By Puneet Wagh
Imagine flying, like a bird, over Abu Dhabi city. Well, using cutting edge drone technology The Media Company (TMC) is now giving us wings to soar…
TMC is Abu Dhabi agency that provides complete solutions in film, animation, branding, advertising, event production, social media and apps development. The team is optimistic and ambitious with a local focus. Fuelled by passion to innovate TMC has used advanced UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or Drones) technology, to create a virtual bird’s eye-view tour of the UAE – project ‘UAE 360’.
The 360° aerial content offers a breath-taking experience: imagine standing on top of a skyscraper and looking down at the streets below or taking a helicopter ride along the coastline with the clouds skimming by – it gets better than that. The speciality of a drone mounted camera is complete freedom of view: it can go down, around and come out between the structures; images are captured closer to the object hence in more detail and from points impossible to have with any other camera set up (a helicopter would be restricted in its movement). Content is interactive: you can look up down and all around, you can zoom in to explore it closer or zoom out for wide angle view, add to it 360 feature and you have almost a real life experience.
Abu Dhabi 360° virtual tour is a part of UAE 360 that offers unique views of various locations, say the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque like you’ve never seen before, giving you an opportunity to explore in details not only a particular structure but also its surroundings; 360° panoramas take you on a ‘virtual tour’ … a virtual journey of gliding along Abu Dhabi skyline and ‘teleporting’ you to another location with one tap on a panorama ‘hotspot’. The 360° videos are experience in themselves, in full HD or even higher – 2K/4K resolutions – provide an interactive, multi-dimensional, seamless view of the city ‘in action’. There’s no buffering of time stopping you!
The project is incredibly broad in its viewpoint and it is indeed for everyone; it’s a look at Abu Dhabi like you haven’t seen before. Those who have yet to visit this city will be able to see what’s awaiting them, those who’ve seen it or lived here now have a chance to relive it in a whole new way! The homesick can visit their city; the streets where you walked, your school and your home is now just a click away. It’s possible to have an entire city at your fingertips. You can bring architectural knowledge to life and simply be in awe of the wondrous essence of this city.
360° virtual reality is that next step which is going to push the boundaries of the possible.
This project was a ‘labour of love’ for the team at TMC. After several attempts, the right people were finally assembled. It takes a skilled team to bring this vision to reality and TMC has partnered with an extensively experienced crew of DOPs and photographers from Airpano 360 experts who have filmed all over the world using state-of-the-art technology to capture the most amazing landscapes. With the right people and the right equipment, there is no end to what can be accomplished.
Getting the team together seemed like the easier part, getting the paperwork and the legal requirements completed turned out to be a whole new task altogether for this band of dreamers.
One of the first challenges was to explain what exactly this project was intended for and more importantly why it was started in the first place. The idea of ‘showing the city and the country to the world’ did not seem very believable. Nevertheless, the team persevered.
Many phone calls, meetings and document signings later, the project finally began to take shape. Many different authorities and individuals provided invaluable support to the TMC team especially the National Media Council who were believers of the project from the beginning.
For now, filming in Abu Dhabi and Dubai has been completed with the eventual goal being to cover the entire Emirates and show this region in all its magnificence.
Abu Dhabi 360 is on The Media Company and Airpano website for everyone to enjoy and very soon a link to Dubai 360 virtual tour will be released as well: www.themedia-company.com
Now, there is only so much that words and static pictures can say about a city. So, with the ‘UAE 360’ project, let the city speak for itself.
