Reality Capture Opens up the Entertainment World

The cultural sector has been quick to respond to the current crisis with a repertoire of streamed content, which may attract new audiences. The likes of Chris Martin and Bono have live streamed performances into our homes, but in a few years, we could really see ourselves attending a live concert in a stadium in our living rooms. Whilst LiDAR is something that many people will have heard of in relation to autonomous cars, the technology is increasingly being adopted by the entertainment sector and is quite literally opening up new worlds. Making LiDAR technology more accessible to the creative industry has proved transformational and in a couple of years we can expect to be able to virtually experience live events or theatre performances, travel around the world and even travel to scenes from the past.

As Nina Dunn, Joint Head of Video & Digital Design for RADA pointed out when we met earlier this year, live streaming in cinemas of theatre performances from the National Theatre in the UK with National Theatre Live has already proved transformative for the industry, opening up productions to audiences across the country.

Over the next few years, we can also expect to virtually attend these performances from the comfort of our homes in a fully immersive experience.

The production which won the Tribeca Film Festival’s award in 2019 for the Best Use of VR brought this future reality a step closer. Our team supported Springbok Entertainment in using the Leica BLK 360 laser scanner to create a 3D model of the Orpheum Theatre in Canada. With this 3D model they were able to virtually place the audience face to face on stage in the theatre with the protagonist, interacting with volumetrically captured performances to create a greater sense of empathy.

A key challenge for the adoption of this technology is the necessity for people to have a virtual reality (VR) headset. LIVR, an on-demand virtual reality experience, which launched last year has attempted to overcome this with an interesting new model. Through LIVR, audiences can stream shows using a mobile phone app for LIVR and watch them via a free virtual reality headset that is provided by the service. The service claims to offer “the best seat in the house without leaving the house” through fully immersive 360-degree experience of live theatre performances.

Today theatre revenues and live concerts are constrained by the number of seats in the auditorium, but in just a few years they could be operating on an entirely new commercial model.

In the music industry MelodyVR is offering access to pre-recorded music concerts through VR headsets and has already announced plans to start live-streaming performances in VR, removing these capacity constraints and enabling an unlimited number of music fans to purchase VR tickets to an otherwise sold-out show.

Not only does this type of technology open up the possibility to transport ourselves to the best seats in a theatre from the comfort of our sitting room, but in so doing, it opens up new commercial opportunities and revenue streams.

From Blockbusters to Broadway

?Driven by the advances in the gaming industry, audiences are increasingly looking to participate actively with media and entertainment and, as a recent report from Technavio reveals, the location-based virtual reality market shows the market is poised to take off, with projected growth of $1.48 billion during 2019-2023 – a CAGR of almost 36%.

Today this sector is dominated by Hollywood blockbuster franchises. VR specialists in companies like The Void and Dreamscape Immersive are creating immersive experiences of film franchises like Jumanji where our experience of the virtual world of Jumanji is reinforced by stimuli from the physical sets The Void develops.

Underpinning this experience is LiDAR scanning technology which is used to precisely mesh together the digitally created virtual world with the physical location in which the experience takes place. We have already seen the first major transition in the use of this technology, moving from the construction industry to its adoption in blockbuster films.

Speaking at Hexagon’s HxGN Live Conference in Vegas, Francois Chardavoine, VP of Technology at Lucasfilm & Industrial Light and Magic noted: “Historically LiDAR scanners have been large, they’ve been expensive, they’ve been a bit slow. It’s been a cumbersome process.” He added: ‘The best camera is the one you have with you.’ For us, the best scanner is the one you have with you. We’ve been using the BLK360 for a little over one year and a half. Since then it has become a standard part of arsenal that our crews can just throw in their backpack and go on location whenever needed.”

We have seen how critical usability is to the adoption of LiDAR scanning in the Arts. Now, with the increasing accessibility of the technology, we can expect to see the next major shift. Companies like Immersive LDN are already bringing immersive experiences to the world of theatre and engaging new audiences with theatre. The next transition will see a shift towards greater diversification moving the potential for Extended Reality beyond blockbusters.

As Nina Dunn pointed out, “When we look at set design, we have to justify every penny and make trade-offs between single or multiple scenic pieces and effects provided by new technology including video, flying, sound and automation. If theatres can augment our revenues in a different way, it opens the door to a world of new possibilities and the chance to use far more sophisticated technology.”

There may be no substitute for the social experience of attending a live performance. However, for those who can’t make it to the theatre either because their schedule just isn’t compatible with performance times or because the indirect costs of babysitters, travel and accommodation are just too high, Extended Reality may offer more opportunities to engage with the Arts - as well as the chance to engage new audiences with the Arts.