The pilots

Regarding offline production, ImmersiaTV focuses on the delivery of a novel form of Documentary. This format will deliver a demonstrator early on in the project, and will do so based on offline production. Among the established content formats that are produced offline, a documentary has been chosen  because it is the one format where traditional TV experiences impose a tension between, on one hand, giving the end-users footage that is as close as possible to the reality “as it is” and, on the other hand, the need to involve the viewers in a narrative which relates to them.

DRAGON FORCE – The Making of Future Heroes follows the daily life of David, a young Portuguese athlete who joined Dragon Force, FC Porto football school, to pursue his dream of becoming a successful football player. During his busy, hard-working days, the documentary presents his family, his friends and the dedication of this 14 year old dreamer. It will be shot combining omnidirectional and traditional video to give you a literal inside view of what it takes to be a professional football player.

If you want to know more about the first pilot results:

This pilot uses cyclocross as a case. Cyclocross uses a looped track, which allows for fixed omnidirectional camera points at the most spectacular points in the track. Cyclocross uses a closed track on a mixed underground (dirt, sand, mud, grass, water, ice, snow…), this is a very spectacular sport with thousands of spectators at the race and hundreds of thousands watching it on TV and online. Of all live sports coverage available, we selected cyclocross because of its possibilities to show the sport as if you were on the track with them, or as one of the spectators at the race. This will give us insights in how and when to use omnidirectional video and sound and will also give us some first directions on how to combine it with basic interaction and layering, e.g. to provide more information and background. The complexity of the live event will allow us to test real-time production tools and will teach us what works and what doesn’t as far as user perception, basic interaction and storytelling is concerned.

It is being defined from the lessons learnt in the 2 previous ones. It will consist of 2 different production pilots: a refined iteration of an offline documentary, where the exploration mode will be fully implemented: the end-user will be able to explore different paths, and the order of scenes and timing of events will change depending on his actions. It will also involve and a refined iteration of a live sports event. It will secure an improved experience for the audience, integrating a better delivery infrastructure, refined codecs and stitching methods, as well as an improved receptor.