AP Launches VR Channel

RELATED:'Virtual Reality -- Ready for a Closeup' Webinar, Feb. 24, with Andrew Trickett (Merge VR) and Tony Mugavero (Littlstar), moderated by Next TV editor Jeff Baumgartner

The Associated Press is looking to give Web surfers a different perspective on the news. Make that lots of different perspectives.

AP is launching a virtual reality/360 video digital channel in collaboration with AMD, which will provide the image rendering and graphic tech.

AP has already used VR technology for a story about Worldport, a Kentucky packaging and sorting facility, and a story about a migrant camp in Calais, France, as well as providing some self-guided tours of the Star Wars opening and some high-end accommodations for well-heeled travelers.

AP said it will have complete control over the editorial content on the new channel, which is at www.bigstory.ap.org/VR360.

“Each new publishing technology reinvents how we experience news, and VR promises the next revolution by immersing us deep in a story,” said Paul Cheung, AP’s director of interactive and digital news production, in a statement.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.