GoPro Ships First Fusion Pilot Units

Intro by Mehrshad Mansouri, GoPro Head of Advanced Systems Partnerships

Since GoPro Fusion was announced a few weeks ago, well over 20,000 brands, creators and organizations have applied for the Pilot Partner Program. The demand has been overwhelming, not just in terms of quantity of applicants, but also in the vast diversity of interest from content professionals across news, entertainment, sports, education, advertising, travel/tourism, real estate, military and countless other industries.

Today we’re very excited to announce the first wave of Pilot Partners who will be receiving GoPro Fusion units, including (in alphabetical order): AccuWeather, Digital Domain, FOX Sports, Getty Images, the Golden State Warriors, Legend 3D, Louie Cole (FunForLouis), RapidVR, RYOT, and USA Today. From international brands pushing the envelope in immersive content experiences, to award-winning production agencies and an influential travel vlogger who continue to redefine storytelling, these partners will help showcase the broad potential of Fusion as not just the 360° camera you expect from GoPro, but as a capture device capable of showcasing creative expression in ways never before imagined.

This is just the beginning, and we’re not limiting ourselves to major names. Throughout the summer, we’ll continue to forge more pilot partnerships with brands and creators, as we set out to demonstrate the versatility, durability, and quality of GoPro Fusion in an expanded variety of use cases.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll also be promoting exciting new content from this first wave of Pilot Partners, including the piece above which we helped produce with the 2017 NBA Champions Golden State Warriors for their victory parade last month.

Stay tuned for even more announcements. And if you think you have a great story to tell with Fusion, let us know you’re interested at www.gopro.com/fusion.

Now check out the official press release on the first shipment of Fusions to its partners.

[official release]

The Golden State Warriors, USA TODAY NETWORK, FOX Sports, AccuWeather, Digital Domain, Getty Images, Legend 3D, Rapid VR, RYOT and Louis Cole (FunForLouis) the First to Receive GoPro’s 5.2K Spherical Camera

SAN MATEO, Calif., July 11, 2017  -- GoPro, Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) today announced that it has shipped the first Fusion pilot units to production teams at the Golden State Warriors, USA TODAY NETWORK, FOX Sports, AccuWeather, Digital Domain, Getty Images, Legend 3D, Inc., Rapid VR, RYOT, and travel vlogger Louis Cole (FunForLouis).  In April, GoPro began taking applications from content professionals seeking to be among the first to use GoPro’s new 5.2K spherical camera as part of a pilot program to produce inspiring content that demonstrates the creative potential of Fusion. This first wave of pilot partners represents well known brands, agencies and talented content professionals who are actively pursuing the use of spherical and 360-degree cameras in their productions. 

“GoPro has always looked to our creative community to really show us what our products can do. Given Fusion may be the most versatile content creation tool ever made, we’re expecting big things,” said Nicholas Woodman, founder and CEO at GoPro. “We are excited to get Fusion into the hands of creative professionals, both to see the content they create and also to receive feedback that helps us refine the overall user experience for when we launch Fusion to a broader audience later this year.”

GoPro carefully selected these initial pilot partners from a pool of more than 20,000 applicants to address a broad segment of potential use cases for Fusion, from news and weather to sports and folks diving deep into the nascent medium of immersive storytelling. 

Anthony Holland Parkin, Head of VR, Getty Images, said; “We are excited that our photographers and videographers will have the chance to pilot Fusion and create some truly immersive content. The diverse range of 360 content that we produce - from the red carpet to frontline news - allows people to access information and experiences that were previously off limits and we can’t wait to see how Fusion will enhance this offering.”

“GoPro’s efforts to advance immersive capture are impressive and we’re excited to get our hands on Fusion,” said Michael Davies, FOX Sports SVP Field & Technical Operations. “We have a great slate of programming we’re hoping to experiment with using Fusion, including the CONCACAF Gold Cup, UFC and NCAA Football season this fall.” 

The application process for the GoPro Fusion Pilot Program remains open, and GoPro expects to add more pilot partners to the program later this summer. A limited commercial release of Fusion is expected by the end of 2017, with details on pricing and other technical specifications being provided at launch.

For more information about Fusion, visit GoPro’s blog, The Inside Line, and to apply to become a pilot partner, please visit https://gopro.com/fusion.