At Stormy Studio we’ve brought our years of experience producing professional business animated and filmed videos to the corporate VR production space.

Our team have the needed skills to produce high end real time VR experiences, original creative concepts that suit VR, plus the project management skills to deliver a high end Corporate VR production to set budgets and timelines.

With the quickly evolving software and hardware now available for VR we’re able to select the best production process and tailor it suit one or many VR destinations.

Since the revival of VR back in 2014 we have been working on our own research and development to ensure we can provide a corporate VR production service ready for the present and future of this exciting new medium.

Whether it’s for a Business VR explainer, animated or filmed 360 video, Promotion VR experience, VR training, VR entertainment or something entirely new we’d love to be involved.

2016 saw the arrival of a fantastic array of cutting edge VR headsets and accesories. Each offering a VR experience of high quality and all aiming to give a feeling of presence (*The magical moments where you really feel as if you’re in the 3D VR scene)

Below we’ve listed the goto VR headset options available in 2016. We also briefly highlight each of their pros and cons.

Corporate VR Hardware

First released by Google in 2014, the Google Cardboard effort originally considered a hobby project by some has grown from strength to strength. It provides a fantastic low budget and easy access route into VR and is well suited for business promotional experiences. The support provided by Google continues to grow and there are now many thousands of great experiences and apps available. *It is also belevie that Google are working on their own VR headset that will not require a phone.

A modern touch screen mobile phone, plus a simple £12.00 folded piece of cardboard with plastic lenses or a more expensive rigid plastic model with straps and adjustable lenses like the Homido VR headset.

Google Cardboard currently provides the most basic of VR experiences, with the quality varying depending on speed and screen resolution of the phone used. That said, it is often peoples first experience of VR due to its ease of access and genuinely impresses those who see it. It’s also wireless. The 3D viewpoint only picks up your head rotation and does not allow you to lean forward of pickup your small head and body movements. Though you can use a bluetooth joystick to move your self around or be a fixed point on a moving object i.e. a roller coaster.

The ease of access and low cost should be seen as a real benefit as a company like Stormy Studio could develop a Corporate VR production experience, which could be sent out with a branded Google cardboard headset to your target audience.

This would allow anyone with a modest touch screen phone to enjoy your Corporate Video Production, alternatively for an event stand you could invest in a number of more high end Cardboard compatible headsets like the Homido mentioned above to create a unique stand experience without the expense of the higher end headsets or the technicalities of wires and VR compatible PCS.

The negatives of using the Google Cardboard are easily outweighed by the positives. The only potential disadvantages are that the VR experience is below that achieved by the far more expensive VR kit and the simplest of cardboard headsets don’t have headstraps which can also be seen as a positive as it makes it all the more accessible.

Developed in partnership with Oculus the Samsung GearVr headset provides a high end wireless VR experience. Like the Google Cardboard the SamsungGearVR needs a mobile phone to use for the devices screen (Compatible Gear VR headsets are available for Samsungs flagship phones since 2014. i.e. Note 4, though to S5, S6, S7 etc).

Though unlike Google Cardboard the GearVR provides a much higher end experience offering lag free playback of content, perfected optics, and screen positioning.

We’ve been working with the Gear VR and virtual reality design at Stormy Studio in Plymouth, Devon since 2015.

A well build plastic headset with a slot for a compatible Samsung Phone and adjustable optics. The device is given access to core components of the phone which enable it to deliver a far superior VR experience and provide levels of presence.

Samsung GearVR currently provides the best wireless VR experience available at present without the need for a tethered headset or powerful PC, you just need the right Samsung phone. The 3D viewpoint the like Google Cardboard experience only picks up your head rotation. It does not currently support positional tracking where you can lean and walk move around in the 3D space. Also the screens on the compatible Samsung devices are of very high resolution, with fast refresh rates which all help to greatly improve the VR experience.

With a fantastic wireless headset such as the Samsung GearVR users are able to easily access a jaw dropping experience without having to deal with any wires or being overly careful when putting the VR headset on. Though ideally some time would be spent adjusting the optics to make for a more pleasant corporate video production VR trip for the viewer. For these reasons it would lend itself well to Corporate VR Production experiences at events where you’re looking to impress a user beyond that achievable with the simpler Google Cardboard option.

One main drawback is the cost of the compatible Samsung phone models and headset. Plus the lack of positional tracking means the user wouldn’t be seeing the very best VR experience that the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift both offer (see below).

Seen by many as the reason for the revival of VR in 2014. The Oculus Rift headset first appeared to the world as a kickstarter campaign by Oculus found Palmer Luckey. After a successful kickstarter campaign, multi billion dollar partnership with Facebook and 2 developer kits the excellent Oculus Rift consumer VR headset is now available for purchase.

A very well engineered plastic, metal and soft material VR headset with the highest resolution screens currently available in the world. Very high quality headphones are build in. Plus an infrared camera for positional tracking comes with each headset and more cameras can be added to expand the VR space. It also comes with a Microsoft Xbox controller plus Oculus are releasing two high specification motion tracked VR controllers later in 2016. The Rift looks set to take the world by storm this year as it does battle for the crown of VR headsets against HTC’s much anticipated Vive.

The Oculus Rift provides (as does the HTC Vive) some of the highest quality VR experiences available to date. With full positional tracking the user can walk around a given area, bend, lean and duck there way through the 3D VR experience. The consumer release is a very light headset not much heavier than a typical baseball cap which when accompanied by cutting edge VR graphics and 3D spatial audio make for a truly immersive VR experience. The only downsides so far are the fact the headset remains tethered to the required high end PCS that deliver the cutting edge visuals. 

The Oculus Rift is already a well known name in the public media and any Corporate VR Production available on the Oculus could well receive some press attention of its own through association. Plus stands with VR experiences using the Oculus generally have never ending queues of people lining up to try out the latest and greatest VR experience. Lastly a Corporate VR Production experience built for the Oculus or the Vive (see below) will look, sound and feel fantastic .

The cost of the headset and high end PC could be a barrier for the many user outside of the hardened gamers and early tech adopters. The fact the headset has wires could be seen as a negative by some though the positional tracking provided and high end graphics more than make up for this. 

Developed in a partnership between HTC (mobile and tech manufacturer) and Valve (World renowned games publishers, creator of the Steam software store, Steam PCs and controllers) . The HTC Vive looks set to be delivering the most premium VR experience available in 2016. With a camera for edge detection, motion tracked controllers and positional tracking all included of the highest calibre. The price is yet to be announced and this could play a role in how successful the Vive is compared to it’s closest competitor the Oculus Rift.

A rigid well build VR headset, perfect lenses, lighthouse camera tracking to enable positional tracking data and it comes with VR controllers (Oculus controllers are sold separately at the time of writing). It also includes a build in camera for camera pass through (so you can find your cup of English tea).

It’s reported by some to be the very best experience on offer in 2016. Though it has many similarities to the Oculus Rift it is hard to decide which is the better of the two.

It may well be the very best experience but perhaps not necessarily the best suited for business and corporate VR productions.

The cost may mean it’s simply not achievable for most corporate events at least for 2016.

After years of secret development behind the scenes the Sony Playstation VR (Previously Sony Morpheus) is being released in 2016. Working with the Playstation 4 the headset and VR experience looks set to do incredibly well with millions of Playstation owners around the globe .

With a slick futuristic look it’s easy to see one many say the Sony Playstation VR is the best looking of the VR headsets in 2016. The headset which includes full positional tracking will run on the hugely popular Play Station games/media console. The PS4 controllers already have motion tracking built in and will no doubt provide a great initial controller for their Sony VR experience.

It’s going to be a good VR experience though it’s not expected to quite be on par with the Oculus or HTC offerings review coming soon. Due to the power needed to run high end graphics on two HD (or above) screens the Playstation may struggle to keep up with the competition. Though the integration with the Playstation system should mean the VR is a pleasure to navigate and will have a large catalogue of games coming with its release later in 2016.

With direct integration with a solid system like the Playstation the VR experience should be an easy, robust and consistent level of VR. The headset looks great and would certainly go down well at a Corporate VR Production event stand.

In its first year the Sony Playstation VR is expected o be targeting at the games market far more than Corporate VR Production. As such developing for the platform may well be restricted though it’s certainly something we at Stormy Studio would love to look into further.