International electronics manufacturer Nokia, best known for their mobile phones has announced OZO, the first commercially available virtual reality (VR) camera designed and built for professional content creators.  Final testing and refinements to OZO are now underway with industry professionals, in advance of the product’s commercial release later this year with pricing and full technical specifications yet to be announced.  Nokia aims to offer OZO along with a suite of end-to-end digital media solutions as a new standard for professional capture, editing and playback of cinematic VR content.

OZO captures stereoscopic 3D video through eight (8) synchronized global shutter sensors and spatial audio through eight (8) integrated microphones. Software built for OZO enables real-time 3D viewing, with an innovative playback solution that removes the time-consuming process of pre-assembling a panoramic image.  OZO’s filmed content can be published for commercially available VR viewing hardware such as head mounted displays (HMDs), with immersive, full 360-degree imaging and spatially accurate original sound. OZO also integrates into existing professional workflows and works with third-party tools.

In order to help establish the new technology, Nokia has set up a VR filmmaking contest. Two filmmakers, selected from a pitch process set up on-line, will be given access to the Ozo camera to create a short VR film, and the First Place Winner will get to keep the Ozo camera. More information on Ozo and the contest are available on-line at: https://ozo.nokia.com