The European audiovisual media is facing an unprecedented challenge: intense competition from streaming, collapsing ad revenue, and fragmented audiences. Traditional media players need to reinvent themselves to survive in a landscape dominated by digital giants.
What is Spatial Media?
Part of the Horizon Europe framework, the TRANSMIXR project explores innovative Mixed Reality (XR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions for the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI). Immersion leveraged its XR expertise to develop Spatial Media, a new tool designed to orchestrate and manage highly interactive, agile immersive experiences in a virtual studio setting.
The mission? To imagine the future of media, cultural heritage, and the performing arts by prototyping tools that use XR and AI across the entire media value chain.
An Immersive Ecosystem for Professionals and Viewers Alike
Spatial Media is a versatile, innovative virtual studio prototype that totally reimagines television production and consumption. It serves two complementary, essential purposes:
For Professionals (Directors and Producers):
Directors can remotely manage the “control room of the future” using an Extended Reality headset.
The application allows them to control virtual cameras, lighting, polls, and video streams (2D and 360∘), optimising production and improving broadcast quality.
This platform provides creators with real agility in producing immersive content.
For Viewers (The Audience):
Live programs can be watched in 2D or XR.
Viewers are represented by a virtual audience, fostering a collaborative atmosphere while ensuring anonymity.
They can actively participate in the program through real-time polls and explore 360∘ or customized sets, transforming them from mere consumers into active participants.
Presenters and directors interact in a modular 3D environment while viewers gather around a virtual set, making the television experience more social, interactive, and collaborative.
Real-World Testing and Encouraging Results
The Irish television channel TG4, a TRANSMIXR consortium member, became the first user of the prototype. Facing the challenge of captivating a younger audience while preserving their cultural identity, TG4 sought an innovative solution. Immersion worked to meet their complex needs, including the requirement for a multi-user experience that didn’t exclude audiences without VR headsets.
The development of the prototype involved major technical challenges, such as ensuring a real-time multi-user experience with no latency, high-resolution graphics, and managing multiple incoming video streams (2D and 360∘) alongside outgoing streams for virtual cameras.
In September 2025, TG4 produced a live program using Spatial Media, with partners from TUS University expressing high satisfaction. All of the prototype’s features, including the ability to connect remote participants, were successfully tested, fully demonstrating the platform’s immense potential.
Spatial Media has since been presented at IBC, the global media and technology conference, and is set to be featured at United XR this December.
Source: Immersion’s article on the Spatial Media tool
