The Best 360 Degree Cameras for Live Streaming at NAB

The two stand out 360-degree cameras for live streaming at NAB Show 2016, were Nokia’s OZO, and VideoStitch’s Orah 4i. Whilst both cameras serve a similar purpose, they’re targeting two completely different markets.

Nokia’s OZO

The OZO is targeted towards professional productions, with a hefty price point of $60,000. We went behind the scenes of the OZO presentation stage and had a close up look of the camera.

The camera features 8 lenses and 8 microphones. The lenses are positioned in a way which allows 3D stereoscopic video, which is the first we’ve encountered for 360-degree live streams.

 The stand out feature of the OZO in our books is the positional audio which dynamically changes depending where your viewport is directed.

In our opinion, the combination of 3D video and the positional audio, makes the OZO the most immersive 360-degree live streaming experience available at the moment. If you’ve got the budget, then we would highly recommend this camera.

VideoStitch’s Orah 4i

On the much cheaper end of the scale is the Orah 4i which is targeted towards prosumers. The price point of $3,595 ($1,795 if you pre-order the launch model) includes both the camera and the stitching box.

The camera itself features 4 lenses, and 4-channel ambisonic audio with an output of 4K at 30FPS. We would have liked to see 60FPS and, but imagine  expect this will be improved in future generations of the product.

At NAB, we were invited to attend a private showcase of the Orah 4i, and got a much closer look at the camera in action. We loved that the Orah’s combined form factor of the stitching box and the camera is quite small. We’ve used a 6x GoPro rig and a desktop computer on past projects and using the Orah 4i would dramatically reduce the cable jungle as it has only a single cable connecting the camera to the stitching box.

The Orah 4i is being released by VideoStitch, who currently offer the only real time stitching software (Vahana) on the market, which we used extensively for our 360-degree live stream of the Australian Open. As a software provider they’ve got the stitching down pat (albeit buggy at times), but we were skeptical that they could make the transition to hardware manufacturing smoothly.

All in all we were impressed with the Orah 4i and at the pre-order price point it’s a must buy for anyone working within the 360-degree live streaming industry.

If you’re interested in live streaming a 360-degree event why not check out StreamShark, our platform supports live and on demand 360-degree video.