Large Hadron Collider To Feature In World First 360° Virtual Reality TV Program

BBC World News’s technology show Click is launching its first ever 360° episode, coinciding with the network’s 25th anniversary. The program will feature never-before-broadcast views of CERN’s famous Large Hadron Collider, the world’s first 360° magic trick and the world’s first 360° game review.

Image: ATLAS Experiment, CERN

BBC describes the Click 360° Show as “an ambitious and unprecedented project” designed to “push the limits” of 360° VR as a new mode of storytelling. “Filmed with virtual reality cameras which capture immersive 360° footage, the episode places the audience inside the action, making them feel like part of the programme and providing a completely new way of experiencing stories,” BBC said in a statement.

The advantages and the challenges of making 360° content will also be covered in the program, as will information about some of the technologies that can let consumers create their own 360° videos at home.

Sweeping point-of-view shots and kaleidoscopic “tiny planet” panoramas are being utilised “to create a viewing experience unlike any other.



The show will also explore a remote Swiss glacier via helicopter, to learn about the research technology buried beneath metres of snow. Image: BBC

“To say filming an entire episode in 360° was a challenge is an understatemen,” BBC Click presenter Spencer Kelly says. “From understanding which angles worked to making sure all six cameras were filming at the same time — up a mountain, in the snow — this has been no easy feat.”

“The word is that VR could be the next big thing if only people could find something interesting to do with it — well we’ve certainly managed that. It’s been a 360° experience.”

The program will air 12 March 2016, with a fully interactive version of the 360° episode uploaded onto the BBC Click YouTube channel.