GoPro and Google officially launch Omni, their smaller, cheaper 6-camera VR rig

Last September, Google teamed up with GoPro to launch its 16-camera VR device, Odyssey. At $15,000, it was far from a consumer-grade device and even pushed the boundary of many professional uses.

Now, Google and GoPro have announced a brand new VR rig that is set to target those who don’t care to drop dive figures for a VR capture device.

It’s called Omni, a device with a strangely familiar name that features a cube-like design meant to hold six HERO 4 cameras on each side. When stitched together using GoPro’s Kolor software, these six cameras create a complete, 360º video.

Pricing isn’t yet confirmed, but the cameras along will cost roughly $2,500. Off a few hundred more for the rig itself and any software needed to stitch the footage together and we’re looking at a price tag around $3,000–4,000.

While not cheap, this would put at it roughly 1/4th the cost of their much larger rigs. The average joe isn’t going to be able to go out and snag this whenever, but for creative agencies and smaller media operations, it’s a much more manageable price tag than Odyssey.

Google says it’s bringing Omni to NAB, one of the biggest video production trade shows, which is scheduled only two weeks out from today. Maybe then we’ll be able to get a better idea of what GoPro and Google have been getting up to.

Until then, we’ll just sit back, wait and see what companies come out victorious in the world of virtual reality.

[via Engadget]