OrcaVue Life Offers New Take on 360-Degree Camera System

There’s a new option for sports content creators looking to shoot video that swings around the subject a la The Matrix: The OrcaVue Life. The system is comprised of a swing arm that can be extended out as far as 12 feet and can hold a DSLR camera that weighs up to seven pounds. The arm is mounted on top of a motor that rotates the arm 360 degrees around a platform where the object of interest is located at a speed of nearly three revolutions per second. Battery life is more than four hours.

“The base price is $2,499 and we are taking orders for units that will ship this April,” says Adam Boussouf, OrcaVue, co-founder. “It was invented earlier this year by myself and two recent University of Maryland engineering grads.”

To see the current model in action click here. A larger model, the OrcaVue XL, is currently in the works and will have a larger platform that can accommodate as many as three people (or up to 500 pounds) and also a larger camera.

“Right now we are experimenting with using Arduino for wireless communication to the device,” adds Boussouf. “Ideally this will then sync to the user’s phone where the rotational speed and direction can be managed through an OrcaVue App.”

The hope is to have that capability by the fourth quarter of 2015.