DREAM THEATER LAUNCHES ITS FIRST 360° INTERACTIVE APP (iOS)

[Weymolith]

DREAM THEATER LAUNCHES ITS FIRST 360° INTERACTIVE APP (iOS)
January 9, 2014, Los Angeles

Dream Theater are proud to announce their first 360° App (iOS).  The DreamTheater360° App will offer fans a unique 360° interactive experience into the Grammy-nominated progressive metal titans’ performance as captured onstage by Mativision® multi-camera 360° video technology at Luna Park in Buenos Aires. (App Promo video: https://youtu.be/NthrisVjOC0). The DreamTheater360° App is released on January 9, 2014 and it promises to be a thrilling way for fans to interactively experience the band’s onstage world.

The DreamTheater360° App in its first release will include five interactive songs filmed and produced using the Mativision technology, which virtually transports fans directly onto the Luna Park stage right next to the band members and completely immerses them in a unique experience that they can control in real time. Each fan can direct the show by manipulating Mativision’s multi-camera iOS player, and enjoy the concert in any way they want. They can seamlessly choose to switch from among six different cameras while also being able to rotate camera angles by taping and dragging, or by using the device’s built-in gyroscope. Fans can even zoom in and out or simply switch to “auto pilot” mode and enjoy the show without interaction.

With this groundbreaking app, Dream Theater aim to share with fans all the intense moments of a live performance from right beside them on stage, and provide fans with true interactivity to experience the onstage moments with complete freedom.

Along with the unique interactive 360° content, the DreamTheater360° App will also include enriched up-to-date band-related content such as a biography, discography, photos, and continuously updated tour information, news, and social media.

The first release will be just the start: Mativision will constantly surprise fans with frequent updates, adding more and more amazing and exclusive band content. The DreamTheater360° App is available from the iOS AppStore on the 9th of January, priced at $9,99.


About DREAM THEATER:
With total sales exceeding 10 million albums and DVDs worldwide, Dream Theater have long stood among the upper echelon of hard rock giants. Albums such as 1992’s RIAA gold-certified classic Images & Words (featuring the breakthrough top 10 single, “Pull Me Under”) have earned the Long Island, NY-based band countless accolades for their visionary synthesis of melodic power and virtuosic experimentation, including being named as one of Rolling Stone’s top 10 “Best Prog Rock Bands of All time.” They formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy. Though a number of lineup changes followed, the three original members remained together, along with James LaBrie and Jordan Rudess, until September 2010, when Mike Portnoy exited the band. In October 2010, Dream Theater held auditions for a new drummer, and added drummer extraordinaire Mike Mangini to its roster. DREAM THEATER’s spirit of adventure and fearless musical virtuosity continues to reap dividends for the progressive metal titans who’ve just earned their second Grammy nomination, this time for “Best Metal Performance” for their single “The Enemy Inside” from their current self-titled worldwide smash album on Roadrunner Records. The band received its first-ever Grammy nomination in 2012 for “On The Backs Of Angels” (from their A Dramatic Turn Of Events album) in the “Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance” category.
    
Mativision® delivers THE ultimate interactive “I Was There” Experience (Live Streamed or VOD). Mativision technology captures live performances/events by using multiple special 360° Mativision cameras. The multi-camera Mativision Player© then allows the performance to be viewed from almost every angle in full 360°. Users can choose between multiple synchronized cameras, rotate their view (look around), zoom in and out, switch to “auto pilot”, with access to lyrics, photos, videos, links to Artist related sites and full social networking connectivity. Mativision Players are available for embedding on any web site, including YouTube, Facebook etc), standalone desktop and/or Apple mobile platforms (iPad, iPhone and selected iPods). Find out more about Mativision at: www.mativision.com or facebook.com/mativisioncom and follow @Mativision on Twitter.

https://youtu.be/NthrisVjOC0

[Prog Snob]

Awesome!    But...

[faizoff]

Link for the app
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dream-theater-360/id756637455?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2

Can't decide if I want to get this for my phone, seems to small to enjoy it.

I wished something similar was available for watching on a PC as well.

[nobloodyname]

I wished something similar was available for watching on a PC as well.

Have to agree with this.

Also very surprised there's currently no Android version given its market share.

[CrimsonSunrise]

How cool!!!!  Just tried to download and 1.5gb isn't enough space    how much storage does it need??

**edit -   deleted 3 gb of music , now loading.

[As I Am]

 

[mikeyd23]

Hmm... This would be pretty cool on my iPad.... I'll have to check it out when I get home from the office, cool concept though! I wonder if they will continue to add new songs in future releases?

[TAC]

What do I do with it though?? I'm not going to watch it on my iPhone..

[Mindflux]

How cool!!!!  Just tried to download and 1.5gb isn't enough space    how much storage does it need??

The app claims it requires 1.1GB.

[CrimsonSunrise]

Just dumped 3gb of non essential tunes, I can reload and prioritize later.  It's loading now


**edit - maybe others caught it, but when watching LP, I saw the cams and thought...what the hell are those??      Now I know   

[Perpetual Change]

Hah, what I strange status update from Mangini -

Mike Mangini via Dream Theater

I didn't know about this... how cool huh ?? Yes, I just bought it. No special treatment We're all on the same ride in the end. Enjoy if you get it !!

[CrimsonSunrise]

So...downloaded and installed to my ipad, now it say I need to be connected to the net to run.  Umm... my wifi is on and running  WTF???  Matter of fact from the app menu I can open Facebook


**edit - updating iOS, hopefully that will do it...sigh,  I'm such a techtard....

[Shadow2222]

Downloading now! I already have 6:00 from the Deluxe Edition of Luna Park, so I know how cool the tech is. I'm looking forward to playing around with the other songs in this first batch.

[CrimsonSunrise]

Finally got it sorted out.  How fucking cool!!!!  I could just sit and watch MM....bitchin!!!!

[TheAtliator]

This is freaking AWESOME. Can't get 6:00 to work though. But 

[Mindflux]

Downloading now! I already have 6:00 from the Deluxe Edition of Luna Park, so I know how cool the tech is. I'm looking forward to playing around with the other songs in this first batch.

Is that 6:00 in the deluxe just another disc or a bonus feature on one disc? I forgot about it.

[Shadow2222]

Downloading now! I already have 6:00 from the Deluxe Edition of Luna Park, so I know how cool the tech is. I'm looking forward to playing around with the other songs in this first batch.

Is that 6:00 in the deluxe just another disc or a bonus feature on one disc? I forgot about it.

Actually, there was a slip with a link and redemption code to download it on a computer, since its actually contained within a program. If you lost your slip or whatever, don't worry about it, as 6:00 is already in this first batch of songs within the iPhone app.

[CrimsonSunrise]

This is freaking AWESOME. Can't get 6:00 to work though. But 

6:00 took me the longest to download.  It kept saying "Can't connect to the applestore".  I'd hit main menu then go back in and try again.  Took me about 20 times before it finally started.

[TheAtliator]

I probably tried that 19 times this morning. Then I read your comment and tried again and it worked,  thanks.

[RaiseTheKnife]

Hoping this will become available on Android or PC.

[PROGdrummer]

so I guess the rest of the songs will have to be purchased

[CrimsonSunrise]

so I guess the rest of the songs will have to be purchased

Probably, but that's cool, as long as I can pick and choose what I want.  Hopefully, this next Bluray will have the same 360 filming. 

[rickhawk80]

   $9.99 seems steep for an app that gives you access to a biography and discography that can be found for free on the web and lets you watch a handful of song videos from a concert we all purchased at great expense if we bought the CD and DVD set and apparently will charge you to watch additional songs.  Not sure I'm on the bandwagon for this.....

[CrimsonSunrise]

The flip side, and maybe I'm just uninformed, is that I've never seen this technology incorporated at this level.  So, then the question is....is THAT  worth it?  For me...absolutely.  It's awesome.  More awesome than me buying a CD with stem tracks or some of the other stuff I've bought 

[Lucien]

And you can bet there will be more youtube videos with titles like "Dream Theater - Breaking All Illusions (Live at Luna Park) MYUNG ONLY" and I would watch the hell out of it.

[Rob801]

Just purchased this and am loving the hell out of it!!! I could also keep it on MM the whole time but itøs cool being able to have the other cameras set and switch quickly when  you know a solo or cool passage is coming from whoever... Cant wait till LNF becomes available  .

One thing that could be nice is an in app airplay button instead of having to use mirroring to get it on the big screen (or did I just miss it?).

[Syzzle]

Not releasing it on Android is such an epic fail.

[Another_Won]

I knew I was passing on this without getting the box set and I was ok with that.  When this came out, I thought why not for only $10.  I'm glad I did because it's awsome  

[wasteland]

This app is seriously one of the best thing ever. Especially the gyroscope feature, which let you basically look left and right just turning on that direction with your device in your hands. It feels like being there, more than anything else I've seen before! The video quality is not top notch, but understandably so, as featuring 6 360° video stream in HD quality for a full concert would have probably taken 50-100GB at least.

Anyway, very very strong release, and I don't mind paying some extra money for the whole concert in 360°, even though I already paid 35£ to get the main release. That being said, of course I hope the next batch of songs will come free or at a symbolic fee (0.89$ would be great).

 

[CrimsonSunrise]

hahahaha.....  I couldn't figure out the gyro function, just always ended up looking at the base of the camera stand....now I know why!!  Awesome feature, holy shit!

[nikatapi]

Not releasing it on Android is such an epic fail.

Yeah, i don't currently have an iOS device, only an Android smartphone and tablet. Maybe a future release?

[425]

For those not as much in the know, it's a lot harder to develop for Android than for iOS because Apple goes to great lengths to make sure that things are as compatible as possible across the different possible devices (and because there are so few differences among devices; there are maybe five different screen resolutions). With Android, on the other hand, there are countless different versions with innumerable differences, and Google does not play nearly as big a role as Apple does in making sure apps work across all the different installations.

For a lot of apps, this isn't really a big deal, but this app is very complex since it requires the device to basically switch between any of six different videos and to make this switch as seamless as possible. And then to allow whatever 360 technology it allows to rotate and zoom within a particular video and make that equally as seamless? That's a major technical feat, and I'm impressed with how well they pulled it off, even though this app crashed more in my first 24 hours of use (3 times on my iPad Air running iOS 7) than a lot of apps ever crash.

This isn't to say that it will never exist for Android, but it is to say that this was probably incredibly difficult to make for iOS and will be even more difficult to make for Android due to fragmentation. This also isn't to trumpet one operating system's superiority, it is just to give a bit of an explanation for those who don't know as to why many developers, particularly developers of apps like this one, develop for iOS first or only and to warn people against expecting one for Android anytime soon (what I said above in addition to the fact that a lot higher percentage of iOS users pay for expensive apps and in-app purchases as opposed to just not buying them or pirating them—note that this negates such factors as Android having higher market share, especially since a lot of Android's market share is low-quality smartphones for which no one buys apps and on which this app wouldn't ever work anyway—suggest that the company behind this will probably be more inclined to put resources behind releasing more videos for iOS as in-app purchases than behind developing the app for Android).

So it's not an "epic fail," it's a business decision that has a rational explanation. A company that wants lower app development costs due to uniformity across devices and higher app revenue due to a strict anti-piracy policies and a group of consumers more likely to be able to afford premium products and apps will always develop for iOS first or only. Again, I'm not trying to trumpet the superiority of the iOS platform here. Use Android if that's what you prefer. But be aware of the specific consequences of choosing that platform in terms of app availability.

What do I do with it though?? I'm not going to watch it on my iPhone..

What you can do is play it on your TV via AirPlay if you have an Apple TV or with an HDMI cable if you buy the Apple-made adapter that you plug into your iPhone and into an HDMI cable. It won't be cheap ($40-50 I think?), but you should be able to find it in a BestBuy or possibly even Target.

[ErHaO]

Sounds awesome, will this work on an ipad 2?

I do not have any Apple products, but I would like to try this out on my fathers ipad (who likes Dream Theater too).

[TheAtliator]

I've been using it on my iPad 2. FREAKING AWESOME APP I can't get over it.

[ErHaO]

I've been using it on my iPad 2. FREAKING AWESOME APP I can't get over it.

Ah, great! Will definately buy it!