Though the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive is expected soon, this week saw the surprise announcement of a second top-tier immersive camera option — the Immersive Camera Two, from Immersive Company. Like the upcoming Blackmagic camera, this new camera supports 16K at 90fps, but it can also stretch to 180fps to support high quality slow motion. Details are scarce, and this is merely a quick look at the camera and other offerings from the company behind it, but they’ve still a new benchmark for visual quality in the immersive space.

While I don’t have this camera for review, I have been able to review video shot with it, made available in a new app called Prima Immersive for Apple Vision Pro. (If you’re outside the US, like me, you can ask for early access here.)

Today, the short film series available in the app is called Sessions, and features just one acoustic performance with more planned. Produced by The Spatialists, the video features AJ Lee and Blue Summit performing three bluegrass tracks, with short linking interview pieces from AJ Lee between. While only two static camera angles are used, this allows the viewer time to look around while the band performs for them alone. It’s simple, but it works very well.

Visually, the quality is fantastic, surpassing the quality of much of Apple’s own immersive content. Objects both near and far are clear and sharp, though the edges of the 180° frame do get a little softer. But what’s truly amazing is the audio quality, mixed in Dolby Atmos by multiple Grammy winner Michael Romanowski. I’ve listened through the Apple Vision Pro itself, through AirPods Pro 2, and through AirPods Max, and across the board, the music was remarkably crisp, real, and positioned perfectly in the space.

Have you ever been to a party where a band played live, and been able to stand right in front of them? It’s like that, but with better sound, and more eye contact. While Apple’s own productions have left me amazed and immersed, I’ve wanted more clarity from the images, and this delivered. I can’t wait to see more.

Immersive production services

I wouldn’t be writing this article if there was merely a new app with great-looking, great-sounding footage. No, the most interesting thing for video production professionals is the new platform, also called Prima Immersive, that includes a new specification for immersive video. Some key points include a minimum of 7200x7200px per eye, the P3-D65 color space, a 90fps frame rate, and specific immersive audio formats. Comfort guidelines are specified too: movement limited to a single axis, a 58-72mm interaxial distance, and more.

The platform includes a new video encoder that claims to cram 8Kx7K images into 30Mbps with higher quality than the Apple default MV-HEVC encoder or x265 HEVC. Compression and encoding can be a serious undertaking for large-scale immersive delivery, and numbers like these make high-quality distribution much more achievable and affordable.

Production services include camera rentals and processing for all kinds of 3D videos, which may well make it easier for interested filmmakers to explore the field. If you’re considering an experiment in this space, do realise that everything in 3D is just a little harder than everything in 2D, and everything in immersive is harder again. Getting a leg up from industry professionals is an excellent way to start, and I don’t know of any other companies offering a similar full-spectrum suite of services like this.

Conclusion

One of the criticisms of the Apple Vision Pro is that there hasn’t been enough immersive content, but I think it’s clear that we haven’t had cameras good enough to saturate all the Apple Vision Pro’s pixels before. Now we have two monster cameras set to become available within a couple of months of one another, and the future is crisp. This is a good time to be an Apple Vision Pro owner, and we’re going to see a lot more amazing content soon.