Belfast-based Extended Reality producers RETìníZE have recently finished a R&D project funded by Future Screens NI exploring XR uses with the BBC archive through the BBC Rewind programme. The project drew on BBC Rewinds collection of over 13,000 clips including news reports, documentaries and lifestyle programmes from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s featuring a glimpse of what life was like in Northern Ireland, as captured by BBC NI. The aim of the R&D project was to create a headset-based XR interactive experience with the BBC’s archived content in new and exciting ways. The intended solution would enable users to navigate a large body of already-digitized BBC archive content in an immersive and intuitive way. The aim was to present the archive collection through a cutting-edge spatial interface that would display the content in ways that are both visually appealing and useful, in terms of sorting and filtering. RETìníZE successfully deployed an executable application to both the Hololens 2 and Oculus Quest 2. The research, development and testing of the project unearthed several findings that may prove useful to future projects that aim to incorporate spatial computing techniques to support exploration of large multimedia data sets.
TEAM
Warren Bell, BBC
Jack Morrow, RETìníZE
Jamie McRoberts, RETìníZE
Phil Morrow, RETìníZE
Co-Investigator: Dr Declan Keeney, Director of the Ulster Screen Academy, Ulster University
BBC Rewind currently hosts a collection of more than 13,000 clips including news reports, documentaries and lifestyle programmes from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. Work is underway to open up more of the archive from the 1980s and 1990s. This landmark initiative will make a large and diverse cross-section of the BBC’s archive publicly accessible for the first time.
RETìníZE is an award-winning immersive content studio that specialises in the creation of live action and animated VR content, as well as interactive and geolocative AR applications. RETìníZE are one of the UK’s longest standing immersive media producers with roots and reputations in high-end global film & television where, for almost twenty years, their parent company, Wild Rover Productions, has created TV shows for major UK and international broadcasters.
