GoPro working on six camera, spherical array for VR content to be available second half of 2015, and a quadcopter drone available second half of 2016
GoPro Working On A VR Camera Array And ‘Quadcopter’ Drone — Today, GoPro announced that it was working on an array that combines 6 GoPro Hero cameras …
Context & Ripple Effects
The May 2015 announcement sits at the start of a two-year VR build-out: weeks earlier GoPro had acquired French stitching-software firm Kolor (the Kolor deal) to handle 360-degree video, and Google named it as the hardware partner for a 16-camera rig alongside its redesigned Cardboard viewer (Google's Cardboard relaunch). The six-camera array announced here was the consumer-tier piece of that pipeline.
What followed validates the roadmap's shape if not its timing: the professional 16-camera Odyssey shipped at $15K, and by mid-2016 the prosumer $5K six-camera Omni went on sale — essentially this announcement's array productized — backed by a GoPro VR channel and apps. The Fusion followed as an integrated single-body 360 camera.
First-order effects
- VR content producers get a planned mid-priced option between DIY Hero mounts and Google-partnered 16-camera rigs, with Kolor's software positioned as the stitch layer across the lineup.
- GoPro commits to entering two new hardware categories on fixed deadlines: the array in late 2015 and a quadcopter in late 2016, putting its execution cadence publicly on the clock.
Second-order effects
- The tiered rig strategy — $15K Odyssey down to a sub-$1K-class six-camera array — forces rivals in action cameras to decide whether to license into spherical capture or concede the VR-native segment.
- A GoPro quadcopter would collide directly with established drone makers' camera quality advantage, since GoPro's pitch is that its Hero line becomes the payload of record.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, GoPro transitions from selling standalone cameras to owning a capture-to-distribution stack — rigs, stitching software, and the GoPro VR channel — where the moat is the content workflow rather than any single device.
- The later layoffs and direct-to-consumer pivot in GoPro's history suggest the multi-category expansion strained the core business: breadth of hardware bets versus profitability became the structural tension to watch.
The trend: Action-camera makers are expanding from single devices into full immersive-capture ecosystems — multi-lens arrays, stitching software, distribution channels, and airborne platforms — ahead of mainstream VR adoption.