Today at WWDC24 Apple and partners announced new tools that enable professional production of Spatial Video and Apple Immersive Video.
Spatial Video
Spatial video is Apple's term for stereoscopic 3D video using the Apple HEVC Stereo Video Profile format.
Currently spatial videos can only be captured by iPhone 15 Pro models and Apple Vision Pro itself, and there isn't much in the way of a professional workflow for editing and producing professional spatial videos.
Later this year Canon will release a "spatial lens" attachment for its EOS R7 cameras for professional quality spatial video capture.
Apple will also release a Final Cut Pro update adding support for editing spatial videos and adding "immersive titles and effects".
The Vimeo platform plans to add support for uploading spatial videos, and will launch a visionOS app for viewing them.
Apple Immersive Video
The Apple Immersive Video format is 180-degree video with 8K resolution, stereoscopic 3D, high bitrate, and spatial audio.
Currently all Apple Immersive Video is created and produced by Apple, using its semi-custom capture and production technology developed from its acquisition of NextVR.
Introducing Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive! New camera in development, designed to capture content for Apple Vision Pro with 8160 x 7200 resolution per eye, 16 stops of dynamic range for 90fps stereoscopic 3D immersive cinema content and more! Available later in 2024. Learn more! https://t.co/5pbSDnJYuI
— Blackmagic Design (@Blackmagic_News) June 10, 2024
To allow other companies to produce Apple Immersive Video, Apple is partnering with Blackmagic Design, the Australian camera hardware and editing software company behind DaVinci Resolve.
Later this year the two companies will launch an Apple Immersive Video production workflow involving a new Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive camera, an update to its DaVinci Resolve Studio editing software, and Apple's Compressor encoding tool.
The Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive records 8160×7200 per eye at 90FPS with 16 stops of dynamic range.
It's unclear which distribution platforms will get support for Apple Immersive Videos created with this workflow, as currently only Apple TV supports it. More details should be revealed later this year.
