Home, a VR Spacewalk

Background

The BBC had a long history of innovation in how it informed, educated and entertained.

The corporation wanted to explore and understand the new medium of VR in order to examine its potential for storytelling.

Idea

'Home' was a collaboration between REWIND and BBC Studios Digital, BBC Studios Science and BBC Learning.

It was an epic 15-minute immersive virtual reality experience in which the user traversed the International Space Station, went out on the Canadarm and jetpacked back to safety.

(S)he was at the centre of an experience of beautiful and heart-stopping moments in which visual fidelity was accompanied by equally authentic spatial audio.

The ISS was constructed with absolute fidelity to the original and built to real-world scale.

Bluetooth heart-rate monitors fed back the sound of users' own heartbeats. This was combined with an integrated live mic that delivered back into the experience, creating the claustrophobia of the astronaut's helmet and the unnerving sounds of her body and space suit's life support system.

A gaming chair was also used to provide haptic feedback. Finally, for selected live viewings, a live voice actor who was able to ad-lib from the script was incorporated, conversing with the player and observing and responding to their predicament.

Results

'Home' was a pioneering experience, which led the way creative people both within and outside the BBC began to consider the possibilities of VR. New horizons in education and entertainment began to open up.

The experience won six awards before its release including Best Interactive VR Experience at Byron Bay Film festival.

The experience puts you 240 miles above earth, moving at 17,000 miles an hour.

Your mission is to leave the safety of the Space Station and walk out into space in order to inspect what damage has been done to it by space debris.

Our Thoughts

Mark Ritson, who writes for Marketing Week and for whom I have much respect, has written that VR is flim-flam, fashionable nonsense, which will soon disappear. No-one is going to want to spend too much time blundering around wearing headsets.

I think he's wrong for two reasons. The first is that there are already 98 different headsets available in the market. So many companies would not be investing in this new tech if they didn't think there was going to be money in it.

Incidentally, Google's Daydream visor and controller costs a paltry $78, which I think will induce large numbers to give VR a try.

The second reason is when people take part in experiences as incredible as this, it will blow their minds. And it really is amazing. My heartbeat was going like the clappers when I failed to dock successfully.

There have been plenty of VR experiences created in the last year but creative people are still finding their way in the new medium. This points the way forward.