Bigscreen has announced that the Audio Strap accessory for the Beyond will begin shipping in August.
The Bigscreen Beyond is an exceptionally compact and lightweight SteamVR headset designed to enable comfortable long-term PC-based VR sessions. The headset comes with a simple cloth strap and no built-in audio. It doesn’t even have a headphone jack, but it does have a USB-C port that can be used for audio devices.
Back at launch last year, the startup began taking pre-orders for an upgraded hard strap with built-in speakers called the Audio Strap, which they said would be released in late 2023. After missing that deadline, they earlier this year revised that estimate to say they would begin mass production of the Audio Strap on July 29th.
The startup says this latest delay is due to a subcomponent supplier. They expect the first Audio Strap orders to ship in mid-August, with all existing pre-orders to be shipped by the end of October, nearly a year after the original estimate.
As for the headphones themselves, Bigscreen says that while they were unable to meet the announced 1-2 week shipping window from May, they expect to ship orders within 1 week of mid-August, around the same time the Audio Strap begins shipping.
Interestingly, they are warning that orders from customers with IPDs between 55 and 58mm should ship earlier than those with wider IPDs.
The shipping difficulty comes from the fact that each Bigscreen Beyond is customized to the buyer’s face and eyes, rather than being adjustable, based on a 3D face scan from an iPhone that is provided when ordering. This partially explains why the headset is so compact and makes it much more complex to manufacture than other models.
