Real Ideas’ work with immersive technologies, including the Immersive Dome and Market Hall in Devonport won the CreaTech Award in the Tech South West Awards, hosted in Bristol recently
The award celebrates innovation in creative technology and its application in fashion, design, e-sports, marketing, public engagement, museums, gaming, and entertainment.
It comes just a few months after the hemispherical, 15 metre diameter, immersive dome celebrated its first year since launch, and during the week the venue hosted its inaugural Immerse Fulldome UK festival, a packed ten-days designed to bring professionals in 360-technology together, alongside public screenings and activities to showcase the applications and creativity the technology offers.
Through the first-of-its-kind in Europe, Immersive Dome, Real Ideas aims to create a technological hub, a magnet for creatives, designers and rising film-makers, bringing a unique facility to the South West and driving economic prosperity in the creative and emerging 360 film-making sector.
From the youngest 360-degree dome film makers (aged six) to health professionals using new immersive technology to treat Parkinson’s, and from climate change experts showing the deep scale of advancing disaster to world leading cutting edge commercial and aesthetically-driven immersive 360 filmmaking, VR and more, the team based at Plymouth’s Market Hall is exploring new applications and exciting opportunities for immersive technology all the time.
Lindsey Hall, CEO for Real Ideas said:
“We have a strong track-record of delivering projects with social and economic value. We work closely with local community groups, schools, further and higher education establishments, and businesses across the south west region, and as a result, creative collisions and networks organically evolve. The immersive dome provides an enormous opportunity to bring all our communities together, create new opportunities for creativity, commerce and economic development, while attracting the right investment and people to the area to grow and maintain this exciting world of immersive technology.
”The CreaTech award evaluated the Immersive Dome facility and judged its merit on real results and the opportunity it presents.”
The state-of-the-art facility responds to significant opportunities in the South West: creative industries are growing four times faster than the economy at large, in all areas of the UK. In Plymouth, the university produces 1,000 creative graduates a year and has been at the heart of global developments in digital art and tech for more than 30 years.
At the same time, the area also has significant challenges. Graduate retention rates for the region have typically been poor. Several communities in the city, including Devonport, are in the bottom 10 per cent of Indices of Multiple Deprivation, and wage rates are low, particularly for women.
Dan Pritchard, co-founder of Tech South West and CEO of Program, said:
“The Immersive Dome is a fantastic illustration of how a tech ecosystem can develop with the right vision and facilities in place. Backed up by the enthusiasm and resources at Real Ideas, it has become a unique high-value specialist facility which encourages collaboration and creativity across the region, and indeed, across continents.
“Our judges were impressed by some of the achievements in a relatively short space of time, and by some of the applications already being found for this exciting and innovative technology. It appeals to, and provides opportunities for, so many different areas of society.
“As the region’s tech sector goes from strength to strength it’s a real privilege to shine a spotlight on amazing innovators and entrepreneurs from across the South West, such as Real Ideas.”
To find out more about the Immersive Dome and live screenings visit the website at www.realideas.org
