For the first Democratic Debate on Tuesday, October 13, CNN will stream the debate live in virtual reality, a first in TV history. Users wearing the Samsung Gear VR headset will be able to select their own viewpoint to watch the debate, including an angle that isn’t shown to those viewing the debate on regular TV without the headset.
It would enable users to catch unscripted and more natural unguarded moments of a candidate. Kinda cool and kinda creepy but futuristic so we love it!
This isn’t the first attempt. CNN did an experiment by recording the Republican debate it hosted and moderated last month at the Ronald Reagan Library in 360-degree VR video. CNN then made it available to download at the NextVR app on GearVR.
Given the newness of this technology, it is unlikely that too many people will be taking advantage of the stream, but it opens the door for more streams in the future as the price of the headsets become more affordable.
Samsung announced late Summer that it planned to drop the price to $99 for Black Friday. Right now, they’ll run you about $199 on Amazon.com.
h/t Variety
