IWM DUXFORD’S OBSERVER CORPS VR EXPERIENCE LAUNCHES!

IWM Duxford's Observer Corps VR Experience has launched to commemorate the Battle of Britain's 80th anniversary

HAD JIJ WAT NODIG WAS OM DE WEINIGEN TE BESCHERMEN?

This is the question being asked of people around the country – and the world – ahead of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. ‘The few’, so famously referenced by Sir Winston Churchill in his iconic speech, are of course the brave pilots of the RAF who risked so much to protect the country from invasion.

But they could not have succeeded without knowing what they were up against. Early warnings of incoming Luftwaffe raids – how many aircraft, what type, where and headed in which direction – provided the critical information that made RAF Fighter Command’s speedy response possible. This vital job fell not to seasoned military veterans, but to the civilian volunteers of the Observer Corps.

Now the Observer Corps Experience, created by Arcade for IWM Duxford, allows the public to get a glimpse of what it might have been like to bear this heavy responsibility.

Using a mobile VR web app, we invite users to step back in time to September 15th, 1940. This momentous day is now seen as the climax of the Battle of Britain, with the increasingly desperate Luftwaffe launching its heaviest attacks against the British mainland throughout the day, and it was up to the Observer Corps to spot incoming raids and relay the information to RAF Fighter Command as quickly and accurately as possible.

Watch the incredible archive and re-enacted footage, then grab your binoculars and do your job to protect the ‘Few’. Follow the link or QR code below to step into the shoes of the brave men and women of the Observer Corps.

On mobile? Cick hier to launch the experience. On desktop? Point your phone camera at the QR code below.

If you enjoy the experience, or want to find out more, then why not head to IWM Duxford? It is fully re-opened, with extensive measures in place to keep visitors safe. Book your tickets here: https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-duxford

Missing gigs? Bring the music to you…

Coronavirus has taken many things away that we previously took for granted, including live music. Artists and music venues have been robbed of their ability to put on live shows, so important for both their exposure and their livelihoods. And fans have had to make do with internet streams and recordings.

In response, Arcade has teamed up with US-based music industry activation platform Buzznog to launch one of the world’s first spatial gig experiences. Fans anywhere in world can bring iconic venues and artists into their homes to enjoy sets played out in front of them.

The first experience united the famous Knitting Factory Brooklyn venue with California indie band The Mowgli’s.

Users can control the lighting, effects, crowd noise and more, and choose where and at what scale they want to watch the 30-minute gig. 

This first gig was released as a native app for iOS and Android, and delighted fans all over the world.

You can download it here: onelink.to/mowglis

More gigs at different venues will follow, and we will be adding capabilities to experience performances via web, and in either AR or VR. Though initially offered for free, the platform will create a vital way for bands and venues to bring in badly needed funds, giving the industry a vital lifeline after suffering so heavily from the effects of the pandemic.

Let the music play!

Interested in what virtual experiences could do for you?

Kom in contact

Arcade awarded Immersive Storytelling Fellowship by StoryFutures and UK Parliament

We are thrilled to announce that Arcade is one of five industry-leading SMEs to be awarded an Immersive Storytelling Fellowship by StoryFutures, the Creative Cluster that creates and helps fund R&D projects with creative businesses in the Gateway Cluster and Greater London.

Jon Meggitt, Arcade CEO, takes on the role of Fellow on a hugely exciting project that sees Arcade partner with Royal Holloway academics and UK Parliament to immerse audiences in the rich historical and contemporary narratives that make Parliament so important to today’s society.

The overarching goal is to make Parliament feel relevant to audiences of all kinds, creating meaningful connections with its history and ongoing activity. To do so, we will create a ‘Spatial Story Platform’, a new way of using immersive technology to serve contextual, multi-vocal stories that are tailored to the user, whoever they are and whatever their interests.

Jon Meggitt
Jon Meggitt, Arcade CEO & Immersive Storytelling Fellow

Using the majestic Westminster Hall as our physical canvas, we will create a visitor experience that offers a personalised interactive tour through hundreds of the historical and contemporary stories that have defined the UK Parliament. Many will include multiple perspectives on the same narrative and invite the user to make up their own mind about which side of the debate they would have supported.

Artist's impression of the Westminster Hall experience

In addition to physical visitors to Parliament, it is important for the experience to foster this stronger sense of connection amongst those who are unable to reach Parliament for physical, economic or social reasons so we will also create a remote experience, built around a digital twin of Westminster Hall. Users can virtually place the hall in the physical space around them, before ‘stepping inside’ and enjoying a similar experience to physical visitors, but from anywhere in the country or, indeed, the world.

“It is a huge honour to accept this Fellowship,” said Jon, “and we are thrilled to be working with such prestigious institutions as StoryFutures, Royal Holloway and, in particular, UK Parliament. The challenge from an R&D perspective is pretty huge, but that’s what make this so exciting. It’s an opportunity to try and do something completely new, with permission to fail. But of course we’ll be doing everything we can to succeed!”

Read the full StoryFutures press release hier.

Arcade to commemorate Battle of Britain 80th Anniversary for IWM Duxford

Arcade has been chosen to create an Augmented Reality experience for Imperial War Museums’ (IWM) Battle of Britain 80th anniversary campaign at IWM Duxford.

Working alongside IWM experts and the creative agency Neil A Dawson and Company, we have been tasked with designing and developing an experience that amplifies the message of a print and online campaign that will run in tandem, designed to attract visitors to IWM Duxford to celebrate this milestone anniversary.

Pete Austin, IWM Assistant Director Communications and Marketing, commented “In line with IWM’s new strategy which puts innovation at the centre of all of our marketing campaigns, we wanted to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain in a way that would engage audiences in the story of the summer of 1940 with new digital technologies. Using augmented and virtual reality in a marketing campaign was a new innovation for IWM so we were looking for an agency who could walk us through the technicalities while demonstrating a genuine passion for the subject matter. Arcade came up with some brilliant ideas from the outset and we are thrilled to be working with them on this exciting campaign.”

“We were thrilled to discover our pitch for IWM Duxford had been successful,” said Arcade co-founder Alex Book. “We do a lot of work in the heritage space, but few stories have the lasting power and resonance as the Battle of Britain. This is a chance to invite audiences to step into the shoes of the people involved 80 years ago and give a sense of what it might have been like, and we couldn’t be more excited!”

IWM Duxford’s Battle of Britain anniversary will begin on 10 July 2020, 80 years since the battle began. The AR will launch to coincide with the opening of IWM Duxford’s new Battle of Britain exhibitions later this summer.