Jordan O'BrienDolby Atmos is coming to the world of VR via Disney-backed Jaunt’s dedicated VR App.
Jaunt is one of the world’s most notable virtual reality start-ups, with the company having received backing from the likes of the Walt Disney Company, Paul McCartney and Conde Nast – with Disney having a financial stake in the company. Now Jaunt can add another big name to the list of backers, with Dolby Atmos partnering with the company to launch the first dedicated VR content portal for titles mixed in Dolby Atmos.
Thus far Jaunt’s product portfolio includes just a single product – the Jaunt One. This is VR cameras designed to take on those from the likes of Nokia, with the OZO camera, and even Facebook, which has the Facebook Surround 360. Unlike those industry heavyweights however, Jaunt actively supports third party cameras through its studio development arm dubbed Jaunt Studio.
Jaunt Studio goes beyond hardware offering software, tools and applications to enable the creation of cinematic VR. The company’s post-production services support the Nokia OZO, as well as its own hardware.
In the custom, branded environment, the Dolby Atmos portal will allow viewers to easily access all available Dolby Atmos enabled VR experiences on the Jaunt VR app. To enjoy Dolby Atmos titles, users can download the Jaunt VR app for iOS, Android, Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift, or HTC Vive and play the titles using any pair of stereo headphones.
The titles available in the Dolby Atmos portal at launch include Paul McCartney: Live and Let Die, Jack White: Ball & Biscuit, Jack White: Freedom at 21, Revolt: Big Sean, the Pure McCartney VR series, Black Mass, Rapid Fire: A Brief History of Flight,Earth Encounter, Collisions, the North Face series, Zombie Purge, Time Bubble, Other Space, Visions of California, and more.
As part of the launch, Jaunt is releasing Mull of Kintyre in Dolby Atmos, the latest episode in the multi-part documentary series, Pure McCartney VR. Mull of Kintyre takes viewers and fans into Paul McCartney’s world as he recounts the inspirations and stories behind his 1977 hit song of the same name. Mull of Kintyre has been digitally remastered in Dolby Atmos by the original engineer, Geoff Emerick, resulting in sound that is spatially oriented and incorporates head tracking.
“Over the past 12 months, we’ve been working closely with Dolby and leading filmmakers, musicians and brands to create a library of marquee titles leveraging the Dolby Atmos technology. We truly believe high quality immersive audio in VR is more than half the experience. We’re very excited to offer Dolby Atmos support in the Jaunt VR App for consumers’ enjoyment,” says Cliff Plumer, president of Jaunt Studios.
“Experiences like Mull of Kintyre in Dolby Atmos truly make you feel like you’re standing there inside of the studio with Paul as his stories come to life all around you.”
The Jaunt One camera and Jaunt Cloud Services are now available for rental, allowing anyone to shoot, edit and distribute high-quality immserive cinematic VR experiences with Dolby Atmos. Now, with support of Dolby Atmos, VR content creators can leverage the full Jaunt platform to bring their immersive stories to audiences with precise spatial audio and make them readily available for audiences worldwide.
“Jaunt titles such as Mull of Kintyre make excellent use of Dolby Atmos,” says John Couling, senior vice president, E-Media Business Group, Dolby Laboratories.
“Viewers will have the rare opportunity to experience Paul McCartney’s journey with three-dimensional immersive audio and unprecedented realism. We’re looking forward to seeing more content creators take advantage of Dolby Atmos on the Jaunt platform, bringing high-quality, fully immersive audio visual VR experiences to consumers.”