GoPro’s New Omni Virtual Reality Rig Cradles Six HERO 4 Black Cameras

by Brandon Hill — Thursday, April 07, 2016, 03:36 PM EDT

As you can see by the steady stream of virtual reality (VR) headsets that have hit the market (Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive) and those that are incoming (PlayStation VR), consumers are in for a real treat when it comes to experiencing media and gaming content. The folks at GoPro are looking to make it easier to produce VR content at a somewhat reasonable price with its new Omni camera rig.

The Omni is capable of housing six GoPro HERO Black cameras and uses proprietary hardware to enable “pixel-level synchronization” between the cameras to provide high-quality 360-degree video footage. While Omni will not shoot in 3D, it is also fully integrated with GoPro’s Kolor VR-video software

Although GoPro hasn’t yet to give us a price tag for this setup, six HERO 4 Black cameras alone will set you back $3,000 and you’ll have to figure in more than a few hundred bucks for the Omni rig itself. Regardless of what the final cost to videographers will be, Omni will no doubt be far less expensive than the $15,000 16-camera Odyssey VR rig that GoPro developed in conjunction with Google.

It’s been reported that you will be able to purchase a fully decked out Omni with all the cameras and cables necessary to get up and running. Likewise, if you already have a number of GoPro cameras in your arsenal, you will also be able to purchase the Omni rig by itself.

GoPro will reveal more details about Omni at NAB 2016, which is being held April 18^th through April 21^st in Las Vegas. Now if only GoPro would reveal some more details on its Karma drone…

Tags: omni, gopro, (NASDAQ:GPRO), karma, hero 4 black

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

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