This day and age, one could be forgiven for being somewhat disillusioned with democracy, but still, come election time, I always vote
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As a woman I feel that voting is the least I can do to honour the sacrifice of people like Emmeline Pankhurst
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One of the reasons I do that without fail is because I figure that, as a woman, traveling a short distance to put a few ticks on a ballot (or even doing it from the comfort of my own home) is really the least I can do to honour the sacrifice of people like Emmeline Pankhurst, who endured and risked so much to earn me that right.

I also figure that if more people experienced and understood some of those sacrifices, they might feel the same, and we’d have much higher turnout rates in every election. And maybe VR experiences like the BBC’s Make Noise can help achieve that.

Throughout the experience you hear audio clips of real-life suffragettes
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It uses a combination of VR and voice-activated technology to encourage viewers to literally follow Emmeline Pankhurst’s advice to ‘make more noise’ to change the world.

“Inspired by the suffragettes who a century ago spoke up for a woman’s right to vote, Make Noise invites viewers to find and use their own voice and consider what it means to speak up in a world that doesn’t value it,” the news release reads.

The narrator – actor Nikki Amuka-Bird – encourages viewers to speak up as voice technology in the headset continuously detects and reacts to every sound they make.

“They’ll need to find their voice and use it to name the women that have inspired them, and to call out the objects that have oppressed women for centuries – changing the virtual environment around them as they do so,” she says

Every sound you make in the experience therefore has an effect in the virtual surroundings as you sing, hum and shout the names of these inspirational women like incantations against indifference and oppression.

The experience uses a combination of VR and voice-activated technology to encourage viewers to literally follow Emmeline Pankhurst’s advice to ‘make more noise’ to change the world
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The experience is available to download for free from the Oculus Store, and will be available on the Oculus Go. It’s also being shown at a number of libraries and literary events across the United Kingdom. At one such event, Helen Pankhurst, Emmeline’s great-granddaughter had the opportunity to try it on and was enthusiastic about how the immersive medium really helped to bring out her ancestor’s story:

“You’re asked not just to look but to use your mind and your voice. I think that focus on the voice and your own engagement with it is incredible,” she said.

Throughout the experience viewers also hear BBC archive audio clips of real-life suffragettes (Edith Pepper, Charlotte Drake, Charlotte Marsh, Mary Richardson, Lillian Lenton, Victoria Liliard, Grace Roe and Elizabeth Dean) explaining how they found their own voice, and used it to change the world.

Helen Pankhurst, Emmeline’s great-granddaughter had the opportunity to try it on and was enthusiastic about how the immersive medium really helped to bring out her ancestor’s story
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Make Noise was produced by BBC VR Hub and Anagram. Its director, May Abdalla, explains that they opted to use bold abstract visuals to make playful worlds and mess with scale so that the aesthetics of Victorian England didn’t get in the way of the story:

“In these strange visual universes the punk attitude of these inspirational women really stands out,” she says. “Each chapter represents the emotional journey of their path to victory; from frustration though finding solidarity and resistance. “We wanted to find a way to really connect the stories of the suffragettes to our lives, and the fact is that standing up for something when people are trying to shut you down is something we all can relate to.”

This article originally appeared on VRScout

Voice-Activated BBC VR Experience Puts You In The Shoes Of A Suffragette via @alicebonasio https://t.co/8LN4VfUwpX pic.twitter.com/GXX0Qu5YDb

— VRScout (@VRScout) December 12, 2018

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies our VR Consultancy service offers comprehensive support in strategic deployment of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Making Noise in VR appeared first on Tech Trends.

Is Anna OK is a poignant VR experience based on a true story. Anna and Lauren are identical twins. For two decades these two young women were as emotionally and psychologically close as people can get.

You explore this story in Virtual Reality from both sides, trying to piece together Anna’s fragmented memories, and figuring out if and how these two young women can pick up the pieces of their lives
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But in one fateful moment that’s all turned on its head. Anna has an accident, which leaves her in a comma. When she finally wakes up, things are changed forever due to the resulting brain injury.

You explore this story in Virtual Reality from both sides, trying to piece together Anna’s fragmented memories, and figuring out if and how these two young women can pick up the pieces of their lives.

Is Anna OK? was featured at film and technology festivals across the country, including Edinburgh TV Festival, Sheffield Documentary Festival, and Raindance Film Festival
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Users explore memories, find clues in the objects around them, and generally immerse themselves in their day-to-day world
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The combination of factual reporting with psychological exploration makes for an interesting mix, which poses the question of how storytelling and journalism can produce new forms of immersive content.

Two participants can go through the Is Anna OK? Experience together, and therefore see the two different perspectives at the same time, comparing the impact of the brain injury and resulting illness on Anna, as well as Lauren as she struggles to help her sister cope, and tries to come to terms with how drastically their relationship has changed.

What struck me the most was hearing Lauren talk about her anger and powerlessness as she watched her sister struggle, and the palpable and irretrievable sense of loss from watching someone who she always knew as well as she knew herself, her nearest and dearest friend, suddenly become almost a stranger.

The combination of factual reporting with psychological exploration makes for an interesting mix
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Anna and Lauren’s story was brought to life by BBC Stories with the teams at BBC Studios Digital and Aardman Animations
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The result is a very emotional journey that highlights the complexity of dealing with mental health issues and trauma, and it opens up interesting possibilities for this type of content also being used as a support tool for family, friends and carers of those affected by such injuries.

Is Anna OK? was featured at film and technology festivals across the country, including Edinburgh TV Festival, Sheffield Documentary Festival, and the 2018 Raindance Film Festival, where it was shortlisted for two awards.

Anna and Lauren’s story has been brought to life by BBC Stories in collaboration with the teams at BBC Studios Digital and Aardman Animations, and is published by BBC VR Hub.

Is Anna OK? Is now freely available on the Oculus Store.

‘Is Anna OK?’ Explores The Effects Of Brain Trauma Using VR via @alicebonasio https://t.co/IS1Q6L9GPt pic.twitter.com/FeIt4hBquK

— VRScout (@VRScout) October 29, 2018

This article was originally published on VRScout

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Exploring a Wounded Mind in VR appeared first on Tech Trends.

A new BBC Virtual Reality experience takes you back to Berlin in 1943, at the height of the WW2 blitz.

The BBC’s 1943 Berlin Blitz experience first previewed for selected audiences at the Venice Film Festival where it was very well received, but it is now available for the general public to download.

“We have been overwhelmed by the response to Berlin Blitz so far. People are finding it profoundly moving. The authenticity of the audio and the nobility of the characters involved, combined with virtual reality means audiences can now relive with past with an intensity not previously possible,” says Peter Rippon, BBC Archive Editor.

The experience sets you alongside Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, a BBC war correspondent who went up in a plane on a genuine bombing run at the height of the Berlin Blitz.

To this day, Vaughan-Thomas is one of the most well remembered war correspondents of WW2. His soul-stirring reports, delivered in a trademark rich voice, saw him become a household name in Britain, giving those at home a real sense of what it was actually like to be on the front.

The BBC’s 1943 Berlin Blitz experience first previewed for selected audiences at the Venice Film Festival
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The experience sets you alongside Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, a BBC war correspondent who went up in a plane on a genuine bombing run at the height of the Berlin Blitz
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He was among the first “frontline” war correspondents, something made possible not only by his bravery and willingness to put himself in those situations, but by technological innovation. In 1943, the BBC Research department developed a new, portable device called the ‘midget disc recorder’ that war correspondents could use in the front line.

The airplane featured in the experience– one of the iconic Lancaster Bombers – was called F for Freddie, and the original report documents its mission as it weaved through searchlights and bullets, crossing over mainland Europe until completing the mission and landing back safely on British soil at RAF Langar, in Nottinghamshire.

The airplane featured in the experience– one of the iconic Lancaster Bombers - was called F for Freddie
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VR adds a vivid, tangible dimension to an exceptional and extraordinary piece of journalism
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Sound engineer Reg Pidsley joined the pilot and Vaughan-Thomas, sitting near the back of the bomber and keeping the audio discs under his flight jacket to prevent them from freezing and breaking apart in the high altitude. In the report – which you can hear in full here – Pidsley can be heard during the report telling the pilot that he is “still cutting” and recording on the discs.

The experience was created using that material from the BBC archive, and is a co-production between BBC Northern Ireland and Immersive VR Education, in partnership with the BBC VR Hub, which has been steadily ramping up its production of immersive content under the leadership of Commissioning Editor Zillah Watson.

Commenting on this experience, Watson said that the film was a great example of how Virtual Reality can bring such unique historical archive material to life in a new way:

“VR adds a vivid, tangible dimension to an exceptional and extraordinary piece of journalism, and brings the past and future together beautifully – we’re using a 75-year-old broadcast to demonstrate the very best of what this new form of storytelling has to offer.”

As the plane flies high over Berlin, anti-aircraft shells burst all around you, conveying the very real sense of danger. In fact, F for Freddie was shot down over Stettin only four months after that recording was made. Of the over 7,000 Lancaster Bombers made, only 17 survive today.

Of the over 7,000 Lancaster Bombers made, only 17 survive today
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The experience was created using that material from the BBC archive
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Vaughan-Thomas went on to cover many major WW2 events such as the liberation of Burgundy and the Battle of Anzio. Still, when asked what was his most frightening wartime experience, he would always name the time he spent on that RAF bomber, which he describes in typically poignant imagery below:

“It was like watching somebody throwing jewellery on black velvet. Winking rubies, sparkling diamonds, all coming up at you.”

There is, I think, a poetic kind of resonance to this piece now being brought to VR, since when it first aired on the 4^th September 1943, it was pivotal in allowing folks back home to experience what it was like to be in that impossible situation. Now, as technology advanced almost beyond recognition, a new generation can experience that all over again, and perhaps learn from it. One can hope.

The experience is available now on the Oculus and Steam stores for Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive headsets. It will also soon be available to watch in 360 on Oculus Go, Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream.

This article was originally published on VRScout

Experience The 1943 Berlin Blitz In VR via @alicebonasio https://t.co/GI34f4KcKN pic.twitter.com/XqKPbzZViO

— VRScout (@VRScout) October 7, 2018

For companies looking to leverage Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR Tech Trends offers a comprehensive range of Virtual Reality Consultancy Services.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Seeing the Blitz in VR appeared first on Tech Trends.

A new game lets you dive deep into the infamous ship’s history.

The golden rule for creating compelling VR content is that you should allow people to experience something that would be either impossible or too dangerous, expensive and/or difficult to do in real life. And by offering up the double-whammy of traveling back to 1912 to watch the RMS Titanic sinking into the cold dark waters of the Atlantic, then letting you explore the wreck which now lies 12,500 feet below the surface, Titanic VR certainly ticks those boxes in spades.

We used motion capture, face-scanning technology and professional voice actors to immerse users in the story
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The game took over 8,800 working hours to create and boasts the largest animated virtual cast of characters ever based on real people inside a single VR experience
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The game was produced by Immersive VR Education (IVRE) a VR/AR developing studio based in Ireland which previously released the award-winning Apollo 11 VR moon landing experience 2016 and more recently completed a VR experience commissioned by the BBC commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the RAF 1943: Berlin Blitz

We wanted to create an accurate portrayal of events, so it is not only educational, but also emotional and very engaging
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Immersive VR Education was founded by husband-wife team – David (CEO) and Sandra (COO) Whelan in 2014, where they proceeded to create a virtual learning platform called ENGAGE for universities and corporate educators. Since then, they have grown their team from 4 people to 34 and worked with clients such as the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, the BBC and Oxford University.

“We wanted to create an accurate portrayal of events, so it is not only educational, but also emotional and very engaging,” says David Whelan, CEO of VR Education. “To achieve that we used motion capture, face-scanning technology and professional voice actors to immerse users in the story and to enable them to relate to the people involved.”

The story of the unsinkable ship and its 1,503 doomed passengers and crew is told from a first-person perspective of one of the survivors, and the animation sequences – which show people being loaded onto the lifeboats and then the ship itself sinking from the POV of one of the lifeboats, were created using eye-witness accounts.

The story of the unsinkable ship and its 1,503 doomed passengers and crew is told from a first-person perspective of one of the survivors
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This is an unusually long VR experience, featuring six hours of gameplay
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This is an unusually long VR experience, featuring six hours of educational gameplay. The project has been in the works for two years now, and is the culmination of a long process that involved raising almost $70,000 through a Kickstarter campaign last year. Overall, the game took over 8,800 working hours to create and boasts the largest animated virtual cast of characters ever based on real people inside a single VR experience

“We wanted to create an authentic experience for users around a topic and setting in history that has long captivated people’s imagination. While the technology is advanced, what we are really doing is bringing learning back to basics,” adds David Whelan. “As children we learn to navigate the world through immersive experiences – think of learning a language or learning to cycle, or as we grow older going travelling and backpacking – the sights and sounds that often go unnoticed by our attention, are all taken in peripherally and form a whole context for our physical and mental learning. Learning through VR/AR is similar, in that it’s an absorbing, sensory experience. Aside from being great fun, this project is a fantastic way to illustrate the effectiveness and potential of VR/AR technology for educational purposes.”

The second part of the experience then gets you to explore the wreck using a submersible and ROV to solve various quests if you choose “mission mode.” These include rescuing a lost ROV, creating a photo mosaic, placing research equipment, or cleaning and preserving recovered artefacts. Otherwise you can just look around the ship in all its detail at leisure.

The golden rule for creating compelling VR content is that you should allow people to experience something that would be either impossible or too dangerous, expensive and/or difficult to do in real life
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Titanic VR is currently available for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality as well as on a desktop PC version
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There is a lot of attention to detail in evidence here, and this comes through as a labour of love, down to the fact that the team made sure to include a poignant tribute to Lead Environment Artist Tony Meredith who recently passed away:

“Tony was a much loved and now much missed member of the team, whose final creative and powerful artistry on Titanic VR will continue to serve as testament to a truly gifted master of VR art production.”

While such experiences are effective showcases for the potential of VR Education, they are only the start of the company’s much more ambitious plans to “revolutionise education globally” (Their parent company VR Education Holdings plc was recently floated on the London Stock Exchange and is now a publicly listed company on the AIM market ) as Chief Operating Officer Sandra Whelan explains:

“We are dedicated to advancing how educational and enterprise training content is shared and consumed on a world-wide basis”.

Titanic VR is currently available for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality as well as on a desktop PC version. There are also plans to release it on PlayStationVR next month.

There is a lot of attention to detail in evidence here, and this comes through as a labour of love
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While such experiences are effective showcases for the potential of VR Education, they are only the start of the company’s much more ambitious plans to revolutionise education globally
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This article was originally published on VRScout

Exploring The RMS Titanic In VR via @alicebonasio https://t.co/MGRYxg4dyd pic.twitter.com/A1TPrvmJNk

— VRScout (@VRScout) August 23, 2018

For companies looking to leverage Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR Tech Trends offers a comprehensive range of Virtual Reality Consultancy Services.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Exploring the Titanic in Virtual Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

The world’s biggest classical music festival is embracing Immersive Technology

This summer for the first time, the BBC Proms are holding an event in virtual reality. Produced by BBC VR Hub, Nothing to be Written commemorates the centenary of the First World War and was created by composer Anna Meredith and 59 productions – the Tony Award-winning company of artists behind the video design of the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

This summer for the first time, the BBC Proms are holding an event in virtual reality
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The experience conveys the atmosphere of hallways across the United Kingdom during that time, when families and friends waited quietly for news while violence raged in the trenches. It was developed primarily for Oculus Go and will be available on public release to other major VR and BBC platforms later this year.

Produced by BBC VR Hub, Nothing to be Written commemorates the centenary of the First World War
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The music featured in this 25-minute experience was recorded live on the First Night of the Proms, and captured in spatialised sound with high quality ambisonics. This new work for orchestra, choir and projections explores the varied forms of communication from the front lines. Its second movement, entitled ‘Field Postcard’, forms the basis of the VR experience, drawing on the talents of both the BBC Proms Youth Ensemble and the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, alongside the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of their chief conductor, Sakari Oramo.

“To me, it mirrors the music I wrote by allowing you to experience the texture both at a distance or really zooming into the detail of the Field Postcards and the stories they tell beyond the prescribed text,” says Composers Anna Meredith.

The project helps to bring some of the lesser-known stories and history of the Great War to life, while enabling viewers to see and hear the BBC Proms in a new way. It comes in two iterations: Nothing to be Written – a seven-minute immersive experience inspired by one of the First World War’s primary communication modes, the ‘field postcard’; and a from ‘within’ the Royal Albert Hall.

The project helps to bring some of the lesser-known stories and history of the Great War to life, while enabling viewers to see and hear the BBC Proms in a new way
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As the music plays, the walls and geometry of the building morph and change.  “You find yourself alone in this spectacular space. There is a reverent hush alive with possibility. The space feels real, but heightened. As the music begins, the hall begins to transform in response to the music,” comments Lysander Ashton, Director of 59 Productions. The architecture around you shifts and changes, becoming a canvas on which the music is painted.”

“Five Telegrams has already been seen by thousands of people at live events in London and Edinburgh and hundreds of thousands more on television and online. I am delighted that this latest VR incarnation will reach even wider audiences and add a further ground-breaking development to the project,” says BBC Proms Director David Pickard.

Over 300,000 censored letters were sent each day from the front lines during the height of World War 1. During the war, censorship of mail meant that soldiers had few ways to regularly correspond with their loved ones at home. ‘Field postcards’, for example, offered soldiers the chance to quickly communicate their status, but at the cost of detail. “I am quite well”, “I have been admitted into hospital”, “I have received no letter from you” – for many, these stock phrases were their only regular link between families at home and soldiers on the Frontline.

Virtual Reality is the most exciting new technology in media today, and we’re using it to give viewers a new perspective on music and art with the BBC Proms
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Nothing to be Written takes the viewer on a highly emotive journey, positioning them as the main protagonist in the narrative: civilians transported on the same journey fared by their loved-ones during World War I. The piece merges two worlds – the hallways across the country with families and friends waiting for news, with the unrestrained violence of the front.

“Virtual Reality is the most exciting new technology in media today, and we’re using it to give viewers a new perspective on music and art with the BBC Proms. The experience helps the viewer understand the terrible gap between families at home and soldiers on the front line by putting them right at the heart of it. Anna’s beautiful, haunting music accompanies the viewers as they gain a greater understanding of the stark realities of life on the front line a century ago, and the painful pragmatism of the field postcard forcing interactions with loved ones into an expedient but heart-breaking tick box exercise,” says Zillah Watson, Commissioning Editor, BBC VR Hub.

The music featured in this 25-minute experience was recorded live on the First Night of the Proms, and captured in spatialised sound with high quality ambisonics
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“It’s always fascinating exploring the possibilities of VR, as a nascent medium, which seems to invite a mixture of filmic and theatrical approaches,” adds Ashton.

Nothing to be Written will have its world premiere at the BBC Proms on Tuesday 21^st August. It then travels to 14-18 NOW (the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary) – linked events throughout the Autumn, followed by an international premiere at Raindance Film Festival.

This article was originally published on VRScout

You Can Now Watch The BBC Proms Music Festival In VR via @alicebonasio https://t.co/5rOhlWsJZn pic.twitter.com/NV8kwO5wsX

— VRScout (@VRScout) August 14, 2018

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Watching the BBC Proms in Virtual Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

Marvin is the BBC’s newest foreign correspondent, and you can get inside his head.

This week the BBC released a new two-part virtual reality news documentary series called Damming the Nile, which was produced in partnership between BBC News and the newly launched BBC VR Hub headed up by Zillah Watson.

“Viewers will have enjoyed 360 news pieces from the BBC before, but never like this. The film is in full immersive VR, is stereoscopic and features fully spatialised audio. Audiences can enjoy the sheer scale and beauty of the Nile, alongside the major infrastructure projects that have shaped its past and will continue to shape its future,” Watson explains.

Audiences can enjoy the sheer scale and beauty of the Nile, alongside the major infrastructure projects that have shaped its past and will continue to shape its future
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This is an interesting case study for VR content because it’s a crossover of several genres, bridging news reporting, documentary filmmaking, historical narrative and adventure. Even while you’re taking in the beautiful sights and sounds as you fly above waterfalls, you’re made aware that this is where the world’s first war over water could be fought as a major new project – the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam – threatens to upset the balance of power between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan.

This is an interesting case study for VR content because it’s a crossover of several genres, bridging news reporting, documentary filmmaking, historical narrative and adventure
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“We want to create high quality mobile VR pieces that give audiences experiences they can’t find anywhere else,” says Watson. “Damming the Nile VR does this by making you feel like you’re there, unearthing the story as you go, and getting a better understanding of the different cultures and points of view at play.”

Your guide through this complex experience is BBC Africa Correspondent Alastair Leithead. You join him and his crew as he interviews ministers and hear the perspective of locals in the street corners of Sudan and cafés of Khartoum. Viewers are able to explore the controversial dam up-close and fly in a hot air balloon to see the ancient pyramids and Egyptian temples, before finally landing back in the bustling chaos of the Cairo streets.

Your guide through this complex experience is BBC Africa Correspondent Alastair Leithead
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“As a foreign correspondent, my job is to introduce people to new and fascinating places, challenge stereotypes and explain how countries are growing and changing. Virtual reality means films like Damming the Nile VR can actually take our audiences there,” says Alastair Leithead, who in a BBC Radio 4 programme recounted how, the first time he ever tried VR, he thought to himself that “here might be the future of news. Why tell people about something when they can see and experience them for themselves?”

Viewers are able to explore the controversial dam up-close and fly in a hot air balloon to see the ancient pyramids and Egyptian temples, before finally landing back in the bustling chaos of the Cairo streets
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So when the chance came for him to film his Nile assignment in VR, he was enthusiastic about exploring the possibilities of the medium, and fascinated by the power of “Marvin” – the nickname the crew gave the 360 camera rig that captured the footage for this experience – to capture the essence of the moment in much the same way as a person would. This even went so far as ensuring that Marvin had his own seat cafés as they chatted with the locals.

Technologies come and go, but there’s something about this that does exactly what a foreign correspondent should do: Takes you to a place, helps you understand it, and shows you why you should care
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“It’s a little bit weird being Marvin, being inside his head, and even weirder with me in there, whispering about what you should be looking at,” Leithead muses, yet given the fact that he’s exploring the possibility of whether his role might become redundant, he’s very positive about the technology, and seemingly willing to welcome Marvin as a worthy colleague rather than a threat.

“Technologies come and go, but there’s something about this that does exactly what a foreign correspondent should do: Takes you to a place, helps you understand it, and shows you why you should care. Maybe the future lies with Marvin, our own Virtual Correspondent.”

Both parts of Damming the Nile can be viewed on YouTube with or without a VR headset like a Google Cardboard. As well as accessing it on the BBC VR app or the Oculus Gear VR store, viewers can also watch the documentary on the BBC’s brand new site dedicated to VR content, which also showcases previous immersive productions from the corporation such as the award-winning The Turning Forest and Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel. You can also see Himalayas: A Trek to School and Home: A VR Spacewalk before riding a supersonic car as it attempts to break the world land speed record in Bloodhound. A special 360° version of the films will be available to view to watch through the BBC News website and on Facebook. The story will aired as a news documentary on BBC TV channels, and will be available to read on the BBC News website.

Both parts of Damming the Nile can be viewed on YouTube with or without a VR headset
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Tech Trends offers comprehensive Virtual Reality Consultancy services to support businesses looking to adopt VR/AR/MR technologies into their brand and communications strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Is VR the Future of News? appeared first on Tech Trends.

The BBC continues to invest in Virtual Reality content with new experiences and games.

As part of its on-going drive to develop content for immersive technologies, the BBC announced the launch of its VR Hub which will lead the BBC’s future VR production and help bring the technology to the mainstream by creating new titles and regular immersive stories.

The BBC are focussing on a small number of high impact pieces that have broad, mainstream appeal
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The BBC says its research shows that for as long as the quantity of high-quality content remains low, and the experience remains cumbersome, mainstream audiences won’t use VR, which is why they are focussing on a small number of high impact pieces that have broad, mainstream appeal.

The BBC's research shows that as long as the quantity of high-quality content remains low, mainstream audiences won’t use VR
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An example of this is the Doctor Who Time Vortex VR  game which it just launched. From today players can tackle all the hazards and objects from both the past and the future as they hurtle through the space-time vortex featured in the opening credits of the iconic Doctor Who TV series.

As the game progresses you’re transported to different time zones from past eras, going from the current show’s vortex to re-imagined designs from the 1960s and 1980s.

The BBC announced the launch of its VR Hub which will lead the BBC’s future VR production and help bring the technology to the mainstream
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Developed for the BBC by Goodboy Digital, the game was created using the WebVR API
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The game is a VR reboot of the Time Vortex 360 mobile game released earlier this year. As they speed through time, players tackle hazards and obstacles emerging from the future, and need to quickly dodge them by physically turning around.

“After releasing the 360 version of the game, we had lots of comments from players suggesting it would make a great VR experience,” says Jo Pearce, Creative Director, BBC Digital Drama. “For this re-boot we wanted to offer a VR gaming experience that is as accessible as possible and test the limits of what is possible to develop using WebVR.”

Developed for the BBC by Goodboy Digital, the game was created using the WebVR API and combines cutting edge HTML5 and WebGL using PixiJS v5.0 to work on a wide range of hardware such as cardboard, Google Daydream, Samsung Gear VR and HTC Vive via a web browser. It’s also available to play on a variety of non-VR platforms such mobile or tablets running newer versions of Android or iOS, and via desktop with the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

Players can tackle the hazards and objects from past and future as they hurtle through the space-time vortex featured in the opening credits of Doctor Who
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The game is a VR reboot of the Time Vortex 360 mobile game released earlier this year
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Like the 360 game, the VR version is an endless runner that gradually gets more difficult as you play. It takes you on a journey through the iconic vortex from the show’s opening credits. Using the device’s accelerometer, players control the game by physically moving around, even giving the player the ability to turn around and travel backwards in time.

“This new game combines casual, arcade-style gaming with virtual reality to create an unforgettable experience,” “Digital innovation is at the very heart of Doctor Who, and this game allows you to step inside one of the most iconic title sequences in TV history, as you pilot the TARDIS through modern, 80s and 60s versions of the vortex.”

“We want to excite audiences by creating the most enthralling experiences imaginable using the power of VR. So with every commission, we will target a specific set of audience needs and occasions, ensuring that each piece is compelling enough to make people want to put on a headset,” says Zillah Watson, who heads up the BBC VR Hub.

We believe the BBC can bring a unique perspective to VR
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At the same time the BBC also launched the critically acclaimed Home – A VR Spacewalk for the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift, enabling would-be astronauts to embark on a spacewalk 250 miles above the Earth’s surface.

The BBC launched Home – A VR Spacewalk enabling would-be astronauts to embark on a spacewalk 250 miles above the Earth’s surface
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Trying the experience for himself, Tim Peake said that “Exploring space is something that motivates a lot of young people to enter careers in science and technology. This is a really exciting time because the new generation will have unprecedented opportunities to really fly into space. The Home Virtual Reality experience brings that opportunity even closer, in a very authentic and accessible way. I hope that having this chance to engage in such a realistic spacewalk experience will help inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and explorers.”

“We believe the BBC can bring a unique perspective to VR. We have an unparalleled position in the lives of the UK population. Every week we reach 95% of the UK population and we have the most trusted broadcast news brand in the world, reaching almost 400m people through the BBC World Service alone,” she continues. “We can bring all of this to bear in the creation of VR. Having cracked every new content delivery mechanism since radio in 1922, we are excited about the potential of VR and the ways in which it could enrich the lives of our audiences.”

Tim Peake says that exploring space is something that motivates a lot of young people to enter careers in science and technology
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For help getting your own VR/AR/MR project off the ground, get in touch about our Virtual Reality Consultancy services. 

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Flying a TARDIS Through VR Space-time with Doctor Who appeared first on Tech Trends.

From hypnotic fairy tales to a harrowing look at a history, the BBC’s VR experiences are pushing immersive content production to the next level

The BBC is keen to explore VR storytelling in all its forms
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There is no doubt that the BBC is keen on exploring Virtual Reality in all its creative forms, from Radio Drama to sharing the harrowing journey of refugees, we’ve seen some interesting examples of this emerging already. Now the corporation is also making widely available two highly acclaimed experiences which were produced in collaboration with virtual reality production studio, VRTOV.

BBC Taster has just launched a new Virtual Reality app
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One of these newly available experiences is The Turning Forest, which was produced by BBC Research & Development and features an award-winning spatial soundtrack that uses dynamic binaural audio to provide a greater sense of immersion for viewers as they explore the 360 degree world. The sound was adapted from an original soundtrack commissioned for S3A: Future Spatial Audio for an Immersive Listener Experience at home, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).Originally only available as a launch title for Google Daydream and showcased at the Raindance Film Festival, it has now become available for Samsung Gear on the Oculus Store. The new Gear VR version will enable viewers to trigger interactions by gaze, such as making music with the monster’s teeth, as well as the birds, fish, and icicles and other items that feature in the fantasy world.

“It was designed from the sound up, using state-of-the-art spatial audio to transport people into this entrancing realm,” explains The BBC’s head of Commissioning for Virtual Reality Zillah Watson.

Another newly launched experience is Easter Rising: Voice Of A Rebel, which was produced by BBC Learning and previewed by Tech Trends last year at the newly launched National Theatre’s Immersive Storytelling Studio. 

Taking viewers back to the streets of 1916 Dublin, the film depicts the memories of 19 year-old Willie McNeive, a rebel who took part in the Easter Rising against the British. Watson says that the film shows how technology can be used to give audiences a greater sense of presence, enabling them to better understand a range of issues like important current affairs, news, science and history.

BBC Taster VR will be a showcase for new commissions
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As part of its ongoing remit to put the BBC’s early and experimental ideas in the hands of audiences, BBC Taster has also launched a new virtual reality app, which is now available for free on Android and iOS.

“BBC Taster VR will be a fantastic showcase for some brilliant new commissions, as well as some new takes on some of the best BBC Taster VR experiences to date. It gives audiences cutting-edge mobile VR experiences from the BBC,” says Andy Conroy, Controller of BBC Research & Development.

The app will feature a range of content designed to push the limits of virtual reality on mobile devices, including animated VR, interactive 360° videos, dynamic binaural audio and branching narratives, which let users decide where to take the story. It was developed using technology from EEVO, and alongside user feedback, the app provides analytics and VR heat maps to show where users are looking while they’re in virtual reality. This will help BBC developers and editorial teams learn more from their content, helping them to refine storytelling techniques in this emerging medium.

One of the first pieces of VR to be published in the app is a trailer for upcoming BBC Three feature-length documentary One Deadly Weekend in America. The VR trailer is a virtual experience about gun crime, immersing you into an American street scene where clips from the documentary play around you.

The app analytics and VR heat maps show where users are looking
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The One Deadly Weekend VR trailer was developed by BBC Three in collaboration with virtual reality studio Parable VR. It was commissioned by BBC Three controller Damian Kavanagh, who will be taking on an additional role as editorial lead for BBC Taster.

Kavanagh says that in his new role he will use new technologies such as VR explore a new ways to tell stories that will engage with audiences.

“This new VR trailer is a fantastic first step. Using virtual reality it literally puts the audience in the shoes of the victims of gun crime. It’s the first time the BBC has ever used VR in this way, and offers a whole new way to engage an audience.”

Other content featured in the app includes new interactive 360° video from Planet Earth II, which enables viewers to choose their path through the story. The app will be regularly updated with new VR experiences so we can probably expect to see a lot more innovative immersive content coming through in the coming weeks and months.

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with these exciting new technologies. 

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post BBC Bringing Audiences More Virtual Reality Experiences appeared first on Tech Trends.

In its new audio drama Quake, BBC Radio 4 is venturing into the realm of Virtual Reality for the first time.

The project, which adds to the BBC’s growing Virtual Reality project portfolio, is set as the search for survivors begins after a deadly earthquake. Quake is made up of 12 short form audio dramas – each available online only and accompanied by a graphic-novel style animation – alongside an immersive, 360-degree, 3D film of the first episode in the series, Trapped Man.

The project is an addition to the BBC’s growing Virtual Reality project portfolio
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The virtual reality film is made by BAFTA Award-winning video production company BDH Immersive. Each of the subsequent episodes feature an accompanying animation made by Eight Engines.

The VR film was made by BAFTA Award-winning video production company BDH Immersive
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The film – which sets the scene for the rest of the series – takes place inside a collapsed building. Viewers watching on VR headsets, on YouTube and the Radio 4 website will become a central character in the drama, Trapped Man. As the viewer’s eyes become accustomed to the darkness, the sights and sounds of their surroundings become apparent.

“Trapped Man VR drama production represents a breakthrough for both radio and virtual reality productions, offering exciting new possibilities for both mediums in the future,” says John Durrant, Director at BDH Immersive. “Radio drama is a powerful medium. It creates an alternative reality to explore in the theatre of the mind. The audience brings the pictures and the actors bring the emotion. On this virtual reality stage, Trapped Man VR uses 3D animation and binaural audio to create a new sound stage, with a new depth. It takes the viewer on an amazing story with an epic scale, buried deep in collapsed building after an earthquake.”

Each stand-alone episode tells the story of a different individual caught up in an earthquake, with their stories interweaving into a non-linear narrative. Whilst the series starts with Trapped Man and ends with Search and Rescue, the remaining ten episodes can be selected in any order, allowing audiences to create the narrative that suits them.

According to the BBC website, “This pioneering audio drama series is inspired by the remarkable digital revolution in humanitarian efforts. With the creation of mobile internet, the world has found a new digital nervous system which enables thousands of ordinary people to help save lives. In Quake, this is illustrated in the episodes ‘Crowd Sourcerer’, ‘Digital Jedis’ and ‘Game Changer’, where the humanitarian effort spreads beyond members of the local community to volunteers from across the world. Quake celebrates the anonymous philanthropy of the global digital community.”

Quake will be available as a complete box-set from 15 May 2017 and can be viewed on VR headsets, on the Radio 4 YouTube channel and on the Radio 4 website. The audio will also be available as a podcast.

“Quake is designed as something that can fit into whatever space you have available in the day, choosing episodes to suit, or listening to the whole thing as a podcast. It’s an exciting innovation in how we offer Radio 4 drama to both new and existing audiences.  The slow-paced visuals offer an extra dimension to each episode, but it’s always the audio drama that leads the way,” explained Rhian Roberts, Digital Editor at Radio 4.

To find out how to leverage VR/AR/MR in your enterprise, Tech Trends offers bespoke Virtual Reality Consultancy support

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post BBC Radio 4 Drama Explores Virtual Reality  appeared first on Tech Trends.

Broadcasters such as the BBC are increasingly investing in Virtual Reality. We Wait tells the story of a refugee family making the perilous journey from war-torn Syria to Europe, and is the corporation’s first release for Oculus.

The production, which was a partnership with Aardman Digita, is an example of how VR experimentation is becoming a strategic concern for large-scale content producers. Read the full article on UploadVR

Broadcasters such as the BBC are increasingly investing in #VR content
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We Wait enabled us to explore how VR can deepen audiences’ understanding in a way they wouldn’t otherwise be able to experience
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2016 has been a busy year in VR for the BBC, as it started to figure out what role the medium will play in its future by releasing a range of 360 and VR projects exploring the boundaries of the new medium. These projects covered a broad spectrum of subjects and audiences, ranging from harrowing experiences like Fire Rescue – which tells the story of a Christmas Day blaze from which firefighters saved the lives of six children – and the journey of a single mother Trafficked from Nicaragua to Mexico to The Turning Forest (a folkish fairy-tale experience for Google Daydream) and a series of companion 360-degree videos that put viewers next to the documentary crews filming the Planet Earth II series and offered highlights of the Rio Olympics.

“Our VR experiments this year have enabled us to look at the role the BBC should play at this early stage, raising important questions over how storytelling, pacing, direction, subtitling, sound and picture quality are all affected,” says Zillah Watson, executive producer, BBC R&D.

But We Wait is a first for the British broadcaster which saw the BBC Connected Studio collaborate with legendary Bristol-based animation studio Aardman Digital – the makers of Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep – to produce a dramatization of the dangerous journey Syrian migrants take from Turkey to Greece on smuggler’s boats.

Like many content producers, the BBC is keen to explore the potential of VR as a Storytelling Medium, and the Syrian war and its resulting refugee crisis is a poignant subject that certainly lends itself well to powerful – if often uncomfortable – levels of immersion. Award-winning films such as Chris Milk’s Clouds Over Sidra and HOME/AAMIR –  produced in partnership with the National Theatre’s recently launched Immersive Storytelling Studio in London – are other examples of this.

Our VR experiments this year have enabled us to look at the role the BBC should play at this early stage
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We Wait – which is based on real migrant accounts gathered by BBC News – begins on a beach in Turkey and takes the viewer on board a boat crossing the Mediterranean. As the name hints, the objective here is to recreate the sense of anticipation and suspense those displaced people feel as they attempt to reach Europe.

“By putting the viewer at the heart of the story, we’re offering an immersive experience that would be impossible to reproduce through traditional reporting,” they stated in their release today.

Watson believes that VR could be a very interesting tool for telling news stories in the future beyond the confines of traditional reporting, something that people like Nonny de La Penna have also been exploring as a way to trigger empathy in audiences. Like de la Pena, Watson comes from a journalism background, working on TV, radio and web as well as documentary filmmaking before moving to BBC’s R&D department.

“We Wait has enabled us to explore how VR can deepen audiences’ understanding of a topic in a way they wouldn’t otherwise be able to experience, and with the film now going live on the Oculus store for the Rift it opens it up to a wider audience as we continue to develop the potential this emerging medium has to inform, educate and entertain.”

We Wait is now available globally and for free on the Oculus store.

The dangerous journey Syrian migrants embark on has been dramatized in @BBC‘s ‘We Wait’. via @alicebonasio #VR https://t.co/9Vd2PZrHUz pic.twitter.com/9HL9qGfTUL

— Upload (@UploadVR) December 14, 2016

To find out how to leverage VR/AR/MR in your enterprise, Tech Trends offers bespoke Virtual Reality Consultancy support

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Journey from War-Torn Syria Told in VR appeared first on Tech Trends.