In its never-ending quest to become the leading destination for watching online videos, Facebook has announced that it will launch 360-degree Live videos.
The new video format is simply called “Live 360” and it launches on Tuesday. To debut it, Facebook is teaming up with National Geographic for a special 360-degree live experience from the Mars Desert Research facility in Utah.
The live broadcast will allow viewers to watch eight scientists emerge from pods they have been living in for the past 80 days. The experiment was created to mimic life on Mars and give scientists the opportunity to experience what it is like to be isolated from humans for an extended period of time.
According to a Facebook, the live 360 will also provide a fascinating look at aspects of their lives, such as when scientists put on their special space suits.
There will also be a Q&A with "expert scientists, writers and thinkers," who will answer questions from the comments.
The introduction of live 360 video is a step towards advancing Facebook's virtual reality vision, but the feature will be limited at first.
Facebook says that even more pages will provide this feature via the Live API in the coming months, but a broader rollout for all pages and personal profiles won't happen until next year.
Facebook Live 360 seems like the natural next step for the social network video ambitions, as the company is already a strong player when it comes to live and 360-degree video.
