YouTube now streams 360-degree live video
Spatial audio is coming to these immersive videos, too.
You no longer have to watch canned footage if you want to enjoy YouTube's support for 360-degree video. YouTube is rolling out live 360-degree streaming, giving you a chance to watch that concert, surgery or special event as if you were there. It'll get its first big use with "select" performances at Coachella this coming weekend, but we'd expect it to take off anywhere that VR-like video works.
You should start hearing a difference in pre-recorded clips, too. YouTube is introducing spatial audio to on-demand clips, so you'll know exactly where that guitar is coming from. There's no mention of spatial sound for live feeds, unfortunately, but this and the as-it-happens support both help bring 360-degree video (and by extension, virtual reality) further into the mainstream. You no longer need to go out of your way to get some of the most immersive video experiences, even if you don't happen to have even a basic VR viewer on hand.
