I recently attended the Storytelling in 360 - VR Meet Up with Wired Sussex in Brighton with guest speaker Theo Penty from Igloo Vision. The event focused on the power of immersive storytelling and also demonstrated a showcase of Igloo Vision. I had travelled to the event to learn ways in which the technology could be adapted into my own projects, both academic with my MA in Virtual Reality and professional, with my Studio projects at ERA Film Studios.
Providing an alternative to headsets, simulation technology was a pre-cursor to Virtual Reality, with pioneers Evans and Sutherland and McDonnell Douglas military simulation. Today, although this technology is more accessible to all industries, as a historian of Virtual Reality, it was incredibly interesting to see how projection based rooms for immersion at Igloo Vision, evoked the planetarium and even the most earliest Panoramic paintings, which immersed one inside a 360 degree panoramic painting.
Igloo Vision is a Shared VR Company, that creates immersive 360 degree projection environments. A leader in immersive system solutions, for over ten years, Igloo Vision provides a collective immersive experience for the audience, sharing the sensation of simulation, visualisation and experiences. Immersive technology has been described as the “Ultimate Empathy Machine”, and with this technology creators and brands are able to engage their audiences like never before, and in particular brands have seen its power to increase sales and marketing.
Simulation services provide immersive, versatile and affordable solutions to place our audience into complex and often difficult situations, which are too expensive or hazardous to recreate in the real world. A prime example of this would be oil & gas.
Igloo Vision also provides an effective platform for Visualisation, enhancing engineering and design concepts into an immersive experience. This allows for the reduction of errors and an increase in improved planning processes, stronger teams and of course, engage stakeholders into a new dimension.
One of the prime focuses of the talk, was Igloo Vision’s exemplary showcase of experiences, delivered across the globe and at a diverse range of events and venues. The experiences are quite scintillating to view as an observer, as the physical and virtual worlds become intertwined with stunning effect.
In creating an ideal shared Virtual Reality space, Igloo Vision provides Projection Domes, Projection Cylinders and Custom Builds, which can be pop-up or permanent, exterior or interior and compact or cavernous. Their all-in-one solutions also offer clients continuous support and implementation of the product.
Igloo Vision has created projects with leading brands across the globe, and it was highly informative and even inspirational to find out about their work with Medecins San Frontier, which helped to drive donations and provide meaningful engagement through immersive storytelling, and how the usage of 4D real props was incorporated into the exhibition installation to enhance physical immersion in the experience. From providing immersive cocktail experiences at The Berkeley, to a shared immersive experience of an emotion reunion with Hyundai or revealing the prociderues and history of the brand Lagavulin, Igloo Vision is a market leader in shared VR experiences.
In addition, as a Producer of film and Director of the First British Virtual Reality Feature Film, The London Detective, I have often thought of how my project would reach wider audiences and continuously explore ways to innovate the XR business distribution model and collective immersive experience. It was particularly interesting to hear of Igloo Vision’s recent collaboration with BFI Future Film Festival in 2019 with Hatch TV’s Chris Chadwick, as well as the Alternate Realities Exhibition at Sheffield Doc Fest. I am a firm believer in the power of mobile Virtual Reality cinemas or experience centers, which envoke the mobile travelling Picture Palaces of yesteryear. I was incredibly proud to have created part of my film inside a renovated picture palace from the 1950s, and believe that with this model, we can reach audiences like never before, and better yet, showcase the power of immersive storytelling in a powerful, scintillating and large scale experience.
One question however would be, how will this technology be effected by the continued accessibility of Virtual Reality technology and the rise of Augmented Reality technology. I saw the technology to be more like the Holodeck from StarTrek, and although costly to a consumer or prosumer, clients such as the Oil and Gas industries, film industry, Museums, sports sectors and many more will be able to see the power of custom boutique shared VR and perhaps in time, we will advance to a future whereby we can connect even more to these installations and further enhance location based experiences and the collective immersive experience.