Page 50 - AVN July 2017

FEATURE
>
THE NEXT ERA WILL BE ALL
ABOUT INTUITIVE
CONNECTIVITY. THE
AMOUNT OF DATA OUT
THERE IS INCREDIBLE.
—LAUREN MacEWEN, CEO OF 7VEILS.COM
“Yes, VR is a mainstream technology,” Terpon’s Artonne answered emphatically.
“However, porn has a unique advantage much like it did when motivating
customers to acquire or adopt other innovations. That is a major part of why we
believe it is crucial for the industry to participate in the creation of the technology
itself. As an example, some cam sites offer the possibility to develop personal
filters and tools. I believe that if we can give some space to tech-savvy customers
to develop apps and APIs for the new tech products we launch, it may give content
producers a lot more tools to generate exclusive and innovative productions.
While we can’t truly predict if the technology will eventually be led by porn or
mainstream, what we can predict is that the leverage of consumers will determine
the outcome … and I think porn has a huge advantage when it comes to holding
the attention of consumers.”
“Porn is always going to be special, no matter how you watch it,” agreed
Daniel Abramovich, CEO of VRBangers.com. “There is a viewer for every kind
of porn out there. I think a massive mainstream budget won’t really matter; it’s
the intimacy and that special moment that everyone is waiting for which will
determine how the market is shaped. Porn is a trendsetter, where one day POV
is the hottest thing and the next day stepmoms are the focus of millions of fans.
It’s only a matter of time until major revenue streams go into full speed. While
we are already doing well, we also understand that once people catch up with the
technology, revenue streams will reach a whole different level.”
But some standing on the sidelines are wondering, “Haven’t we been hearing
about VR for a couple years now? Wouldn’t the monumental explosion of growth
have already happened if it ever were really going to come?”
“It’s easy to feel like we’re stagnating if you aren’t engaged in the field,”
countered CAM4’s Darling. ”It has only been a year since the consumer versions
of the major VR headsets were released. I started creating adult VR content three
years ago, but for the first two years the only people who could consume it were
people with development kits. At this point, it’s just a matter of growing the VR
user base, which will happen (and is already happening) as big companies invest
money and intellectual property into the space.”
FEATURE | By Stewart Tongue
50 | AVN.com | 7.17
Anna Lee is the president of HoloFilm Productions and a leading director of
cutting-edge content. The company’s work includes the VR of today and some
very interesting new formats that go beyond what is already out there on the
consumer market. From her point of view, the industry is now poised for the start
of something special. “This sector is definitely one of the fastest evolving that I
have witnessed thus far in my ten-plus years in the adult tech space. Think of this
as the AOL dial-up days of VR. The future is VR/AR/AI and porn is the perfect
platform for that. In porn, particularly POV porn, you have the central character
(YOU) interacting with the other performers, and there lies the critical piece of
the puzzle. YOU are the central character in the narrative. Mainstream film rarely
relies on a POV perspective in narrative and because of this the VR that I have
seen coming out from non-adult has not had the immersive impact that porn has
had already—close, intimate, direct, stereoscopic scenes shot in proper frame rates
with close attention to scaling that VR porn considers must-haves when creating
content. Mainstream will help to grow the market—but they always come looking
for porn in the end.”
So if VR is already on its way, making money as we speak, and devices are
gaining a strong paying audience as well … what comes next? “The next era will
be all about intuitive connectivity,” opines Lauren MacEwen, CEO and chief social
media strategist of 7Veils.com. “The amount of data out there is incredible. For
instance, using the link shortener I developed at tis.xxx, we are already able to
see the Mac addresses of users clicking links. This tells us when someone was
looking at a site but changing devices. Being able to anticipate or react to user
behavior will alter how the user engages with content. For instance, connect the
user behavior to their Twitter account, and when they are tweeting from a mobile
device, tweet them something they can do or look at that is appropriate to that
experience. With intuitive connectivity, content creation will become a real-time
dynamic dialogue in ways even traditionally 2D cam shows can’t match.”
“I think the next big thing is going to be interactive toys,” said Paul of
UFeel.tv. “It is still in its infancy, and as the devices get better and cheaper, more
people will get on board. The content for these interactive devices has to be good
for the experience to be immersive. At UFeel.tv we shoot all our content knowing
it is going to work with interactive devices. This is a much different experience
than if you have an interactive device and try to retrofit content that wasn’t shot
with the interactive element in mind.”
“The next big thing will be mixed reality (MR) and augmented reality (AR),”
replied Abramovich of VRBangers.com. “Once we get to a point where those
two get combined with porn and become affordable to everyone, then the porn
industry will change forever. You would have the option to have virtual girlfriends
on a whole different level. We’ve also created a new kind of tube site called
Laidhub.com, which offers VR porn at the press of a button on your mobile device.
The user doesn’t have to download anything and can simply stream VR porn
anywhere in the world using our custom VR player. That kind of tech is already
changing how content gets consumed.”
Still, even among veteran content creators, affiliates and distributors, educating
people on a B2B level and on a consumer level remains a major hindrance to these
new trends gaining traction. Especially with things like cheap cardboard goggles
on the market blurring the lines between actual VR and a significantly diminished
experience calling itself the same thing while providing a much lower-quality
experience than other higher-end devices already on the market.
“I strongly encourage you to try VR on at least a mid-quality headset (you can
find a decent phone-mounted device as cheap as $25),” suggested Darling. “Try
content from different producers before you make any sweeping judgments on
how impactful adult VR is going to be. I’ve spent time producing every sort of
content imaginable in adult VR and I truly believe that VR cams are the wave of
the future.”
That always leads back to the question of how someone can get started in these
new business verticals. Up until even a few months ago, getting anything going in
VR or with haptics was a very expensive proposition. Now that too is starting to
change. “For those interested in dipping their toes into the VR porn market, we
have our award-winning library available for licensing,” offered Anna of HoloFilm
Productions. “Furthermore, we are now also selling the rigs used to create our
content for producers interested in avoiding some of the expensive mistakes that
we made in the beginning.”
The market is maturing, and best of all, mature audiences everywhere may
soon be paying significant revenue to trend-setting companies for the future of
interactive sex.
..