Beethoven's Illusion

In early 2017, Frame Labs was approached by the Perth Concert Hall to develop a VR concept experience called Beethoven’s Illusion. The idea was to give audiences a perspective you simply cannot get in a normal concert setting by placing small GearVR 360 cameras directly on stage, right among the WA Symphony Orchestra, during a performance of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony.

We recorded across two nights using two GearVR 360 cameras, plus an additional DSLR capturing 4K footage that we later used to build a “virtual” box-seat viewpoint. That hybrid approach was deliberate. The on-stage cameras had plenty of light and could clearly capture the musicians, but they were not ideal for the low light and distance of the box seats. The DSLR handled that environment far better, capturing footage in low-light with much less image noise, and it gave us the flexibility to construct a believable 360-style box-seat view in post.

My role covered the technical planning and the hands-on production pipeline from capture through to delivery. I led the shoot approach, managed camera placement and remote operation, processed the captured footage, assembled the box-seat composite, and then brought everything together into a headset-friendly experience. The performance audio was captured using the Concert Hall’s high-quality audio array, and a big part of the finishing work was ensuring the visuals were properly graded and tightly synced to the recording.

My work on the project included:

• Acting as technical lead and planning capture angles and camera placement

• Managing placement and remote operation of the GearVR 360 cameras

• Ingesting, processing, and organising the captured footage

• Creating the “virtual box seat” 360-style footage from the DSLR capture

• Colour grading and syncing the video to the concert audio recording

• Encoding and packaging the experience as a simple Android app for Samsung GearVR, running on Samsung S9 phones