Inside Transmission House on Tib Street in Manchester, one minute I’m standing in what seems like a pretty unassuming space, glancing up at the high ceilings. The next, I’m wandering through galaxies and watching the birth and death of stars.
And no, it’s not because I had one too many. Transmission House is now home to Smithsonian Starstruck: An Immersive Experience, a new free-roam VR attraction from global entertainment platform Fever which has transformed this Manchester venue into a virtual journey through the universe.
Fever, the company behind candlelight concerts and drone shows, developed Smithsonian Starstruck over two years in collaboration with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), with the experience combining real astronomical research and data with immersive storytelling.
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In a vast room filled with white square tracking markers, in groups of up to six you slip on wireless VR headsets before being transported into an interactive world where an American cosmic guide called ‘Astro’ greets you before setting off on a journey through the stars.
Everyone appeared as a white astronaut avatar, but only those in my group had their names floating above their heads as our tour began at the SAO’s Whipple Observatory.
From there, we travelled between observatories before wandering through galaxies, exploring distant exoplanets, getting up close to the blazing surface of the Sun, and even coming face to face with a black hole.
Along the way, we pointed laser beams at celestial objects, picked up virtual telescopes for a more hands-on view and even dodged space rocks as they floated past.
The only thing that briefly broke the illusion came when two players from another group wandered a little too close after seemingly straying beyond their red boundary markers. But turning up the audio on the headset soon blocked out the temporary interruption and it was back to exploring the universe.
The experience ends on a surprisingly poignant note, at least it was for me, leaving you gazing back at Earth as a subtle reminder of just how special our planet is against the vastness of space.
It’s not just another VR experience especially if, like me, you’re a bit of an astronomy enthusiast.
To understand what went into creating it, at the event I chatted with Alex Winterbotham, Global Director of Production for VR at Fever, who explained why the project took two years to develop and why Manchester became its second UK stop.
“It has been about two years worth of work. On the Smithsonian side, we’ve worked with scientists and astrophysicists, alongside our own teams and partners who have done everything from coding and artworking to some of the game design,” he tells me.
Beyond entertainment, he says Fever’s wider ambition is to make culture and learning more accessible.
“The mission of Fever is all about democratising access to culture. It’s all about bringing people, whoever they are, whatever their background, to different sorts of experiences. One of the great joys of my role is getting to see all the people that come to our shows, from little kids all the way through to senior audiences.”
It’s also the first time Fever has worked with 12 accessibility experts, and it was built from the ground up with accessibility in mind.
And while Fever is well known for its live events, free-roam VR is still a relatively new area for the company.
“The headsets don’t have cables attached to them – and it’s not that long ago when they all did. That meant you couldn’t walk around really. The lightbulb moment was us saying: ‘let’s get people to walk around in space, quite literally!’
“So we came upon this really, really exciting partnership with Smithsonian, where we had incredible, unbridled access to amazing science, data, telescopes, which form the backbone of the story you see in Starstruck. It’s a tour through the universe in VR.”
After launching in Washington DC, home to the Smithsonian, and then London, Manchester is now the experience’s second UK stop. So why Manchester?
“Manchester is a city I used to come to every week because I support a certain football team,” he laughs.
“But it’s also a very tech-first city. You just have to think about all the amazing game studios that have come from this neck of the woods. We’ve always felt this would be a really dynamic audience that’s interested in science content.”
He also believes the popularity of immersive experiences reflects a growing appetite for shared experiences.
“We do a lot of stuff on our phones now, in a bubble and sometimes isolated. Post-Covid, we’ve seen this amazing technological evolution where technology can bring people together through highly social experiences like this.
“The experience is in groups of up to six people and you see each other’s avatars in real-time. That’s where it’s all getting very exciting. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next 10 to 20 years in this space, because it’s going to unlock all sorts of learning and storytelling opportunities.
“VR is just one part of that. There are lots of other exciting things happening from mixed reality, wearables to all sorts of things. This is certainly an area we’re really invested in.”
So could Starstruck be the start of something bigger for Manchester?
“Absolutely. We’re watching this one really closely, I’m really excited to see what audiences say, what the feedback’s like on the door. What we’ve run in this venue has gone really well, and audiences seem to be connecting with the content.
“Going forwards, there’s such an interesting angle on doing other types of shows that are innovative in the wider region. So definitely watch this space. There are some really exciting things in the works, some of which I annoyingly can’t talk about. But think big brands, think amazing IPs, and ultimately, storytelling that makes transformative events come to life.”
