As part of its exploration into 360-degree video and virtual reality, local news site Birmingham Eastside is producing a weekly feature that can be viewed through a VR headset.
"VR GALLERY: The week’s best Instagrams" is made with Sketchfab's Instamuseum, an online web application that allows the publisher to showcase the week's best Instagram posts from Birmingham in the form of a virtual museum.
Michael Smith, technology editor, Birmingham Eastside, explained that the feature allows the news site to easily experiment in the space.
"It is a different way of telling stories through pictures, which is both modern and immersive," said Smith.
"We regularly use Instagram, so this is a way of combining that platform with virtual reality."
Instamuseum allows users to import between 12 and 30 Instagram posts into a gallery that can be explored by readers with a VR headset, or on a desktop by dragging the image around.
Instamuseum for by @Mike_DanteZero https://t.co/aaeivtIlKH via @sketchfab turn #instagram into VR gallery @keonablue @paulbradshaw @mcrosasb
— MikeSmith Journalist (@mikesjourno) June 5, 2016
The reaction to the new feature has been positive, with its audience happy to have their photos displayed in a new and exciting way.
Birmingham Eastside will be featuring four of the best posts from the area each week in three categories: nature, city and people.
"We will republish our Instagram picks over the week, and pull them into the Instamuseum on Sunday, so people will be able to see the images that we have picked beforehand," said Smith.
The title, run by students of Birmingham City University, has also recently filmed its first interview in 360-degrees and hopes to continue to experiment with new ways of producing content as technology develops.
"The plan is to do more, whether that is using 360-degree photos, 360-degree video or to build an immersive VR simulation where you can have interactive elements in 3D space," said Smith.
"It all stems from our own desire to learn more about 360-degree video and look at the way that it can impact storytelling."
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