This year’s Virtual Reality Show London sees a whole host of exciting content from the world of VR come to London for three days. Everything from sky diving, deep-sea exploration to interactive art pieces are on show at the event April 20-22nd.

Deviating slightly from this intrinsically future-looking content, however is Visualise; instead we are asking visitors to visit a place over 400 years old in our new 3D 360° film, The Final Bell.

The Whitechapel Bell Foundry first opened in 1570 and is presently the oldest manufacturing firm in Britain before it sadly closes its doors this May. Responsible for the creation of Big Ben and the Liberty Bell, the casting of the final bell was guaranteed to be a media firestorm. Sure enough, over 50 different media agencies applied to capture the historic final casting, however it was our team at Visualise who were trusted with the honour. Being a local company with the aim to create something innovative and original, Alan Hughes, current director of the Bell Foundry found us best suited to capture the momentous occasion.

Our team visited the site on three occasions to capture the centuries old practices in 3D 360°, using our bespoke cinematic VR rig the ‘Johnny 5’ and the Google Jump. To give visitors a more interactive experience, we created a 3D model of the final bell which can be explore at the end of the film. This was achieved by taking hundreds of photographs of the workshop and bell, cast on March 22nd 2017.

Using the photogrammetry process, these individual images have been combined to create a 3D model of the bell, allowing visitors to walk around a space that will soon be gone forever in its current form, and watch the final casting as if you had been there in person.

Not only are we capturing a historic moment in time but we are inviting you to experience it with us, in a truly unique and personal way. Thanks to the developments in immersive content capture and VR headsets, all manner of historically significant places, people and moments can now live on forever in this compelling and immersive medium.

The Final Bell is currently a work in progress. We will be running two demonstrations of the interactive documentary on the HTC Vive at the Virtual Reality Show, make sure to visit the Visualise stand and immersive yourself in this historic moment.