Virtual reality would reach the mainstream in 2020

Martín-Blas, CEO of New Horizons VR, states that "we are facing a format change that will take three or four years to reach the mainstream. From a business point of view, it is still early for startups and closed-product investors since there is no killer app."

Edgar Martín-Blas, CEO of the developer New Horizons VR, has shared his impressions about virtual reality with those attending the Virtual Reality (VR) Observatory being held these days in Malaga organized by Medina Media with Panorama Audiovisual as a media partner.

"When a sector is born, nothing is easy. VR arrived three years ago and since then it has been an immense jungle. Now, in the last two years, things have begun to settle down by already creating products and content," he commented.

For Martín-Blas, virtual reality experienced a before and after when the young Palmer Luckey designed the Oculus Rift. In his opinion, the virtual reality sector is made up of makers, where not only theory is valid, it is also very Darwinian (he who fails, gets out) and is unlike any other wave experienced such as dotcoms or the emergence of apps. “Something big is coming but we still don't know what it is,” he said.

"However, virtual reality has been far from what we expected: amazing virtual worlds, a metaverse, massive VR social environments, virtual movies... When we reach 50 million glasses we will then talk about mainstream," he added.

He also pointed out the negative impact of Google's launch of the popular cardboard glasses. "95% of the population thought that this was VR and this is a problem. On the other hand, the first VR glasses were not developed in a volumetric environment and, in addition, 360 video was introduced, an immersive format that is not VR. On the other hand, the first VR glasses were not developed in a volumetric environment. In addition, 360 video was introduced, an immersive format that is not VR, which has created some confusion around virtual reality in which the user has to feel physically inside an environment,” he commented.

The CEO of New Horizons VR, a company that has already worked on more than 60 projects for 45 big brands (Telefónica, El País, Inditex, Coca Cola, Disney, Ferrari, Endemol, Antena 3...), is clear that we are moving towards ultra-immersion with volumetric content where the user has a totally immersive sensation. At this moment, New Horizons VR is developing alliances at the level of advertising (with companies like Havas), business (with EY), retail (with CHEP) or television (Endemol). The company is made up of eight professionals who generated a turnover of 3 million euros in 2016.

A look to the future

Looking to the future, Martín-Blas affirms that "we are facing a change in format that will take three or four years to reach the mainstream. From a business point of view, it is still early for startups and closed-product investors since there is no killer app. But, without a doubt, it is a sector that is going to change everything since all the pillars of the economy are already playing with the immersive format. This is not about VR, it is about the virtualization of everything."

In this future, Apple's launch of its ARKit development kit would mark a new milestone. In addition, the apple company would be preparing smart glasses called iGlass, smart glasses that would have their operating base in ARKit itself, opening new windows in this booming market.

Martín-Blas concluded his presentation at the Virtual Reality Observatory by stating that in 2016 360 video was king, in 2017, products for VR began to be generated with projects that allowed
interact with spaces of up to about 20 m2. Next year, we will experience the emergence of full experience VR, streaming VR and lightfield video (capturing the entire environment and generating volumetric content). By 2020, it foresees the launch of VR channels and a war between virtual and mixed reality. Finally, the mainstream would occur in 2020 with the reign of volumetric content.