Sony Pictures has partnered up with Nokia, agreeing to use the Nokia Ozo virtual reality camera and software tools to produce and distribute virtual reality studio content.
The multi-year agreement has Sony integrating the Ozo Player Software Developer Kit into Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s Privilege Plus app — which offers movies, TV episodes and behind the scenes for Xperia phone owners — via Google Play.
The announcement comes after Sony in late September announced it had partnered with VR and augmented reality company Reality One to produce VR content based on the studio’s films and franchises.
“Partnerships with cutting edge technology companies like Nokia are critical as we develop the market for VR experiences and build scale in our production and distribution efforts,” said Pete Wood, SVP of digital sales for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Scot Barbour, VP of production technology for Sony Pictures, added: “Nokia’s Ozo camera and its suite of professional tools are an excellent solution for content creators because they seamlessly integrate into established production processes and workflows, and enable the real time capture and broadcast of VR content.”
Along with providing the studio with hardware and software technology to create VR content, Nokia’s Ozo Live VR tech will be used by Sony to offer VR experiences of Sony Pictures events.
“VR is an exploding medium that is rapidly changing how we communicate and bringing a deeper connection to how we experience content,” said Paul Melin, VP of digital media for Nokia Technologies. “We’re thrilled to partner with Sony Pictures and its talented storytellers to apply our technology and create experiences only possible with Ozo, like 3D 360 live VR broadcast[s].”
