FIREGROUND

 

AS PART OF AVIMERSE

Greater Manchester Fire Service Museum
The Virtual Museum; An Augmented and Virtual Reality Experience

 

The Client

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Greater Manchester Fire Service Museum Trust is the governing body for Fireground Museum. Established in February 2008, its mission has been to usher the Museum into a new era of sustainability, drawing inspiration from the successes of other renowned museums.

 

The Project

 

The project, known as the "Virtual Museum" represents a collaboration between AVimmerse and the Greater Manchester Fire Service Museum in Rochdale. 

 

At its culmination, the project delivers an immersive virtual reality experience centred around the historic Control Room at Rochdale Fire Station. 

 

This immersive experience delves deep into the room's rich historical significance, with a particular focus on the pivotal role women played in orchestrating emergency responses to fires. In addition, we created an online space, granting users the opportunity to embark on a virtual journey to the Control Room, where they can engage in an enlightening exploration of its storied past.

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The Goal

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The ultimate aim of this project was to entice individuals to visit the online space and embark on a journey of heritage exploration. Additionally, we wanted to encourage users to download the accompanying app, thereby further enhancing their immersive experience.

 

This year-long project was completed after careful consultation with the museum’s curator Bob Bonnor. Their primary objective was to harness immersive technology as a means to captivate and connect with a younger demographic, specifically targeting individuals aged 13 to 15 years old.

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What I Did

I modelled the various 3D assets and environment for the bespoke control room in Blender and optimised each individual item ready for use in the Unity game engine. My primary role was to use accurate references to what would be in the fireroom of that period in history I really enjoyed learning what was used in that time period and creating the specific equipment they used in the Control room. 

I had to model create and bake all the various textures for each asset making sure they all kept within the desired aesthetic to keep the end experience as immersive as possible.

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THe end result

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The final piece of this project was an augmented reality experience seamlessly integrated into the museum's physical space. This transformative encounter is accessible for download on both iOS and Android devices, empowering users to explore the history of the fire station at Rochdale.

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Take a look HERE.

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