Shepperton Studios, 24 February 2015 – A 360 degree video recording system from Arithmetica has been used to document an award winning heritage railway and popular tourist attraction in Wales. The Spherevision recording system, operated by specialist production company TX, used 360 degree spherical cameras mounted in various positions on a railway locomotive travelling the 25 mile course of the Welsh Highland Railway. During three days of filming multiple views of the journey from Porthmadog to Caernarfon were captured and then processed using Spherevision software. The resulting interactive DVD is now available to purchase from Amazon or as a download as an app.
“The Welsh Highland Railway offered an unrivalled opportunity to demonstrate the capability of the Spherevision 360 video recording and playback solution,” commented Tracey Manasseh a specialist 360 producer working with Spherevision. “With some of the most beautiful sites in the UK the multifaceted experience allows the user to view the journey from every possible aspect. From riding the footplate to sitting trackside, the interactive DVD allows you jump to any party of the journey; zooming in and out and panning around the captured scenes as if you were there.”
During three days of on-site filming a number of 360 degree spherical cameras were mounted on the Welsh Highland Railways Beyer Garratt 138 steam locomotive. Views from inside the cab and carriages were complemented with 360 degree images from alongside the front wheels, on the locomotive’s footplate, on top of the engine as well as trackside views and recording from bridges. The recorded footage was processed using Spherevision software to create a fully interactive digital experience which allows users to play and interact with the 360 degree video experiencing all aspects of the scenic journey.
The ‘Welsh Highland Railway – 360 Interactive Journey’ is available to purchase as a two disc boxed set DVD from Amazon or to download as an Android app from play.google.com. The second disc provides a non-interactive Director’s view of the journey suitable for use in any standard DVD player. Online reviews include ‘Watched it again and again – always something new to spot’ and ‘It was interesting to be able to switch views at will and commend the railway for the idea. Well worth the money’.
“The Spherevision 360 video recording and playback system is easy to use from onsite filming to the end user sitting at their computer,” continued Manasseh. “It has enormous potential for a range of applications beyond the tourism and heritage markets including security, site management, risk assessment as well as health and safety management and training.”
About Spherevision
Spherevision is Europe’s leading brand for spherical and 360 degree video solutions. 360 video systems are able to record a real-world environment in all directions at the same time, capturing every aspect of the scene in one go. When the video is played back – on a laptop, mobile device or over the Internet – viewers can pan around the image, moving through and exploring the site as if they were there. Footage can be integrated with floor and site plans using the company’s innovative software and the high-resolution 360 imagery can also be integrated with online mapping. www.spherevision.com
About Arithmetica
Arithmetica is an innovator in 360-degree imaging solutions and automated laser scanning data processing software. Located at the world famous Shepperton Studios near London, Arithmetica is the company behind SphereVision and Pointfuse. Arithmetica is an inventive software house that develops ground breaking software solutions to solve real world scientific, medical and engineering problems. Arithmetica builds on more than thirty years of television and film production to develop software for clients around the world. Arithmetica solutions handle complex data rich information and are simple and easy to use. Arithmetica’s wide-ranging experience and capabilities include: image analysis and computer vision for industrial and biomedical fields, massively parallel computation, multimedia data compression, data mining and machine learning, Monte-Carlo methods, traffic simulation, mathematical optimisation used in conceptual aircraft design, statistical estimation, computational fluid dynamics applied to aerofoil optimisation, nonlinear variable demand economics models involving millions of variables, finite element electromagnetic analysis, spherical image processing and 360-degree video presentation. www.arithmetica.com
About Transmission
Transmission (TX) Ltd was formed in 1989. With over 20 years’ experience of supplying high end equipment/ facilities, specialised systems and experienced crews to the broadcast industry TX provide everything from High Definition multi-camera systems for dramas, compact remote HD camera and Mini Cam systems, Underwater and Onboard camera units for factual programme making, 360 video and spherical camera systems for online media and IPTV, extreme Mini Cam rigs for hazardous environments and RF & fibre optic links to get your signals where they need to go. TX work with all digital recording formats and our specialist systems include time-lapse, high speed, IR and thermal technologies. Leaders in their field the expertise, innovative ideas, engineering skills and consultancy of TX are available to give any production the very best service, anywhere in the world. www.ttx.co.uk