Urgent emergency call from Universal Studios - digitec tinkerers save film studio
29.4.2017
Translation: machine translated
Okay, the title is a bit of an exaggeration. But the fact is that you wouldn't be able to have a VR experience for the upcoming action horror film "The Mummy" at Fantasy Basel if we hadn't been tinkering with VR goggles in the editorial team.
The email subject sounds harsh: "VERY URGENT The Mummy - HELP NEEDED". Oops, what's going on? Thomas Schneider, Marketing Project Manager, is standing in front of my desk asking if I can help. The problem is easy to describe: Our partners at Universal Studios have VR hardware from us and a video from the USA. Our VR hardware doesn't play the video. The drama is taking place the day before the opening of Fantasy Basel, when the VR content is to be shown. So there is no time to lose.
"VR? I've never had anything to do with it," I say.
"Yes, but you're the tinkerer here," he says.
There's something to that, when it comes to making things work, I'm the guy from the editorial team who does it. Others in the company can certainly do that too. I need a better argument than just "you're the guy to do it". I gave myself that argument straight away: I've never had anything to do with it and I'm a film fan. Unsolved technological problem plus new technology plus reboot of a cult film monster? Admittedly, I'm not directly uninterested.
"OK, give me everything you've got," I tell him and the email arrives in my inbox.
Two minutes later, I ask Thomas where the video is that he wants me to set up in the VR Goggle.
"I can't give it to you. It's top secret. I don't have it either," he tells me.
Good, so I'm supposed to get a video going that I don't have and can't get. Exciting. But hey: challenge accepted. Let's get to work.
Searching for clues: What kind of video is this?
Although I can't get the video myself, I have an instruction manual in the email that was sent from somewhere in English to our contact person, then to Thomas Schneider and then to me. It says:
Copy the mp4 inside a folder named "MilkVR" OR (Movies if MilkVR isnt available) in your Samsung device root folder (internal memory or SD card). Remember, do not change the filename of the mp4 or else it won't play back correctly
Perfect! I can work with that. A video is quickly found. Some nature footage. I'm hoping for a desert, because then at least there'll be a bit of a mummy feeling, but it doesn't really matter.
Hardware: We know what Universal uses
Since Thomas Schneider has been discussing the best setup for their stand with Universal for weeks and is trying to make the VR experience as good as possible despite deadlines and secrecy issues, I can easily say what will be used at the stand.
Easy! I just happen to be testing the Samsung Galaxy S8+ and there are still a pair of glasses in the Zurich shop. Shop supervisor Patrick Eugster hands them to me not even a minute after the shop opens at 9 a.m. and I get to work in the office.
What do the VR glasses swallow for videos?
I'll try the cheapest way ever. I just quickly copy the video into the video folder on my phone, plug it into the VR glasses and see what happens.
Make an account!
Install the apps!
For the fact that smartphones are supposed to be simple plug-and-play devices, this thing is a lot of trouble. So I create an Oculus account - which is absolutely necessary thanks to a Samsung-Facebook collaboration - that doesn't work with my business email. For whatever reason. Never mind, private email. Works too. Great.
So I look for the MilkVR app mentioned in the operating instructions.
I don't find it.
Why?
I'll have a look. Obviously the instructions must be a bit older. And by older, I mean that it was written around spring or summer 2016. Because around October, according to plusminus, Samsung renamed MilkVR to Samsung VR.
So I look at the library on the Oculus Home screen, where all the local VR apps are listed, tap on the side of my glasses and then select the Samsung VR app. The operating instructions say the following:
Go to "Sideloaded" at the right (NOT videos!) and select the file you just uploaded.
The only funny thing is that the app shows me a video in "Videos", but nothing in "Sideloaded". All right, let's see what happens when I watch it via Videos.
Rainforest. River. 3D. VR.
Hah! Works.
The saved fair
So I'll write it all down, in far fewer words. The whole operation, from receiving the mail to internal coordination and sourcing materials from all corners of digitec to sending the email with the solution to Universal Pictures, took three hours.
"It's good to be good," I say to Thomas Schneider after the matter is over and I've finally eaten my oatmeal bar for breakfast at around 10.40am. I also decide that Tom Cruise owes me a beer.
"Yup. We are," he says.
And that's the short story of how we helped Tom Cruise and co. to be scrutinised in three dimensions by visitors to Fantasy Basel. However, there is one thing Universal has leaked to us that should be a secret: VR viewers will find themselves inside an aeroplane.
Have fun!
Update 29/04/2017: It works!
After the first day of the trade fair in Basel, reader Silvia Jacob sent me a picture of the Universal stand with a fully functional VR Experience.
Cool!
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
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