Advanced Television

Grand National VR highlights

April 6, 2017

By Colin Mann

UK commercial broadcaster ITV is partnering with VR production company VR City and media agency Goodstuff to showcase the highlights of forthcoming Randox Health Grand National horse race in virtual reality, following the success of the broadcaster’s recent VR campaign for the Cheltenham Festival which generated almost two million views across the four- day jump racing event.

Aiming to give viewers a look into the ‘people’s’ race, the VR coverage of The Randox Health Grand National, taking place on April 8th at the Aintree race course in northwest England , marks the first time that ITV has screened the event. With the event watched by a wide and varied audience, showcasing the race in virtual reality will give viewers an insight into the UK’s most famous event in racing. Created by VR City, footage will be captured on the day of the race, immediately stitched together and edited on site, into a one-off 360 highlights recap, made available online from the morning of Sunday April 9th.

Unique footage from 360-degree cameras in key positions around the course will give social media users a new dimension, with highlights of the major action from Grand National day. The footage, made available at the end of the festival via ITV’s YouTube and Facebook accounts, is designed to allow viewers to immerse themselves in the most exciting moments on and off the course.

“One of the aims of ITV Racing’s on-air coverage is to give viewers ‘the best seat in the house’, and this exciting VR highlights package will immerse consumers in the unique live event atmosphere The Randox Health Grand National creates,” explained Ed Ross, Head of Marketing and Media at ITV. “We’re delighted to be working with VR City and Goodstuff once again to bring this experience to racing fans.”

“The popularity of  the VR highlights package for Cheltenham Races demonstrates how brilliant VR is as a way of giving viewers an entirely new perspective on their favourite sport. Racing is renowned for its thrill and excitement, so it’s great that we can bring this to people through the use of new technology.”

“It is incredibly exciting to be working with ITV and Goodstuff once again to bring The Randox Grand National to its fans in a virtual reality experience,” declared Ash Cowan, co-founder of VR City. “Bringing VR City’s market-leading expertise of live and fast turnaround high-quality VR production for major events to ITV’s first-class horseracing coverage means that hours after seeing the race on TV fans can experience a totally unique and immersive view point, bringing them even closer to the people’s race and all it has to offer.”

 

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