The culmination of a major project is a perfect opportunity to share some news that lifts the lid on what’s been keeping us all so busy over the last few months, but also gives an idea as to the vision we have for VisMedia.
Back in 2016 I wrote an article for the CIPR about the new world of VR and immersive technology and how it was going to change the communications landscape. Since then we have invested a huge amount of effort into the R&D side of the business and taking our thinking to contacts in the outside world to find the right clients and advisers who shared our vision. As a consequence, in the past eight months, we have delivered immersive projects to Akzo Nobel, Barclays, Dulux, IHG, Rhubarb Group, and most recently Cory Riverside Energy.
The Cory Riverside Energy project is one that we are especially proud of as it has incorporated groundbreaking technology and has genuinely moved the needle for the company. It came through a meeting in the summer of 2017 when I was put in contact with Andy Rivett-Carnac at Headland Consultancy, thanks to the networking prowess of Victoria Sugg at Emperor Works. Andy was looking for ways to bring to life the operations of one of his clients, Cory Riverside Energy. I was able to show him the work we had produced for Akzo Nobel and Barclays and more importantly, we were both then able to show the tech to Nicholas Pollard, CEO of Cory Riverside Energy who immediately saw the potential.
After an initial scoping period, there ensued six weeks of filming a mix of 2D and 3D video across their entire operation including a 13-mile 360-degree time-lapse video of tugs traversing the Thames from Battersea in the West to Belvedere in the East.
Even more challenging than the filming was the back-end work. We had to effectively break the software we were using and rework it to splice moving video into a static 360 degree still shot. This is a brand new technique that even the software developers didn’t think was possible! We then added in animation overlays and interactive hotspots to enable the viewer to really get under the skin of the business.
The effects speak for themselves. I hope you’ll be suitably impressed by the desktop version. However, what you won’t be able to see here is the full VR version that can be experienced using a portable (and inexpensive) Samsung Gear VR rig. If you like the desktop version I promise you that you will be blown away when you see the app we created to go alongside this.
