The BBC is looking for immersive digital experiences - including work involving VR and AR tech - for its experimental BBC Taster platform. It is offering up to £100,000 in funding for ideas submitted through its Bravo procurement system by midnight, 28 August.
The call for ideas is part of its Future of Content programme and proposals will be shown on its audience facing, online testing platform, BBC Taster, which launched in January. As well as VR and AR, the BBC is also interested in work which uses emerging gaming technologies, binaural audio or any other 'immersive' tech and formats.
The aim is develop a series aimed at 16 - 24 year olds where "audiences become part of the story", according to the immersive media brief.
The BBC has already had a brief flirtation with VR via the brilliant Cardboard app War of Words VR, a beautiful experience which transports you to the Somme in 1916 and one that is based on a BBC series of the same name. The broadcaster partnered with studio DBH last year to create the piece which brought a Siegfried Sassoon poem to life.
Earlier in July, Zillah Watson, an editor at BBC R&D, posted a blog about the team trying out Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and the Samsung Gear VR and the potential of using VR to produce 360 degree immersive journalism.
"Google Cardboard is great for short-form video, and provides interesting opportunities for mobile news apps," she said. "It transforms video on a phone from a small TV into an immersive experience. The Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are likely to appeal most to gamers, or perhaps schools, libraries and museums which want to offer a special experience."
BBC News Labs produced a short 360 degree video, filmed outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London and inside the BBC Daily Politics studio to explore how VR might change news reporting.
With the BBC also collaborating on mind controlled smart TV, using Neurosky EEG headsets and MindRDR tech, it is leaving nothing to chance in its experiments around how wearable tech can enhance how we are entertained and informed.
Via: VRfocus
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