The Gaming of Virtual Reality?

 

You can see the full blurb for the event at the event registration page.

May Networking Event 2017

“The Gaming of Virtual Reality?”

Date: Monday 8th May 2017, 6.00pm to 9.00pm

Venue: The Story Museum, 42 Pembroke Street, Oxford, OX1 1BP

Driven by the new wave of digital creativity, content creators and media technologists are increasingly exploring novel new formats such as virtual reality and gaming.

Last year’s Bjork Digital exhibition demonstrated both the creative potential and the sharp economics of curating an art exhibit that combined extraordinary creativity with minimal installation costs. On the gaming front Pokémon Go astounded the market with its geolocation augmented reality technology.

Chaired by Tony Henderson, our panel has veteran of Gaming and Animation John Sanderson from Pitstop Productions, Virtual Reality technology designer and former BBC engineer Julian Williams from WizDish and former Sky, BBC and ITV director and cameraman John Twycross now senior lecturer at Oxford Brookes. They will consider what these new technologies can offer to TV and Film Production, ask whether content creators might consider them ahead of traditional TV and Film and most importantly whether consumers will really engage with these technologies. Will they be just another fad?

Speaker Biographies

 

John Sanderson – Owner, PitStop Productions

John Sanderson is the owner of PitStop Productions. PitStop is a one stop audio and animation studio, based in South Yorkshire, London and New York.

Pit Stop Productions has been established for over 20 years and have a vast experience in creating audio solutions for games. John is a composer director and producer who employs a team of 15 talented sound designers and artists.

He has worked on many mobile games including Call of Duty, Assassins Creed, Carmageddon and Angry Birds to name a few.

John Twycross – Senior Lecturer in Digital Media Production, Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment, Oxford Brookes University

John Twycross has lectured Digital Media Production at Oxford Brookes University since 2009. Prior to this he worked extensively within the UK Media and Entertainment sector.

Interactive, animation and motion graphics credits include interactive television productions for Sky Active and BBC Interactive as well as broadcast television credits in post-production, camera and directing roles for the BBC, Sky, Channel 4 and ITV. His current academic research embraces practice based methodologies and investigates innovative uses of animation and games in the context of aesthetics, interactive art and immersive media.

He continues to foster links with industry which he leverages both for research and for teaching purposes.

Julian Williams – Co-Founder, WizDish

Julian Williams has spent the past 34 years in broadcast engineering and software development. During a 2.5 year secondment to LA from the BBC he privately applied for and was granted a US patent for a Virtual Reality omni-directional treadmill.

This invention was first demonstrated to the OTN in 2013. It has been extensively developed since, partly helped by an accelerator run by Virgin Media last year. The invention, known as the ROVR, has been shipped to 24 countries and used publicly at major events by Nissan, Samsung, Wells Fargo and the British Army. Other clients have been as diverse as arcades in Russia, universities, architects and a nuclear power company in South Korea.

Julian’s fellow directors at Wizdish are Dr. Charles King and David Bridgland, both of whom live in the Oxford area. His understanding of Virtual Reality is informed by 15 years of research and development.