OnePlus got a good bit of press for hosting the world’s first virtual reality product announcement, but CNN is about to blow that achievement out of the water. Following the success of its virtual reality highlight clips for the most recent Republican presidential debate, CNN has announced that it will be live streaming the upcoming Democratic presidential debate in virtual reality, although it can only be access by people suing Samsung’s GearVR headset.
CNN and NextVR will make history on October 13th by hosting the first-ever live stream of a news event in virtual reality, giving viewers a front-row seat to CNN’s 2016 election debates. The network is partnering with virtual reality technology platform NextVR to stream the CNN Democratic Presidential Debate live, in full 3D immersive virtual reality, from Las Vegas, NV. The live stream follows CNN and NextVR’s first virtual reality experience at the CNN Ronald Reagan Debate, where it quietly filmed the highest rated event in CNN history in virtual reality to make it available to users on demand. This experience is now available to users who have a Samsung GearVR virtual reality headset by visiting the NextVR portal in the Oculus Store. Once downloaded, the debate can be seen from the perspective of an audience member at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.