Online Oscar Cameras Allow Viewers To Be A Fly On The Wall

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Celebrity watchers won't need to dress up to feel like they're at the Oscars this year.

For $5, they'll be able to gaze around at whomever they wish, focus in on a dress and watch A-listers brush past them up the steps to the Kodak Theatre -- all on the Internet.

Half a dozen 360-degree cameras have been set up for the task. Inside each are 11 separate cameras feeding a constant stream of video online.

Viewers can look in any direction with the control of a mouse as the streams are blended together in one seamless video. Accompanied by about two dozen other fixed-position cameras around the venue, the setup marks the largest online push for the Oscars ever.

Coverage extends before, during and after the show.

Viewers who do not want to pay $5 will get some features free on the Oscars website for ABC, which has televised the awards show every year since 1976. They include some of the fixed-position cameras on the red carpet and the popular backstage thank-you cam.

Also part of the paid access are backstage cameras in a new array of positions, including one that lifts the curtain on what the superstar audience does during commercial breaks. A map of the scene plus camera positions will help users decide where to home in.

The 360-degree technology comes from BigLook360 LLC, a Dallas-based company that deployed just such a camera to capture the implosion of Texas Stadium, last April -- from the inside.

The company also deployed one of their cameras at the Emmys, Golden Globes and Grammys for People magazine's website. The Oscars mark the first time multiple cameras will be deployed for live streaming all at once.

A lower-priced $1 offering is also available for Apple Inc.'s iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, although those users won't be able to use the 360-degree cameras.

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