BBC: The Briefing
A tale of Virtual Reality, Immersive Tech, Youth Makers, Games and the Future of Auntie
by Ethar Alali
What’s the Story, Morning Glory
As rep for Axelisys, I made my way to BBC Quay House, one of the Beeb’s many building at MediaCity in Manchester. I was in town for a briefing held at the BBC’s headquarters in MediaCity, Manchester. The weather was crisp and the sun was attempting to poke through. However, as is Manchester weather, this didn’t last long.
The BBC’s briefing was aimed at digital service suppliers. After winning our place on their list earlier in the year, we were lucky enough to meet some of the UK’s biggest and brightest at the event, which also showcased the BBC’s broadcasting aims for the next few years.
Empathy, Research & Education
It may come as a surprise, but broadcasting, whilst the biggest part of the BBC’s ventures, is part of a wider remit in public service broadcasting. The BBC maintain educational content and media research remits internally, to help it deliver the latest technology in a way which engages audiences more, allowing it to play with some of the latest technologies to grace the world of tech.
Hollie Goodyear, Director of Marketing and Audiences, kicked us off after the initial ‘bonus’ panel discussion. She introduced teasers and some of the new tech they’ve started trialling. VR headsets and haptic vests were used to experiment with the format. Also, she introduced videos of some of her colleagues who had partaken in a personal Bjork gig from earlier this year. For a few years, Bjork has been experimenting with new ways of interacting with audiences around the world. This included beaming her concerts to audiences via Virtual Reality headsets.
Immersive Tech
The BBC are always looking for the next level in entertainment. To have people participate in, and feel part of the experience as much as possible. Research has shown that people empathise more with people once they experience what they’ve experienced. The BBC R&D team have been working on programmes such as “We Wait”. A polygon tale which immerses the viewer in the world of migrants, paying smugglers to crossing the Mediterranean in a dinghy.
Although not new to wearing VR headsets, I sat through that one myself. You were aware it was a VR experience for the first few minutes. It just felt like it was any other VR sample. Yet, having sat through the first 10 minutes, I noticed myself twitch as I turned around to my right and almost turned into the virtual lady crammed next to me in the dinghy. I even caught myself starting to apologe, before remembering this was VR experience. The characters were definitely not “human” in that the polygon blocks from the 1990’s didn’t make them human, but I obviously empathised with the characters just enough to regard them as “human enough” to apologise to them. By jove, it just might work!
Gaming and Virtual Reality technologies featured heavily in the programme. The BBC showcased various devices in the Blue Room, including Microsoft’s Hololens, which at £3,000, was the most expensive device there and I have to be honest, wasn’t as well geared to full immersion as the other devices. It also had a very narrow field if vision. I found myself constantly moving outside it too and it just disappearing, instead of falling into my peripheral vision.
Despite this, it worked well with the built in Windows 10 installation and learning the two main gestured (‘blossom’ and ‘select’) and working out how to use those gestures with the in-built Kinect sensors to place windows, open Internet Explorer and navigate to a website by typing into the address bar. I found the typing experience, which involved you looking at each desired letter on the same “on screen” keyboard of WinRT and using the select gesture, chronically slow! However, the quality of the audio was good. Plus, it made my head look huge!
…and yes,I can see through that.
Astounded by Accuracy
One third of a millimetre. The Blue Room included infrared monitoring hardware at two point, which allowed it to monitor and detect the location of the HTC headset to 1/3mm. One third! I can’t imagine a situation where that level of accuracy is truly needed with one tracking, since it’s not discernible from the amount our heads move simply on our heartbeat, let alone walking. However, over-engineered? I’m not sure it is.
Want to make your own games and content? Mixital up!
Mixital is the BBC’s customer driven content creation service. We visited this site several months ago. It aims to engage younger people in developing and delivering content of their own, on the BBC platform. Want games? Make your own. Want stories? Make your own.
It has proven so successful, the BBC team have challenged their youth panel to ensure the delivery of an entire features in Mixital. I look forward to seeing what they come up with!
Summary
The BBC’s supplier engagement model has gone through a wholesale revamp over the last few years. The BBC appear to have taken the comments of previous incarnations of their supplier engagement to heart and really pulled out all the stops today. We learned a lot about the client, their needs, roadmap and vision.
Our experience with folk working within the BBC, through tech events and more intimate collaborations, show they’re a pretty savvy bunch as a whole. It’s an exciting time for them and this definitely came out in the passion of the speakers and demonstrators today.
We certainly look forward to seeing what the BBC are working on and being part of the supplier engagement.
Were you at the event in Manchester or London? How did you find it? Let us know in the comments.
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