Rooted in Humanity
Panelists variously united and dissented on the question of whether, for the average person, replacing real experiences with virtual immersion truly solves any measurable problems. A panel devoted to pro-social applications of VR and AR conceded that we can block or opt in to content but it doesn’t change what’s happening in the world. Still, some feel passionately that VR used to transport spectators out of their comfort zones makes the difference between apathy and real-life involvement with people facing war or poverty.
Entrepreneur and emerging technology expert Mariana Acuña, co-founder of Opaque Studios, observed that consumers are adaptable to new technology, and those in industry need to be as well. She moved from location-based studio work into software in order to keep pace. “Cross-pollination has changed industry,” she said. “Our whole vision is to democratize how films are made, to bring back collaboration in the creative process. Real-time production benefits from these advances.”
Acuña said she encounters push-back mainly among artists continuing to rely on traditional creative tools and methods. To keep a foothold, she said, “You’re always going to have to be yearning to get ahead of the curve.”
The Bottom Line
VR is a “hit-driven medium,” according to 20th Century Fox futurist Ted Schilowitz. Whatever its manifestations in the near or more distant future, consumers will be poised to judge both content and experience with ever more critical capacity. “You don’t want someone trying it for the first time and having a bad experience,” said Brad Allen, executive chairman of NextVR. The chorus among professionals at LeVRage was that humans will only continue to become more connected to devices and they will expect sophisticated storytelling to enhance their interaction in non-real worlds.
Related: Seen and Heard (and Felt) at LeVRage
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