Vello Virkhaus’ V Squared Labs takes on some of the biggest jobs around, and has put together 12,000 pixel wide, surround visuals for the Rok Vegas club in Las Vegas. It’s super-gaudy stuff, but I’m guessing the word “subtle” didn’t feature in the brief from this client.

Rok Land
Rok Red
Purple Pipes
Plug

Aesthetics aside, those demo videos are a great way of showing off surround content. If you’d like your 360 to be a little less commercial, how about this video for Cut Chemist’s “1st Big Break”:

Cut Chemist - 1st Big Break from eyestorm on Vimeo.

They’re going a little bit far calling this “The first music video ever shot with a 360 degree panoramic lens”, but it definitely has other things going for it.

V2 via VJ.TV.

The picture says it all. BBC Research & Innovation is considering presenting video in surround. Just as audio surround assumes a still-central source, enhanced by additional material in the 360-degree audio field, the idea here is to capture ambient visuals using a fish-eye lens and then project that beyond the screen.

Of course, whatever the (uh, dubious, potentially) practical applications of such technology, there are plenty of compelling directions this could lead VJs. In general, the ability to control more of the environment and break out of the rectangular frame helps live visuals and installations. And there are other consumer, examples, as well: TV maker Phillips has toyed with creating ambient, colored light that matches the on-screen image with Ambilight, something DIYers have already cloned (see Hack a Day).

Hmmm.. I think BBC should just give us all projectors and we’ll go work on it, eh?

Graham Thomas, one of the researchers, explains:

Surround Video is a means of visually immersing the viewer into a TV programme.

It is like surround sound, an optional extra that enhances viewing on a normal display. The idea is to use a wide angle (or fisheye) camera fixed rigidly alongside the normal camera shooting the programme, and project the image onto the walls, ceiling and floor of the viewer’s room.

Wait, you know, this could have practical applications — making English children hide behind the couch even more readily during Doctor Who.

Pic Of The Day: Surround Video [BBC Internet Blog]

Via ChromaTouch, aka Leon Trimble