A promotional film about the construction and opening of the Hemispherium, a 6-metre dome that provides an immersive virtual reality experience at the Virtual Reality Centre part of the University of Teesside. The centre was opened by the then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and President of the Board of Trade Peter Mandelson MP. Title: 11/12/95 A student computer animation of a futuristic joyride through Middlesbrough. Title: February 97 Demolition and construction work on the...

A promotional film about the construction and opening of the Hemispherium, a 6-metre dome that provides an immersive virtual reality experience at the Virtual Reality Centre part of the University of Teesside. The centre was opened by the then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and President of the Board of Trade Peter Mandelson MP. Title: 11/12/95 A student computer animation of a futuristic joyride through Middlesbrough. Title: February 97 Demolition and construction work on the new Virtual Reality Centre on the campus of the University of Teesside beginning with a lorry being loaded with rubble followed by the foundations of the building in place. Title: The Virtual Reality Centre Title: Presented Title: Hemispherium A computer-generated reproduction of what the Hemispherium will look like once completed featuring a large concave screen, a desk of computers at the rear and rows of seating with a ‘Flight Chair’ at the front. Title: Back to the beginning… Interview with Nigel Rodwell, Technical Director VR Centre at Teesside Ltd describing what Hemispherium is and how it works. Inside a 140-degree auditorium six people sit watching a computer-generated animation of the University of Teesside campus, sitting behind them a technician at a computer. Interview with Steve Waggett, Project Manager Estates Department University of Teesside about how the turned the empty space into the Hemispherium and the various local company contracted to do the work. Inside the empty space with painted black walls a high-level steel work frame is installed. Pieces for the concave screen are unloaded from wooden crates installed, sanded down and painted white with workers using a cherry-picker to reach the higher parts. Wiring and electricals are installed. Nigel Rodwell talks about the types of projectors the Hemispherium will use, four men look around the space deciding where they should go. A computer rack is unloaded from a lorry and installed, around it boxes of computer equipment and the specially designed ‘Flight Chair’ which is used to control the Hemispherium. Someone sits in the chair testing the control stick changes to show the chair in action inside the completed Hemispherium. A man looks at deigns drawn on a piece of paper, Steve Waggett talks about starting the brief from a ‘clean piece of paper’. Peter Mandelson is given a tour of Hemispherium by a woman and is shown it in action. Title: Opening ceremony Peter Mandelson shakes hands with a number of people on the foyer of the Virtual Reality Centre. Standing beside him is Professor Derek Fraser, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Teesside. Mr Mandelson is given a guided tour of the building and a pair of VR goggles to wear, on the computer screen in front of him the image of Tutankhamun’s funerary mask presumably what Mr Mandelson is seeing with his goggles. He is taken into another room where two men wearing VR glasses shake his hand, a pair is passed to Peter Mandelson to wear. Inside the darkened Hemispherium Peter Mandelson cuts a ceremonial ribbon to the applause of those around him. He sits in the ‘Flight Chair’ and is given instruction on how to use the controls watched by a crowd of spectators and photographers. He uses the controls to fly around the virtual reality space on the screen in front of him, in the background he makes a speech about the importance of this ‘high technology education’. Professor Fraser escorts Peter Mandelson through a room of computers. Title: Virtual Reality Centre at Teesside Ltd Title: Director Janice Webster Title: Tel: +44 1642 384317. Fax: +44 1642 384310. Email: j.webster@tees.ac.uk. Http://vr.tees.ac.uk A group of visitors make their way onto the viewing platform of the Hemispherium to watch a demonstration of it in action. On the screen in front of them a computer generation of the streets of Middlesbrough. At the front a man in the Flight Chair in control of the action on the screen using a joystick to move about. Other take their turn at the controls, the image changes to that of flying over a lake accompanied by a fighter jet. This is followed by a computer-generated reconstruction of Guisborough Priory during the 11th to 14th Century and virtual walk-through of the Middlehaven dockland regeneration project in Middlesbrough.