BBC Click
360° & VR, Experiential
The consumer technology gurus behind TV’s BBC Click paired up with Pufferfish to showcase a very special episode of the weekly show – a world first in 360°.
Brief
A chance encounter with the PufferTouch at the International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam saw the team at BBC Click blown away by the technology and its capabilities for displaying 360° video and live stream. Having featured the PufferTouch on the show, it wasn’t long before they approached us at Pufferfish for the obvious pairing of the PufferTouch with their ground breaking new 360° episode and a live episode taping due to take place at BBC’s Broadcasting House.
The pioneering programme contains an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of Cern’s incredible Large Hadron Collider. The team cleverly filmed a conjuring trick in which the magician was unable to conceal his secrets, with the 360° camera capable of capturing slights of hand from all angles and also featured stunning views of the Swiss Alps in 360°. Another behind-the-scenes look saw them exploring Zurich's Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology lab alongside an innovative feature on new videogame ‘Superhot’.
With the episode having already been broadcast online and made available to viewers to watch via VR headsets, the producers were keen to allow their audience and BBC staff and visitors to experience it in a transformative new way, on the kind of cutting-edge technology the show is known for discovering.
Solution
Allowing for the highest possible brightness and resolution, a 600mm PufferTouch was selected for the brightly lit reception space in Broadcasting House. Housed there from early morning to evening, it would create a buzz ahead of the night-time live show where the robust unit was quickly and easily moved to a space where the audience could explore the content. With the episode itself 24 minutes long, the software team at Pufferfish were faced with the challenge of ensuring that the sphere and the content captured people’s attention and encouraged them to get tactile with it. They took each separate feature of the episode and designed and created an on-brand, multi-button sphere application in which to showcase the 360° content. On the touch-sensitive sphere users could be selective, navigating their way in and out of the clips, exploring all angles and choosing to consume as much or as little of each as they liked.
Summary of outcomes
Described by show presenter Spencer Kelly as the “brilliant, ball of wonder” the PufferTouch created a magnetic draw in the busy BBC reception, with visitors eager to learn more about the PufferTouch's native 360° monitoring capabilities. It also created a buzz and sparked conversation amongst the show‘s audience before they took their seats inside Radio theatre. The presence of the sphere also created a social stir around the event with people eagerly filming the unique installation and uploading it to social media.
What our client said
“The PufferTouch allows users to peer into and explore the content without the dizziness sometimes experienced through a VR headset…could this be the TV of the future?” – Dan Simmons, BBC Click