The announcement by HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao that the Visakha Utsav will be held at a single venue at Rama Krishna (RK) Beach unlike in the past, left many wondering as to how tourists would be exposed to the other tourist attractions in the city and district.
Thankfully, visitors to Visakha Utsav can take a Virtual Reality (VR) tour of tourist places in the district right at the RK Beach. The 3-D videos brought out by the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) in association with Live Wire enables viewers to actually have a feel of walking through the tourist places.
“The VR device is fixed to the forehead of the viewer and the video, shot with a number of cameras simultaneously, gives a 360 degree view. All that the viewer has to do is to turn his head to see what is there on different sides,” says Rakesh Polisetty, founder and CEO of Localwire, a start-up social networking app.
“The VR technology is popular in Ireland and the Irish officials are using it to promote tourism in a big way. Ours is a technology company and we gave the technical support to the Tourism Department, which procured the devices,” he said.
“In India, I heard that 360 degree videos are being made in Kerala but I am not sure whether VR devices are in use. The one-and-a-half minute videos give the significance of the place, the distance from the airport and railway station.”
“We are thrilled that ace director Rajamouli has used the technology on the sets of Bahubali-2 to show shooting of certain sequences. He is said to be planning to put up VR devices at theatres as part of promotion of the film,” says Mr. Rakesh quoting social media sites.
“We have procured 10 devices and after seeing the initial response from tourists, we can go for the filming of more locations like Araku and Borra Caves. The plan is to set up VR booths at Visakhapatnam International Airport, Beach Road, Submarine Museum, Kailasagiri and CMR Central, which are frequented by tourists and thereby motivate them to visit them,” says District Tourism Information Officer K. Gyana Veni.
The VR devices were launched by Mr. Ganta Srinivasa Rao in the presence of Collector Pravin Kumar, APTDC Executive Director Sriramulu Naidu and other officials recently.
Core team
The core team of Live Wire includes: Krishna Mohan (camera), C. Raju, Navya and five others.
