Coachella just wrapped up weekend one with all of the headline making special guests one would expect from the three-day California festival. The festival has been live streamed on Coachella's YouTube channel so fans who were able to score tickets to the desert can still enjoy all of the action from the comfort of their hopefully largely dust free homes. Now YouTube is going one step further by expanding their 360-degree video technology and bringing it to live streaming for the festival, as well as spatial audio.
The support for 360-degree video was first launched about a year ago in March 2015. Numerous artists with the budget to put together videos have used it so far.
In addition to live streaming, they are also launching spatial audio for on-demand videos on YouTube. According to Neal Mohan, Chief Product Officer at YouTube, spatial audio, "allows you to listen along as you do in real life, where depth, distance and intensity all play a role."
Mohan expanded on why he believes he 360-degree viewing experience is going to be so important.
"What excites me most about 360-degree storytelling is that it lets us open up the world's experiences to everyone. Students can now experience news events in the classroom as they unfold," Mohan wrote in a blog post. "Travelers can experience faraway sites and explorers can deep-sea dive, all without the physical constraints of the real world."
The new technology is being done in collaboration with VideoStitch and Two Big Ears.
Coachella will pick back up again this weekend on Friday and run through Sunday night. Get ready for a different viewing experience as you watch some of the biggest artists in the world perform for a second time in the desert.
