360-degree media

The "360-degree" and "virtual reality" terms have been tossed around a lot lately, often in the same sentence. Consumers may be led to believe that it's all the same thing, it's all figured out, and it's all very easy to produce, when in fact, it is not so simple.

Generally, the "360-degree" term refers to the viewing of prerecorded photos or videos in a manner that allows you to rotate your view's direction to reveal content that was just outside your field of view.

Non-VR 360-degree media has become relatively common. For example, many real-estate listing sites provide panoramic walkthroughs with a web-based player that lets you interactively pan around to view the space. Similarly, YouTube supports the uploading and playback of 360-degree videos and provides a player with interactive controls to look around during the playback. Google Maps lets you upload 360-degree still photosphere images, much like their Street View tool, that you can create with an Android or iOS app...