大象传媒

Today sees the exciting launch of , which tells the story of art from the dawn of human history to the present day, for the first time on a global scale.

In addition to the linear television programme there is a strong digital proposition led by 大象传媒 Research & Development and . Content and events from cultural organisations across the whole UK will play a huge part in this and we hope to give it festival feel.

The Civilisations Festival is part of , which was launched by Tony Hall in April 2017, and this will be one of the first big opportunities for the 大象传媒 and arts organisations to work together.

Why is it an opportunity for 大象传媒 Research & Development?

大象传媒 R&D were involved in initiating Culture UK, as we have the potential to enable multiple partners to trial ideas and technologies, which will help to build a community of practice with which new ideas can be tested and validated.

The arts sector is hugely collaborative and is open to trying new ideas which makes it fantastic to partner with. It also builds on the collaborations and work already happening with the and at the Edinburgh Festival.

This is a unique opportunity for us to be part of a large-scale live project, which we hope will have a huge impact on the media industry.  By increasing the availability and use of our work we will also grow the chances of our ideas and technology transferring out of the R&D space and into the mainstream.

As part of the Civilisation Festival we have produced the following digital elements, which will all be available to try in the coming weeks.

Augmented Reality App

We are really proud to have launched the Civilisations Augmented Reality app, which we have worked with digital agency and museums and galleries across the UK to create.  This will be the first of many high quality experiments with AR which will reuse the technology.

Our team have collaborated with over 200 organisations around the UK to 3D scan the artifacts featured in the app. It is packed full of fascinating objects that are being brought to life including from the , and from the . These and many more will all be available for audiences to discover and explore.

My colleague David Johnston has written about the technology, process and feature set within the app.

大象传媒 Innovation Tools

For the first time we have made a range of in-house and third party digital tools available to cultural organisations to help them find new ways of telling stories and enhance their legacy. The tools include the ability to make , capture user-generated video and even .

Last year training museums, libraries, galleries and archives on how to use the tools, and we are really excited to see so many of them have created innovative content experiences.

The results of their work is going to be made available on 大象传媒 Taster and will be badged as part of the Civilisation Festival throughout the next couple of months.

Read what .

Story Explorer

The final digital element builds on which back in 2016.

This was a great opportunity to produce a more advanced version of - a new way of representing stories on second screen devices. Story Explorer makes it possible for audiences to discover more about their favourite programmes, letting them dive deep into narrative structures or catch up on bits they might have missed at their own pace through the use of text, clips and images.

What next?

All of these experiences are going to be live in the coming weeks and we can鈥檛 wait to find out what audiences think of them. We will be capturing data and analysing how the experiences are being used which will inform future research and projects within R&D, so please have a try and give us your feedback.

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