“I want to applaud the brand for having the guts to pull off a project of this scale. 360° video. Binaural sound. And Beck. I’m impressed.” —Dustin Callif
“Beck always pushes his delivery. I love the idea of a concert-in-the-round that the viewer controls—what a wonderful way to experience a performance. It’s the next best thing to being there.” —Kris Kiger
Overview: Hello, Again reintroduces The Lincoln Motor Company to a young, progressive audience that might have old perceptions of the company. The microsite is an immersive 360° concert by musician Beck and director Chris Milk. Beck reimagined David Bowie’s classic “Sound & Vision,” performed live in Los Angeles with 170 orchestrated musicians. Hello, Again is an interactive web experience of the live show that uses facial recognition to control the video according to the movement of the viewer’s head. Binaural audio adjusts as the video moves, so the viewer experiences the sound just as they would if they were actually moving around the concert venue.
• A total of 394 people worked on the project.
• Hello, Again earned 290,000,000 media impressions, almost triple the goal.
• Almost 40 percent of viewers watched the full 9:00+ experience.
Comments by Paul Miser:
Describe any special interactive features. “The interactive 360° video was aligned with surrounding binaural audio. The binaural recording device was invented, developed and patented for this production. Facial-recognition software enabled the user to interact physically.”
What was the thinking behind the navigation structure? “To allow users to engage the content on stage with Beck, from a point near the orchestra, or from a vantage point they selected, and from which they could move within the space, altering the sound as they traveled. Facial-recognition software gave users a hands-free experience by navigating according to which direction they decided to look.”
What technology was used in development? “The videos were captured with a pod of GoPro cameras that were stitched together to provide a full 360° view of the space. Binaural audio heads were custom-developed for this project in order to process sound in 360° and align it with the visual experience. The back end was developed with a series of Flash players, first to sync multiple videos at once and then to crossfade between audio tracks based on the user’s ‘location.’”
