The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), along with the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum, and other bodies are set to take part in various government-supported exhibitions, to form immersive experiences for future audience groups.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has recently launched a number of demonstrator programs by utilising the latest digital trends. The objective has been to create a fully immersive virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (VR) experiences, specially geared towards the supposed audiences of the future. It extends to areas such as gaming, theatre and museums.
The Audience of the Future Demonstrators Programme belongs to a Creative Industries Sector Deal, which was announced back in March 2018 as one of the several Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund programmes. It has received the backing of £16m government cash, along with an additional £6m sourced from different partners in the industry.
Margot James, the digital minister, spoke during the launch event at London’s modern art venue, the Unit 6. According to her, the gamut of universally affordable experiences offered by immersive technology innovations is growing at a fast pace.
The experience is similar to visiting the world of Shakespearean plays, or like that of games where individuals can compete against each other for considerable sums of money. Other examples cited by her included that similar to partaking in a detective story, or like that of an immersive museum. – Margot James
She revealed that the worldwide immersive technology market, by 2023, will balloon to a value ranging from $95bn to $105bn. She added that the UK currently has more than a thousand organisations dealing with immersive technologies, who generate upwards of £660 million sales. James stressed that her numerical estimations might even prove to be lower than what can actually happen in the future.
Three demonstrators of this programme selected by the UK Research and Innovation body are – Visitor Experience, Sports Entertainment and Performance. These will be funded by the programme as they can provide promising opportunities for generating greater audience volumes, through the use of immersive technology.
The Visitor Experience Demonstrator is scheduled to be initiated by TV production company Factory 42. It will contain the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum for creating unique experiences where robots and dinosaurs are brought to life. It takes audiences on an immersive journey.
The Performance Demonstrator is set to be led by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). It will combine a total of fifteen designated immersive companies ranging from vividly varying domains like theatre, video production, music, research and gaming. It will aim to explore the meaning of live performance. The development will look at the potential of using extended reality headsets, utilising smartphones, and live streams of performance.
the Sports Entertainment Demonstrator will delve into e-sports, and involve many content creators, including pioneers ESL, innovators and academics. It focuses on immersive technology innovations and creation of production content.
