StoryFutures Xperience was a national showcasing programme of virtual reality experiences run by StoryFutures, the UK’s National Centre for Immersive Storytelling.

StoryFutures led the programme with a network of venues across the UK, aiming to understand how cinema and arts hub venues might be part of a network that can improve audience access to wider forms of screen culture.

Find out more about StoryFutures Xperience

In this article, Dr Kerryn Wise reflects on a visit to StoryFutures Xperience at Showroom, Sheffield.

Key takeaways

  • Set up a welcome desk away from the main VR presentation area.
  • Have a safe place to store audience belongings.
  • Have knowledgeable FOH staff on hand and consider employing local specialists to support your event.
  • If showing multiple experiences, a printed programme and a screen/monitor showing trailers are useful to guide audiences towards specific content.
  • Pre-loading content onto the VR headsets that can be started remotely works very well for new audiences.
  • Consider the audience's movement. If the content is static or room-scale, and set up the correct VR boundary.
  • If using multiple VR areas, mark the floor to show where each VR boundary is set up.
  • If possible, try to provide some privacy for audiences, so they don’t become a spectacle for others.

I attended a StoryFutures Xperience event with my family in January 2024 at the Workstation, next door to Showroom Cinema in Sheffield. Here, I provide an account of my experience leading to some useful takeaways for running your own broader screen content event.

On arrival, there were lots of front-of-house (FOH) cinema staff there to oversee things, including the cinema’s technical manager and local freelance VR facilitator Gemma Thorpe, who had been employed by StoryFutures to support the running of this event. Using local specialist freelancers is a useful approach if you are new to facilitating broader screen content.

The VR experiences were set up in a large, carpeted space with a reception desk outside set up to welcome visitors and sign disclaimer forms. Having a welcome desk away from the main VR area worked well to allow audiences to ask questions beforehand.

A coat rack was available just inside the door to leave belongings, although I kept my bag as this seemed too close to the entrance for me to feel fully relaxed. Having a safe space for audiences to store their belongings is important.

The FOH staff had received training and seemed knowledgeable and competent. Gemma was on hand to troubleshoot any issues. 

A screen at the back of the room showed trailers for each VR experience, and a written paper programme with descriptions was available. This was useful, as the format was that you select which VR works to experience from a menu of choices. 

The selection of titles available at Showroom was heavily focused on family-friendly and educational content, which may have been a curatorial choice by the cinema to target family audiences for this event.

The full range of StoryFutures Xperience titles available to venues can be seen here: https://legacy.storyfutures.com/accelerators/storyfutures-xperience/  

All the VR headsets had the content pre-loaded and were controlled using a syncing software, such as Showtime VR, which FOH staff all had on iPads. This makes it much easier to start/stop content and avoids the participants having to use the VR controllers and navigate the menus.

Overall, the space could have been set up for better ambience, marking the floor to show boundary areas for each VR headset as the FOH staff kept walking across participants' VR spaces, which I found disconcerting. I was given a stool and a stationary boundary for my experiences— even though some were room-scale—which was a little restricting. 

Chairs were placed around the edge of the room, which meant that whilst waiting, you were watching other audience members in their VR experiences. This could make people self-conscious. Catherine Allen, of Limina Immersive suggests private spaces, where possible, as best practice:

‘It is not fair to put people through a new experience they are likely to be nervous about and then expect them to simultaneously be a photo opportunity for strangers’ – ‘Beyond the early adopter: widening the appeal for virtual reality’ (2020).

However, this was not possible in this large space, yet facing the chairs away from the action could have been achieved. 

Overall, this was a well-managed event, and my experience was positive. Many of the strategies applied worked well to engage new and existing audiences, and the event was well attended.