VR Archives - Solarflare Studio

Let’s build a new world!

Solarflare Studio — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 12:16:52 +0000

2020: The year we reinvent how we're living and communicating with others.

The current pandemic has forced entire industries to re-evaluate how they operate. Everyone, regardless of industry, has been fast-tracked into adopting technology at a rate we’ve never seen before.
We need to adapt quickly, leveraging new technology is a survival strategy now.

Virtual conferencing (VC) is a fairly new way of working for the masses. It’s mostly associated with a common Zoom-Esque meeting style – but there are far more options available than just seeing your colleague’s faces on a grid every Monday morning.
We’re exploring something new and immersive: virtual spaces. They’re engaging, interactive and at a loss for a better phrase – pretty cool.

Brands and agencies are now seeing how virtual spaces aren’t just a fad for events, something to dismiss, but a vital tool in creating meaningful experiences.

It’s getting exciting!

Want to explore the possibilities of new technologies? Get in touch to explore ideas.

What are virtual spaces?

Simply, the most immersive way to communicate virtually.

Technically it’s a 3D environment you step into, as an avatar via headsets or through a desktop. It’s designed to keep you engaged (well the good ones are). These Hubs act like a virtual intranet, accessible and scalable. The flexibility is what’s most exciting, it can be used to host virtual events, demonstrate new digital products or even house interactive content internally.

Hesitations?

The main hesitation with brands not exploring this space, is simply not knowing where to begin.

Preliminary questions remain unanswered:
– How tech savvy does our audience need to be?
– Is this exclusive for Millennials and Gen Z?
– Do we all need headsets to experience this?
– How do we use it?
– Do we need it?

Engagements

If engagement is the goal, then you need to explore VC options.

Firstly, no solution available fits all scenarios. There is a HUGE difference with hosting a one-off live event for 100 people, a virtual product launch or creating your very own immersive real-estate.

At the risk of sounding cliche ‘anything is possible’, it’s about what your end objective is and then choosing the right platform to deliver.

We’re getting calls for a lot of different types of experiences and kick-starters, a few of those examples include:

Conferences, Webinars & Panel Discussions:

Keynote presentations
Live, Interactive Q&A with audience
Meet & Greet spaces for networking

Product Demonstrations:

Tactile features that allow viewers to see products up close, from multiple angles.
‘Try on’ clothes on your VR avatar
E-commerce opportunities

Live Performance Events

Live music & spoken word performances
Real-time avatar performances
Social interaction and community building

The ways in which VC can be leveraged both for internal communication and external are endless.

The flexibility to design custom spaces with high levels of interaction, using gamification elements means this will most likely be the future of learning too.

What Next?

Determining whether this is a creative route you should explore as a brand, and what platform to be exploring with is a minefield.

It’s why we’re taking you through best practices and the pro’s and con’s of each platform via video on Thursday 18th June.

EXPLORE WITH US

We’re always looking to expand our network of creative collaborators, from technical specialists to people that work in more traditional art forms. LAUNCH exists to blend the barriers between creative practices and new tech. Get in touch to explore ideas.

The post Let’s build a new world! appeared first on Solarflare Studio.

Pandemic Positives: Business & Consumer Tools

Solarflare Studio — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 14:17:30 +0000

the positive side of the pandemic.

There is no doubt that the last eight months have been sh*t. Everyone knows it, so that is not what this article is about. This article is about taking a ‘glass half-full’ attitude towards the whole situation that we are in as we head towards 2021. There are many positives to embrace, and opportunities to shift the ways that we look at how we communicate with our customers and each other.

We will look at this from two angles – Business Tools and Consumer Tools with the hope being that 2021 can be so much better in so many ways.

Want to explore the possibilities of new technologies? Get in touch to explore ideas.

BUSINESS TOOLS

Initially driven by survival instinct, we decided to take an immersive approach to virtual meetings and created our own virtual office. As our space expanded, it rapidly became clear that there was something here that would have value beyond the time that we were unable to work from our actual office.

This virtual office was the catalyst for a shift in thinking as we began to realise that commercially there was an opportunity to change the way that physical events are used. We began to look at the carbon footprint of past briefs where hundreds if not thousands of people would travel across the world to attend conferences and Expos that were not only costly, but also shrouded in mystery as to the real value that they offered.

Exciting Times Ahead

As we move into 2021, sensible businesses will be realising that there is still a definite need for physical events, but maybe not as many. Pragmatism should mean that the idea of creating a virtual event space should be one that businesses begin to explore. The idea of creating a vast space that is completely managed by your brand, with an architecture that means messaging can be updated constantly, as well as being able to understand your stakeholder behaviours and interests through data, should be seen as an invaluable asset.

CONSUMER TOOLS

With the world in lockdown, consumer behaviour changed in the blink of an eye. Brands had to rapidly adapt to cater for an at-home audience and use the tools at hand to maintain their customer relationships. 2020 saw the unlikely return of the going-out-of-fashion QR code, thanks in part to the mandatory adoption of the ‘Track and Trace’ system. Using these black and white codes, consumers are able to launch content straight from their smartphone cameras, driving an uplift in creative Augmented Reality experiences. Instantly accessible and tantalisingly shareable, AR is a mainstream immersive medium that has never been more relevant for brands to adopt in 2021.

All of a sudden, opportunities have been created that allow for the deconstruction of the whole advertising landscape. Now not only do you not have to pay for a physical billboard, but you can go rogue and place a digital overlay on the physical billboard of your competitors. Not only can you make a celebrity part of your campaign, but you can bring them into your own home and have them appear on your tabletop or be controlled as part of a game where your house becomes the gaming environment.

The most exciting thing for us as a business working in the technology space is that we are now seeing a shift in mindset from clients. Those same clients who pre-2020 were concerned about ease of access and a marketplace that would be too busy to adopt anything new are now realising that it might just be the perfect time to take a deep breath and embrace technology and the ways that it can change the way we work and live.

it's time to discover a new set of communication tools to connect with your audience. 2021 here we come!

Un-tethered to a single technology, our immersive experiences help clients discover, explore and connect, creatively forging deeper relationships between brands and their consumers.

EXPLORE WITH US

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BFI London Film Festival Expanded

Solarflare Studio — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 15:00:50 +0000

‘We are placing the audience in a vulnerable position. They should be rewarded with A virtual experience that moves, entertains, or inspires them.’

– Rachel Barrie, Junior Creative Technologist,

Solarflare Studio

This year at BFI London Film Festival Expanded, our Creative Director (Helen Bellringer) and Junior Creative Technologist (Rachel Barrie) returned to 26 Leake Street to experience the immersive art selected for the showcase. Overall, the quality of the experiences was higher than the previous year; but as they wandered around slipping headsets on and off, they couldn’t help but ask themselves: is this truly the industry standard?

THE INTERACTIVITY

Midway through our 90-minute slot, we found ourselves placing the HTC Vive Flow over our eyes for Wu Tsang’s jump into the VR medium – a visual exploration of the ocean. After a few minutes of watching fish float around we became confused – was that it? Personally, all I saw were a few variations of a flocking simulation. It became clear that the collection selected for this year’s BFI Expanded was mostly a series of directors, filmmakers, and creatives that were dabbling in the field of VR rather than those whose bread and butter it is. We placed headset on after headset to simply have a film or story presented to us as though it was on a screen, the only difference being it was 360 degrees. Interactivity was at a minimum.

If we are asking people to place a full VR headset on with headphones, blocking out the outside world and getting them to surrender their senses to us – we should make it worth it. We are placing the audience in a vulnerable position, and they should be rewarded with an experience that moves, entertains, or inspires them.

Want to explore the possibilities of new technologies? Get in touch to explore ideas.

OUR RECOMMENDATION

The best piece we would recommend trying before the exhibition closes on Sunday (23.10.22) is ‘Missing Pictures Episode 3: The Monkey Wrench Gang’. The short VR piece tells the story of a film that never came to be whilst touching on the process of developing a film in Hollywood and the roadblocks female directors face in the industry. The dynamic use of the full 360 degrees, in combination with the contrast of animation and volumetric capture, told an intricate and exciting story in an engaging manner.

To get people excited about VR experiences and to keep them in the moment without making them want to rip off the headset, there needs to be more consideration of how to use the medium to its full potential. VR films and experiences really should not run for longer than 15 minutes. It is exhausting and overwhelming to spend a long time in VR. Additionally, a lot of headsets, like the Quest 2 and the HTC Vive, get extremely hot to wear after a prolonged period. The first headset I placed over my head at the exhibition left me dripping with sweat at the end of the 11-minute piece.

IS THAT THE TIME?

Immersive shouldn’t mean a passive experience, it should be engaging and interactable. It should give feedback to your senses. You shouldn’t feel time pass, and you should forget about the world around you. If it hasn’t achieved that, then it has failed.

It is exciting and promising to see large collections of immersive work go on display at places like BFI, however, if this is considered the crème de la crème, then we have a long way to go.

EXPLORE WITH US

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