Arithmetica’s Spherevision Rolling Video Shows Welsh Highland Railway in 360
Shepperton Studios, Feb. 24, 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.”
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.
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.
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.
