MIPTV Video: HTC Vive’s Rikard Steiber

Rikard Steiber, the president of Viveport at HTC Vive, discussed opportunities for VR content in conversation with World Screen’s Anna Carugati during a MIPTV keynote.

On the kinds of content best suited to VR, Steiber mentioned news and current affairs. “If you could transport yourself to the streets of Paris [after the 2015 terrorist attacks], and you see people lying on the floor, you hear the sounds in stereo, you [feel like you] are actually there. Or you go to the streets of Syria, where there’s chaos and disaster. The empathy machine will come into play and you’ll really feel something that you wouldn’t on a small TV screen. There’s an opportunity to change not just news and scripted and documentary, but also education. The example I like to give is, if you’re into dinosaurs, [you can be] transported to Jurassic Park and walk side by side with a giant Stegosaurus. You see its big head leaning down eating grass, and then you hear the roar of a T-Rex in the background, and the Stegosaurus raises its head, looks afraid and starts moving with the herd. That takes 20 seconds to show, but for a kid, you’ll never forget that. There’s no other way for you to transfer that experience. In virtual reality, we’re democratizing experiences. You can go to Syria, you can go to Mars before Elon Musk. Things that were only available to the few are now becoming available to everyone. That’s the power of VR.”