The BBC is experimenting with virtual reality news broadcasts

The BBC is experimenting with virtual reality news broadcasts, with effervescent presenter Fiona Bruce now viewable in 360-degree video. The downside? You will need a $350 Oculus Rift development kit to see it. And if you do have one, you can look around the whole BBC News studio and production gallery. The BBC is making the virtual reality video footage available to download – which must surely be a first for any broadcaster. At any rate, if you have a Rift you can grab the footage now for PC and Mac.

The BBC has embraced the technology of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, presenting a news bulletin in 360 degrees. A number of people got to experience the new tech, watching Fiona Bruce relay the news whilst enjoying a panoramic view of the BBC News studio. Discussing the Beeb’s experimentation with VR in a blog post, the BBC’s head of business development Cyrus Saihan writes: “With Facebook’s $2bn purchase of Oculus Rift some big bets are now being made on the future of virtual reality. We have started to test out its potential and working with a small production team in London called Visualise, have done a few basic pilots. “One of the experiments that we did was around our news operation in London. Using a 360 degree camera set up, we filmed our newsroom, live editing gallery and Fiona Bruce in the studio – we then ‘stitched’ together the various images to create a virtual reality experience that could be viewed on an Oculus Rift device.”