There are plenty of 360-degree cameras on the market that let you shoot video for virtual reality (VR), but there's still a niche to be filled for high quality live streaming. And this is exactly where the Orah 4i comes in.
VideoStitch claims the Orah 4i is an all-one-solution aiming to take the hassle out of creating 360-degree video by automatically recording, stitching and live streaming the footage all on its own. Of course, live streaming 360 video has been done before by the Ricoh Theta S.
But, the Orah 4i has a leg up on its competition by shooting that footage in 4K.
The camera itself is built with an angular, metal body equipped with four fish-eye f2 lenses and four Sony EXMOR sensors positioned along its sides. What's even more impressive than recording a 360-degree scene, is the Orah 4i also captures "ambisonic 3D audio," so it can accurately project sounds in the virtual world as they are created in real-life.
The Orah 4i is connected to a custom streaming rig to help it stitch four individual, 2,048 x 1,536 video streams into a single 4K resolution environment users can look around in. VideoStitch doesn't say exactly what parts are inside the streaming unit, but its basic specs include an Intel CPU and Nvidia graphics chip.
Of course, all this power comes at a whopping price of $3,595 (about £2,543, AU$4,731). The good news is early adopters who want to get in now can pick up the camera at a discounted promotional price of $1,795 (about £1,270, AU$2,362).
Either way, it's still prohibitively expensive for most people, but not to the extent of the $60,000 (£41,644, AU$78,174) Nokia Ozo or the $15,000 (£10,411, AU$13,029) GoPro Odyssey. And that really is the crux of VideoStitch's reason for introducing the Orah 4i.
The company wants its first 360-degree camera to change the game for professional VR broadcasting by offering a much more affordable and simpler system. At least that's what VideoStitch has claimed, we'll have to see how the camera actually handles to judge whether it lives up to the vision.
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