David Attenborough's next production, Conquest of the Skies, is set to come not only to Sky 3D TV sets, but to virtual-reality headset Oculus Rift.
John Morris, commercial director of Atlantic Productions, the makers of the Borneo-based show, told entertainment site realscreen that the company had acquired several Oculus Rift developer kits and that it was hoping to make Conquest of the Skies the first major wildlife production available to view on the headsets. "We're now filming for the Oculus Rift," Morris told the site, "so when we filmed our recent flight in Borneo, we filmed with an eight-camera rig, so you got the full 360-degree experience". He added that he thought the technology and virtual reality in general offered huge monetisation potential and that he could see "millions" of Oculus Rift headsets being sold.
Oculus Rift was acquired by Facebook only a couple of weeks ago in a cash-and-stock deal worth around $2 billion (£1.2 billion). The Rift has primarily been talked about as a gaming platform so far, but increasingly commercial and creative companies are discussing ways in which they could appropriate the technology for a whole range of purposes. The immersive nature of Oculus Rift makes it ideal -- in theory at lest -- for use in something like wildlife programming, providing a vivid, close-up experience of unusual environments.
Atlantic Productions, together with Colossus Productions, has created many cross-platform natural history shows and several for Sky 3D, including Kingdom of Plants and
Galapagos. The company may be familiar with bringing its programmes to screens of all sizes, but Morris is particularly excited about the potential impact of Oculus Rift. "In terms of the creative challenge, we look at this as being comparable to the beginning of the film industry," he said.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
