The keynote address for Google’s I/O conference will be live-streamed tomorrow morning in 360 degrees via YouTube.
For those of you that may have forgotten, YouTube is currently owned by Google. For the most part, these two monolithic online entities exists in fairly separate states. However, recently they both found one of their first truly shared ambitions: virtual reality.
Google is heavily involved in both the virtual and augmented reality space through its Google Cardboard headset and its Project Tango software respectively. YouTube, on the other hand, has become one of – if not the – premier platforms for the release and circulation of 360 videos and content.
Tomorrow’s I/O keynote will be the first true crossover between these two interrelated companies and it seems to be coming at a very opportune time.
It was only a few weeks ago that YouTube first announced that it would be stepping up its already expansive 360 video efforts by enabling this type of content to be streamed live for the very first time on the site. This new initiative kicked off with a slew of productions from the recent Coachella music festival, and YouTube has kept up a steady diet of them ever since.
Google too is in the midst of a flurry of VR activity. The silicon valley giant is suspected by many to be revealing its own standalone VR headset during tomorrow’s address. Sources have shared with UploadVR that this will not be the case, but tomorrow the question will be well and truly resolved.
What is all but certain is that Google will announce some VR news of an epic scale at I/O. It would make all the sense and the world for that news to be delivered through the synergistic and immersive medium of a YouTube 360 live stream.
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The keynote kicks off tomorrow morning (May 18) at 10 am PST.
