Virtual Reality Has Its Olympic Moment

For this year’s Olympic Games, NBC launched a new extra for viewers with a Samsung Galaxy smartphone and Gear headset: 85 hours of virtual reality content. The network promised 360-degree immersive video experiences for the opening and closing ceremonies, plus seven sporting events, including men’s basketball, gymnastics and beach volleyball. There are a few caveats: The cost to the user is relatively high — about $180 for hardware plus a TV provider subscription — and VR hardware is still clunky by most experts’ and users’ standards. Plus, the content is released on a delay; the opening ceremony wasn’t available in virtual reality until the day after it aired live. Still, NBC’s move has been lauded by analysts as smart and strategic at a time when technology companies and content creators are working out how to make virtual reality as ubiquitous as mobile video and gaming.

NBC isn’t alone in taking advantage of the Olympics to test out VR strategies. TheFinancial Timescreated afour-minute virtual reality videoabout Rio de Janeiro titled “Hidden Cities,” and Kellogg Co. teamed up with U.S. Olympic swimmer Tom Shields to give viewers a360-degree swimming experience。随着将用户运送到他们的物理现实的技术仍然不断发展，没有人完全确定哪种类型的内容最适合中型，实验是关键。

These brands could likely learn a lot from the video game industry. Gamers tend to be early adopters and are more willing than most other demographics to spend money on consoles and content. Deloitte predicts that VR will have its first billion-dollar revenue year in 2016, thanks to gaming. In Januarythe firm said it expected about $700 million in hardware sales约有250万耳机，其余部分来自内容 - 具体而言，销售大约1000万游戏。其他人预测销售额数十亿美元;然而，今年八个月，然而，德勤加拿大德勤加拿大兼省德勤加拿大和电信研究总监Duncan Stewart表示，他的公司更保守的估计是最准确的。投资者对VR感兴趣，但难事位仍然存在很少，如果有的话，这项技术可以包括超过1％的收入。这使得该部门是一个艰难的卖出，至少现在。

术语“虚拟现实ity” was popularized in 1987 by computer scientist Jaron Lanier, and there have been many fits and starts since then. Eric Galen, an attorney with Greenberg Glusker who specializes in entertainment and technology law and works with VR firms, believes the current climate is promising for creating devices that are as easy to use, and as cheap, as mobile phones. Nintendo Co. and mobile game developer Niantic may have opened many consumers’ eyes to the possibilities with the recent viral success of Pokémon Go. There’s a big difference, though, between spotting Pikachu on a park bench through your phone screen — more augmented reality than virtual reality — and feeling as though you’re completely immersed in a Pokémon world.

“Virtual reality is kind of an inevitable evolution of storytelling, and the question really is just the ecosystem,” says Galen. “Who are the winners going to be?”

That’s a question thatKensho Technologies’ new Virtual Reality Indexis aiming to help investors answer. The index follows companies that have exposure to the growing industry — including Facebook, which owns the Oculus VR, maker of the Rift headset, and interactive graphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp. It was up 13.5 percent in the month following the release of Pokémon Go.

Though demand is rising as virtual reality technology evolves, analysts agree that it’s unlikely that most people will have setups in their homes in the next five years. For investors, the best course may be to focus on companies that are positioned to benefit from a coming VR boom and have businesses that can generate revenue in the meantime. These include semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices, which recently partnered with start-upAwesome Rocketship要创建VenueVR网关，一个包含耳机和运动控制平台的POD，以允许用户体验VR。公司的希望像令人敬畏的火箭队一样，解释了Galen，就是私人VenueVR的归档，将是虚拟现实，NickelodeOns对电影和电视。

“在生态系统的关键部分的投资将非常重要，”Galen说。“谁可以用伟大的故事和一个真正有效的设备出来，并且可以赢得一段时间。”

Follow Kaitlin Ugolik on Twitter at@kaitlinugolik。