As an official partner of the Cannes Film Festival, Orange made its first appearance at Next, the innovation hub at the Marché du Film. The Group presented its Orange VR Experience platform, the latest virtual reality content and awarded the first Orange XR grants.
Developing innovative content distribution
Orange has been developing augmented and virtual reality since 2016, and aims to support customers in these new uses by offering unique experiences via its powerful high-speed broadband network.
Orange offers a wide range of virtual reality content (films, documentaries, sporting events) via the Orange VR Expérience platform, along with an extensive selection of 360° video experiences via the Orange Cinéma Séries (OCS) catalogue.
For Edwige Henry, Head of Partnerships and Digital communication in the Orange Content Communication and Partnerships directorate: “Orange’s strength as an operator lies in proposing innovative content. This is possible through aggregating immersive content on dedicated platforms via agreements with rights holders such as production studios.”
Supporting immersive content production
Orange made its debut appearance at Cannes’ Next innovation hub to present its Orange VR Experience platform and highlight its collaboration with production studios such as Wevr, which presented its new VR productions TheBlu Season 1 and Irrational Exuberance during the NEXT Official B2B cocktail reception. The BABOAB studio unveiled its new virtual reality experience Crow: The Legend, which features the voice of Oprah Winfrey.
The evening was also the opportunity for Orange to announce the winners of its XR 2018 grant. This bursary, the result of a partnership between Orange and the lBeaumarchais-SACD , association, promotes new talent and experiences, rewarding three virtual, augmented or mixed reality projects. “The use of immersive techniques opens up whole new perspectives in terms of writing,” says Edwige Henry. “From considering off-camera to sound, entirely new ways of staging content will emerge.”
Orange XR 2018 grant: and the winners are…
The three winners selected among the 70 applications received are:
- “Now (no one lives here)” by Jérôme Blanquet (produced by: Metronomic),
- “Kayak” by Julie Stephen Chheng (produced by: Tiny Planets),
- “Kidnapping in Vostok” by Jean Bouthors and Titouan Bordeau (produced by: Les Astronautes).
The three selected projects will each receive a €25,000 writing and development grant, as well as a master class run by b<>com and Aspic Technologies to learn about spatialized sound and Uni-XR for immersive content production. At the same time, UniFrance will highlight the winning XR works during partner events and VR demos.
Finally, the finished works will be distributed via the Orange VR Experience platform.