The difficulty and expense involved with creating traditional 360 videos inspired Pie to design a new way to create and edit immersive media on mobile.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, UNITED STATES, November 14, 2016 /EINPresswire.com/ -- In recent months, media companies including the New York Times, Paramount, Sony Pictures, and Fox have all announced new initiatives related to 360 video. As news companies and Hollywood continue to embrace virtual reality and 360 video technology, San Francisco-based startup Pie has launched a new iPhone app that will make it possible for anyone to create and share 360 videos and ‘slices’ in seconds - with or without a 360 camera.

Those looking to produce 360 videos can connect any iPhone-compatible 360 camera to upload a 360 video to Pie in seconds, and instantly add text and filters to their videos. Users without a 360 camera can use Pie’s proprietary ‘slices’ technology to capture content using their iPhones.

Pie videos are vertical, 10 seconds long, and the viewer can choose where to look by swiping the screen or twisting their phone. While 360 video is commonly associated with virtual reality, Pie is not a VR app. Pie’s team of four engineers and designers are instead laser-focused on building the best way to watch and create 360 videos on mobile phones without the need for a virtual reality headset.

Pie’s founders, who have been working on 360-video related projects for over a year, have said that they were inspired to dramatically improve the process of creating and editing 360 videos on smartphones after hearing from hundreds of individual creators and media companies who were overwhelmed by the cost and difficulty of producing 360 video content.

Pie is particularly focused on building mobile-friendly tools that the next generation of young content creators will use to capture the world around them. Co-Founder Ceci Mourkogiannis, 24, has said: ‘Our generation is used to spending seconds, not hours, capturing and editing video content on social media. Pie is all about democratizing a new media format that we believe is the future of video.’

Early adopters of Pie’s new video technology include entertainer and influencer Ashley Roberts - best known as a member of one of the most successful girl groups in the world, The Pussycat Dolls, and host of NBC Universal’s 1st Look. Roberts’ Pie profile gives her fans the chance to experience red-carpet events and behind-the-scenes moments in full 360:

‘Pie has given me the ability to merge my social media content with the coolest 360 technology. I’m now able to give followers the most unique, most cutting edge, and most technologically advanced look into what my active life is like.’

Pie’s investors include McClatchy, Colopl VR Fund, Sparkland Capital, Stage Venture Partners, Graph Ventures, and Matter Ventures. Andy Pergam, VP of Video and New Ventures at McClatchy, says that his company ‘views 360-degree video as a major driver for the industry overall’. McClatchy journalists with early access to the Pie mobile app have been using the startup’s software to capture key moments during this year’s election cycle. Emmy-award winning McClatchy video journalist Brittany Peterson covered the Republican campaign trail and scenes from Trump Tower during last Tuesday’s election using Pie’s software. Other non-professionals have also used Pie to capture the recent protests in San Francisco and New York using the app.

CTO and co-founder Guillaume Sabran has said that ‘seeing our technology used to capture such significant moments has been humbling. We hope to see Pie used to give our users around the world the ability to instantly experience both personal and newsworthy moments in a far more immersive way than was previously possible.’

Pie and its investors believe that by focusing on making a seamless 360 video creation experience, Pie can fend off competition from 360 video heavyweights YouTube and Facebook. Co-founder Jacob Trefethen explains that ‘thousands of 360 videos and slices have been uploaded to Pie during our beta period, which has given us confidence that our core focus on making creation easier and more accessible will provide us with a path to sustainable growth.’

Ceci Mourkogiannis
PIe
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Pie: Team Interview & Demo Video

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