Rewind – Page 2 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

June 20, 2018

AR Enhances Musical Celebration of Women Getting the Vote

2018 marks the centenary of Women being given the right to vote in the United Kingdom. To mark this momentous occasion, a unique musical performance was commissioned that blends augmented reality (AR) into a stage performance to celebrate the life and achievements of Suffragette, activist and entrepreneur, Lady Rhondda.

Margaret Haig Thomas, the Viscountess Rhondda was part of the Welsh Suffrage movement and a tireless campaigner for equal rights. Rhondda Rips It Up! Is a musical comedy that tells the story of her life and adventures.

Rhondda Rebel AR - Screenshot

The Welsh National Opera (WNO) decided to further enhance the performance by working with digital production company REWIND to add AR to the performance. REWIND took one of the key scenes from the musical, the courtroom trial, and added in elements of AR.

REWIND and WNO worked together to blend in the digital AR elements with traditional performance and music to create what they believe will be a stimulating experience, which is going by the name Rhondda Rebel AR.

The Ar experience will be premiered at Sessions House in Usk, where the AR experience will be synced to the live theatre performance, putting Rhondda in the court with live actors and spatial audio.

AR tracking markers were placed in the court environment, so Rhondda moves around the court room, with the networking setup which has been installed ensuring everything remains perfectly in sync.

REWIND - Logo

There are plans for Rhondda Rebel AR to tour as an installation to various locations across Wales and England, with modifications so it won’t require the use of live actors.

The performance in Sessions House in Usk is free to attend, with tickets available to book through the EventBrite page. The running time in 10 minutes.

For future coverage on new and innovative AR experiences, keep checking back with VRFocus.

June 3, 2018

The VR Job Hub: Producers, Developers, And Researchers Wanted

June is here and with the start of the month comes the chance to find an exciting new job opportunity within the immersive media industry. As always, every weekend VRFocus is here to help you with a selection of different positions currently taking applications. SUPERHOT team are looking for a producer for a new project, Dyson need a research engineer and Graham Construction are looking for developers. There are plenty of opportunities to discover in this weeks entry of The VR Job Hub.

Every weekend VRFocus gathers together a number open position from across the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) industry, in locations around the globe, to help make finding the ideal job easier. Below are a selection of roles that are currently accepting applications across a number of disciplines, all within departments and companies that focus on VR, AR and MR.

Location	Company	Role	Link
Łódź, Poland	SUPERHOT	Producer	Click Here to Apply
St Albans, UK	REWIND	Lead/ Senior Unity Programmer	Click Here to Apply
St Albans, UK	REWIND	Technical Artist	Click Here to Apply
St Albans, UK	REWIND	Lead Animator	Click Here to Apply
Hillsborough, NI, UK	Graham Construction	Virtual Reality Developer	Click Here to Apply
Malmesbury, UK	Dyson	VR/AR Research Engineer	Click Here to Apply
Hatfield, PA, US	The BOSS Group	Virtual Reality Developer	Click Here to Apply
Toronto, Canada	Interaptix Augmented Reality	Computer Vision Engineer	Click Here to Apply
Vancouver, Canada	uForis VR	3D Environment Artist	Click Here to Apply
Menlo Park, CA, US	Oculus VR	Data Scientist, Insights and Growth	Click Here to Apply
Redmond, WA, US	Facebook	Communications Manager, AR/VR	Click Here to Apply
Stockholm, Sweden	Fast Travel Games	3D Artist	Click Here to Apply

Don’t forget, if there was nothing in this week’s feature that was a good fit for you, you can always look at the previous edition of The VR Job Hub.

As always, if you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to myself at keva@vrfocus.com and also pgraham@vrfocus.com.

Check back with VRFocus next Sunday at the usual time of 3PM (GMT) for another selection of jobs from around the industry.

May 27, 2018

The VR Job Hub: End Of May Opportunities

As May comes to an end soon why not start the new month with a new job in the immersive media industry? As always, VRFocus is here to help you with a selection of different positions currently taking applications from across the world. Why not work in Sweden at Fast Travel Games as a 3D Artist or how about a Technical Artist role at Disney? There are plenty of opportunities to discover in this weeks entry of The VR Job Hub.

Location	Company	Role	Link
Glendale, CA, USA	Disney	Technical Artist	Click Here to Apply
St Albans, UK	REWIND	Lead Animator	Click Here to Apply
St Albans, UK	REWIND	Technical Artist	Click Here to Apply
St Albans, UK	REWIND	Lead/ Senior Unity Programmer	Click Here to Apply
London, UK	INITION	Producer	Click Here to Apply
London, UK	INITION	3D Developer	Click Here to Apply
London, UK	INITION	Experienced Software Developer	Click Here to Apply
San Bruno, CA, US	YouTube	Software Engineer, Virtual Reality	Click Here to Apply
Seattle, WA, US	Facebook	Communications Manager, AR/VR Games	Click Here to Apply
Raleigh, NC, US	Downpour Interactive	Community Manager	Click Here to Apply
Raleigh, NC, US	Downpour Interactive	Software Enginner	Click Here to Apply
Stockholm, Sweden	Fast Travel Games	3D Artist	Click Here to Apply

Don’t forget, if there was nothing in this week’s feature that was a good fit for you, you can always look at the previous edition of The VR Job Hub.

Check back with VRFocus next Sunday at the usual time of 3PM (GMT) for another selection of jobs from around the industry.

May 11, 2018

Silicon Valley: Inside The Hacker Hostel VR Experience Now On Oculus Rift

Following the release of the Silicon Valley: Inside The Hacker Hostel immersive virtual reality (VR) experience back in March of this year for the HTC Vive. HBO and REWIND have now announced that the experience will be coming to the Oculus Rift now as well.

Silicon Valley: Inside The Hacker Hostel

The announcement comes ahead of the season give finale for Silicon Valley that is set to air this coming Sunday, May 13th at 10:00pm EST. The title allows fans of the show to jump into the Hacker Hostel and get to experience a number of items from the show along with having one-on-one encounters with the characters from the show including Richard (Thomas Middleditch), Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani), Gilfoyle (Martin Starr), Big Head (Josh Brener) and Jian-Yang (Jimmy O. Yang). Users can see how many times they get “always blue”, demo the Not Hot Dog app, find a secret message from Jared and help Richard out of a coding crisis.

The Silicon Valley: Inside The Hacker Hostel title was built by REWIND within the Unreal Engine 4 to allow for an authentic virtual recreation of the Hacker Hostel to be made for users to explore. By using a 3D software to faithfully recreate the environment from blueprints of the actual set, along with photo references to create textures and materials the team at REWIND were even able to capture HDR 360-degree photos of each room on set to ensure authentic lighting was possible. The team worked hard to ensure the digital recreation of the Hacker Hostel would be a one-to-one result giving fans the most immersive experience possible.

Kumail Nanjiani_Dinesh in Silicon Valley Inside The Hacker Hostel VR

“Being handed a beloved IP like Silicon Valley is daunting and exciting at the same time, but we were able to craft a virtual world that takes fans into the heart of the show.” Says CEO & Founder of REWIND Sol Rogers. “It isn’t just a gimmick or a reskin of something else; this is VR done right. It gives those that want to literally live and breathe the show the perfect accompaniment to the fifth season. Filled with Easter eggs, show references and loads of items to play with, it’s pure entertainment. Countless hours went into creating a perfect virtual replica of the Hacker House and we’re thrilled it’s now open to visitors.”

The Silicon Valley: Inside The Hacker Hostel experience is available now on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. You can see a behind-the-scenes trailer below for the Silicon Valley: Inside The Hacker Hostel experience and for more on the title in the future, keep reading VRFocus.

April 4, 2018

PwC and REWIND Create Futuristic VR City Experience to Help Organisations Navigate Potential Disruptions

Global accountancy firm PwC has been dabbling in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) for awhile now, setting up its own specialist division which saw the creation of an interactive map in 2017 detailing the UK’s VR/AR industry. Today, the company has announced its latest project – built in collaboration with creative agency REWIND – a VR experience that aims to help PwC’s clients explore and better understand the range of potential future disruptions that could impact their organisation.

The companies built an immersive experience of a future city, illustrating how emerging technologies (including megadrones and robotics), as well as various social and climate trends, might impact our future.

PwC has said that more than 100 people have been guided through the experience already as part of its pilot phase, including clients in banking, transport, local government and the public sector. Participants use VR to spot 20 potential disruptions around them in a future city environment and collectively rate their credibility and impact.

Jeremy Dalton, VR lead at PwC, said in a statement: “VR is a unique medium to tell the story of disruption, allowing our clients to experience the potential impact first-hand and bring their challenges to life in a much more immersive way. It enables far more meaningful conversations about the risks faced by each organisation as a result. This tool demonstrates there is far more to VR than gaming – it’s a technology with huge potential across a whole host of sectors, including professional services, with its power to engage people in a new way.”

PwC VR experience — A view of a potential future city as portrayed in the new virtual reality experience developed by PwC and REWIND

“Organisations are facing so many potential disruptions today – not only from technological advances, but from the collision of broader megatrends, from ageing populations to income inequality,” adds Leo Johnson, disruption lead partner at PwC. “We’ve established a new team specialising in disruption to help our clients stay one step ahead of these risks and build future-proofed strategies. The challenge is to map out the potential disruptions an organisation could face, separate out the reality from the hype, and then look at strategies to transform risk into opportunity. The value of the VR tool is that it brings the future into the present and allows our clients a first-hand glimpse of how exponential technologies will start to transform the business landscape.”

As businesses continue to use VR in all its forms, VRFocus will keep you updated on the latest developments.

April 4, 2018

REWIND CEO to Chair BAFTA’s new Immersive Entertainment Advisory Group

British creative agency REWIND has created some notable virtual reality (VR) experiences over the past few years, including Ghost in the Shell VR Experience and Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel. Today, BAFTA has announced the appointment of REWIND’s CEO and Founder, Sol Rogers as chair of the new Immersive Entertainment Advisory Group.

The Immersive Entertainment Advisory Group will take over the work done by BAFTA’s previous commitee, the Virtual Reality Advisory Group, with 15 individuals representing both the technology and creative sectors delivering recommendations to BAFTA over the next twelve months.

In a statement about the appointment Sol Rogers said: “Last year we built a great foundation together; this year I’m honoured to be taking the reins and steering BAFTA’s new Immersive Entertainment Advisory Group to continue to make an important and positive impact on our burgeoning industry. The focus will be on educating and supporting BAFTA and its members on all things immersive. While the core team will be smaller than before, there will be plenty of opportunities for those interested and involved currently in BAFTA film, games, and TV to participate in larger consultations throughout the year.”

The group’s mission is to explore the impact that VR, augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) and beyond will have on the current landscape of the film, videogame, and television industries, assess the impact of immersive entertainment and the best ways for BAFTA to facilitate learning experiences. Additionally, the Immersive Entertainment Advisory Group will also engage with the VR/AR and MR communities during its research by hosting events and inviting information and feedback.

BAFTA’s Immersive Entertainment Advisory Group is comprised of:

Chair – Solomon Rogers – Founder and CEO, REWIND
Deputy – Dave Ranyard – Founder and CEO, Dream Reality Interactive
Alice Taylor – Director, StudioLab, Walt Disney Studios
Annie Robinson – Head of Content and Creator Relations, Magic Leap
Duncan Burbidge – VP Global Operations, The Third Floor
Julia Hamilton Trost – Head of Business Development & Content Partnerships, Google VR/AR
Mária Rakušanová – Director of VR, AR and New Media, Raindance Film Festival. Microsoft Mixed Reality
Neil Graham – Executive Producer, Sky VR & Sky Cinema
Nick Rooke – Director of Developer Relations, Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
Paul Brown – GM, Vive Europe
Ted Schilowitz – Futurist In Residence, Paramount
Tom Burton – Head of Interactive and VR, BBC
Vicki Dobbs Beck – Executive in Charge, ILMxLab
Yelena Rachitsky – Executive Producer for Experiences, Oculus

For any further updates from BAFTA on its VR/AR and MR plans, keep reading VRFocus.

March 24, 2018

REWIND and HBO Releasing Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel Experience Tomorrow

The Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel is an immersive virtual reality (VR) experience that will bring fans of the hit HBO comedy series Silicon Valley and put them into the heart of it all.

Thomas Middleditch_Richard Hendricks in Silicon Valley Inside The Hacker Hostel VR

The interactive VR experience provides fans with one-on-one encounters with the characters from the show including Richard (Thomas Middleditch), Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani), Gilfoyle (Martin Starr), Big Head (Josh Brener) and Jian-Yang (Jimmy O. Yang). Viewers who attend the Hacker Hostel can see how many times they get “always blue”, demo the Not Hot Dog app, find a secret message from Jared and help Richard out of coding crisis.

Powered by the Unreal Engine 4, which recently unveiled a host of new features at the Game Developer Conference including a real-time ray tracing Star Wars demo, the experience has been crafted for the HTC Vive. The team at REWIND, an immersive content studio with a passion for VR, augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR), have worked to create an authentic virtual version of the Hacker Hostel, a central part of the HBO show.

Kumail Nanjiani_Dinesh in Silicon Valley Inside The Hacker Hostel VR

Using 3D software to faithfully recreate the environment from blueprints of the actual set, along with photo reference to create textures and materials and making use of the show’s set using a HDR 360 Capture of each room to replicate the lighting as authentically as possible. The end result for the users is a digital recreation of the set that is fully explorable and intractable.

The Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel experience is host to a number of interactive elements that users will be able to interact with including table football with integrated artificial intelligence (AI) to a fully playable piano. Screen distortion effects allow the user to become ‘drunk’ within the experience. It packed with so many different objects that are interactive that users can even put on a VR head-mounted display (HMD) within The Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel experience.

The Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel experience is releasing tomorrow on HTC Vive’s Viveport platform tomorrow and for now will only be available in America. As season five of the series is just starting on HBO, it is a perfect time to experience the show like never before and be a part of it with The Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel experience.

VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest from REWIND and HBO in the future so stay tuned for more.

November 24, 2017

Why Is Presence Important For Virtual Reality?

Presence is the magic of virtual reality (VR), the feeling that you’re actually in the virtual world. Presence will cause the user to suspend disbelief and believe they are in the virtual environment, reacting to stimuli as if they were in the real world. It’s the holy grail, the purpose of VR.

Constant improvement in the ability to create presence – through tech and content – will push the industry forward. To make someone genuinely believe they are experiencing another world is a powerful thing and with it comes great responsibility. As content creators, we have a duty of care to our users.

Right now it’s tough to create true presence, because for this to occur all your senses need to be convinced that you are in a new reality – this is a huge technical challenge. Currently, VR can satisfy our vision and hearing, and there are some significant developments in regards to touch, but there is still much work to do in regards to smell and taste.

Achieving a lifelike user experience in VR is now possible because of tremendous advancements in computer processing power, graphics, video and display technologies. But the tech needs to stay out of the way; it needs to be entirely inconsequential to the experience; otherwise, the spell is broken. Shattering the illusion can also be caused by hitting walls/ceilings with controllers, loss of tracking, tripping or hearing sounds unrelated to the experience, e.g., someone talking in the real world.

Content Is King

While the tech is no doubt necessary, no user is going to suspend disbelief if the experience is awful! While resolution, latency, etc. are improving, our role as content producers in creating presence is to design with an incredible attention to detail resulting in high-definition visual fidelity that creates a truly believable world.

Context

Context is also critical. The more you can relate to the VR experience and believe it (does it react in the way you expect it to?) the more you will be immersed. Ironically, you need some reality in VR. If you put someone into an abstract world, it’s going to be harder to achieve presence.

Interactivity

Adding interactivity to the experience can dial up the immersion, but it needs to give the user some form of feedback – audio, visual or haptic – so that they feel like they are interacting with the environment. Home: A VR Spacewalk, the experience we created with the BBC, is a good example of going beyond the HMD to heighten immersion. Adding humans for interactivity doesn’t work because then you encounter the whole ‘uncanny valley’ problem.

Getting The Setup Right

The set up is also essential. You can’t expect someone to put on a headset and be immediately immersed; you have to play to the limitations of the hardware. It’s pointless trying to recreate something in VR if the hardware isn’t capable of delivering a believable experience. You are better off with a more limited set of interactions because you can do them successfully, rather than trying to do something beyond the current technology, such as realistic walking.

That’s not to say the current technology won’t improve. Hardware advances are being made all the time, with better and faster GPUs and CPUs allowing us to create and run increasingly complicated and graphics-intensive experiences. We will be able to develop not only more realistic-looking experiences but ones that we simply wouldn’t have been able to create while working on slower, less capable hardware. Furthermore, as HMDs get smaller, faster and lighter, there will be a marked difference in the ability to create presence. Untethered HMDs will significantly improve the VR experience, as will an improved field of view and higher screen resolutions.

However, until we can accurately recreate the world, create characters that behave as humans do and convince all our sense we are in an environment, we are going to struggle to achieve true presence. Until then, can strive to get as close as we can within the current constraints.

November 6, 2017

360° Video: The Future Of Content Marketing

The landscape of content marketing has changed significantly over the years. In today’s fast-paced world, video provides the flexibility and relevance that on-the-go consumers want; 360° video has taken this to a whole new level.

360° video has the potential to relay much more powerful advertising messages than linear communication which uses text, still images, and traditional video. With 360° content, consumers take the messages to heart in deeper and more long lasting ways.

“Access to VR experiences is surging. It’s getting easier to try it out, driven in large part by both VR180 and 360 formats. It’s a gateway to larger experiences.” Explained to Abigail Posner, Head of Strategy for The Zoo at Google. “People try this flavor, dive into new worlds, pique their senses, and then want to try more and more complex kinds of immersive experiences. So brands need to start playing around with the unique VR story framework, blaze new trails and truly show what they’re about to their users. It’s a new way to make a deep impression about what the brand stand for.”

Brands have a revolutionary new format to use, but does it actually drive more engagement than standard video advertising? Or is it just a passing fad that will soon make its way into the technology graveyard?

360° Advertising Is More Effective

With most people encountering a barrage of advertising on a daily basis, it’s getting harder and harder for brands to cut through the noise. Initial experiments with 360° video have demonstrated that this format might be exactly what brands need to push through. Hong Kong Airlines found its 360° ad was 35 times more effective than the equivalent traditional ad. James Hill, a commercial director at video advert marketplace Teads, found click through rates for 360° commercials were double what they were for standard video. The adding layer of interactivity that 360° video provides is engaging and for some, there is still a novelty factor in play.

A 360° trailer for the movie Fifty Shades Darker performed ten times better than a static control advert, with viewers staying in the virtual ballroom experience for an average of two minutes. Broadway musical School of Rock launched a 360° video to promote ticket sales during the Christmas season, and it was viewed 1 million times in just three days. Thanks to this, traffic to the show’s ticketing website increased by an impressive 160%, while traffic to the show’s website increased by 550%.

Google recently conducted an in-depth study into the differences between 360° advertising and its standard video counterpart. They found that 360° advertising didn’t manage to increase an advert’s viewership, but that those who did watch were more likely to click through to see a longer version of the video. They were also more likely to share it, subscribe to the channel and view other videos by the brand. This increased level of engagement can be traced back to interactivity – viewers know a 360° video will be a better experience for them, so they stick around for longer, as they enjoy being able to control what they see. It’s no surprise that these factors lead to tangible results.

360° Advertising Can Be More Practical

In September, John Lewis became the first UK brand to advertise a homeware collection in 360 degrees on Facebook. The advert gave viewers the chance to view goods from all angles, attempting to recreating the shopping experience at home. Hilton achieved similar results when they created a 360° advertisement for a Barbados holiday, taking users closer to the destination than any brochure ever could.

The implications for 360° advertising in the travel sector are clear, particularly given its ability to transport users to locations before they actually visit it. However, there’s another even more important reason brands are making use of 360° advertising for their businesses.

360° Advertising Positions Brands As Industry Leaders

While 360° video technology is still relatively new in the advertising space, it is important for brands with one eye on the future to get involved. Marriott was hailed as a “forward-looking and relevant brand within the travel market” after its 360° advertising campaign was launched. It is essential for any brand that wants to be seen as creative and innovative to appear as such in its advertising, as well as its products.

360° advertising can also help companies outdo their competitors in revenue. With digital ad revenue outpacing traditional ad revenue, 360° advertising will become more commonplace soon and its value will become stronger, for viewers and brands alike.

With numerous examples of how 360° video can help drive engagement, increase shareability, and position brands as industry leaders, I don’t think it’s going anywhere soon. In fact, this is just the beginning.

You can read Sol’s previous piece for VRFocus about AR’s position versus VR in 2017 here.

September 11, 2017

REWIND Creates Soul of the Machine VR Experience for INFINITI

British creative studio REWIND, well known for its virtual reality (VR) experiences like Ghost in the Shell and Pane in the Glass, has revealed its latest immersive project, Soul of the Machine, created for car manufacturer INFINITI.

Working with Tool of North America and Crispin Porter + Bogusky, REWIND debuted the experience at the 2017 Pebble Beach Automotive Week, taking guests inside the brand’s latest concept.

REWIND_Soul of the Machine_image_1

Featuring the QX50 concept, Soul of the Machine is a narrated 3.5-minute experience utilising HTC Vive and TPCast giving guests the ability to explore the car in complete freedom. Sat in an INFINITI driver’s seat they would see 342 car parts drift toward them, eventually forming the QX50 around them.

“Houdini is traditionally used for procedural based VFX elements. We used its power and precision to create the complicated and detailed effects within the real-time experience – the car building and exploding around the user,” said Matt Vernon-Clinch, Director of Accounts, REWIND. “We also used Houdini’s efficiency to rapidly iterate different versions, allowing us to get to the end result as quickly as possible, without compromising on quality. The result is part product demo, part interactive art.”

To watch Soul of the Machine head on over to Vimeo.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of REWIND, reporting back with its latest VR projects.