360 Video & VR - Immersive News

Aims

Explore the craft & value to our audiences, of 360 filming and VR - Immersive News.

Zillah Watson from BBC R&D (Internet Research and Future Services section) is leading this strand of exploration for BBC News Labs, looking at how the BBC might use emerging VR consumer tech to create new, immersive news experiences.

This project kicked off in March 2015, and is planned up until March 2016 currently.

It is focussing on the journalism applications, craft, and value to our audiences.

360 News videos on News Labs YouTube 360 playlist

View 360 news videos on desktop Chrome or on your mobile YouTube app

Streams of activity

• Testing new cameras and stitching software to stay up to date with the best production solutions.
• Producing and commissioning a body of 360 journalistic content to enable BBC stakeholders to better understand the possibilities of VR journalism and to facilitate audience testing.
• Explore possibilities of constructed environments for journalistic storytelling.
• Plan research to solve various UX challenges around VR in the home.

Examples

NB - use desktop Chrome browser, or YouTube app on iOS and Android.

Step inside the Large Hadron Collider

How might VR change news? 360 video

Our News Labs 360 Playlist

Calais: 'The Jungle' migrant camp in 360 video - BBC NEWS

Links to YouTube:

• Living in 'The Jungle' migrant camp, from BBC News
• Migrant climbs into lorry, from BBC News

More from immersive news

• News Labs 360 playlist on YouTube
• 360 and VR post on the BBC College of Journalism blog
• Virtual Reality at the BBC (includes a list of VR experiences)

BBC Connected Studio ran the R&D VR Festival on June 30, 2016.

Stories from the Congo and dams on the Nile.

Results

• The BBC has a team dedicated to commissioning virtual reality and augmented reality material, including news stories about the Congo and the Nile above.