ABSTRACT
In order to create an immersive experience for people who cannot attend an event, we have created The Wall of Moments prototype.
User-generated content is a key element: captured right in the action makes it often very unique.
To increase the authenticity of the experience, this user-generated content is synchronised with professional content (in time as well as place) and presented in a vibrant way to the end user.
The application has been filled with content and evaluated during a test shoot in the Marconi studio at the VRT campus.
This paper describes the developed prototype in detail, discusses the lessons learned and provides some gained insights regarding immersive event experiences.
INTRODUCTION
Within the ICoSOLE project, different (cost-effective) ways of capturing spatially outspread events are being considered. A core research challenge is to synchronise all the content in time and space to create an immersive experience for people who cannot attend an event.
ICOSOLE Main goals
ICoSOLE[1] is a collaborative project to research and develop tools and services for covering spatially spread out live events using hybrid broadcast-Internet technologies.
The approach uses a wide variety of sensors, ranging from mobile consumer devices over professional broadcast capture equipment to panoramic and/or free-viewpoint video and spatial audio, to optimise an immersive experience for the consumer.
The project has developed methods for providing incentives to a live audience to contribute high-quality content as well.
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In order to combine a number of different capture sources, ICoSOLE has investigated professional and consumer capture devices, including mobile (and moving) sensors, based on metadata and content analysis. Methods for fusing visual and audio information into a coherent data representation have been developed, which enable video and audio for virtual viewer/listener positions to be rendered.
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ICoSOLE has built a prototype networked platform for streaming live high-quality audiovisual content from mobile capture devices to content acquisition, processing and editing services, and to distribute it to viewers via broadcast (including second screen), web and to mobile devices. This work includes the development of efficient tools for media production professionals to select, configure and review the content sources being used.
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To ensure this end-to-end chain, ICoSOLE has created methods to capture, extract and annotate metadata during the production process and to integrate this metadata throughout the entire production chain to the end user.
Consortium
Developing a novel tool chain for the immersive coverage of live events, supporting a wide range of devices for both content capture and consumption, requires a consortium that includes the scientific-technical to deploy beyond state of the art technologies, has knowledge of the requirements of the different types of users involved, and access to both professional users of the technologies and consumers.
A complete list of the consortium members can be found in the appendix.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE WALL OF MOMENTS
Role within the ICoSOLE project
The Wall of Moments prototype fulfils the playout side of the ICoSOLE project. Together with related prototypes for capturing and filtering, these prototypes cover the whole project flow, which is shown in the Figure 1 below.
How it came to be
A lot of content is captured in the ICoSOLE project.
Firstly, novel camera setups such as omnidirectional cameras are used.
This can benefit the users at home by allowing them more control over the event scene, as well as the production team, giving them an overall overview over the scene.
Secondly, the audio scene is captured using a wide range of microphones, e.g. audience microphones, individual microphones on every band member in a group and an Eigenmike [2].
This way, users take more control, mixing their own audio scene or experiencing binaural audio.
A third content source is footage captured by the audience. The Wall of Moments uses this user-generated content to broaden and elevate the event experience for people at home.
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