Over the last year, BBC Radio 1’s New Music Show with Jack Saunders has been hosting an innovative series of immersive live gigs with artists like Gardna, Charlotte Plank and Sam Tompkins. We’ve done this through a new type of partnership with Bristol-based tech company Condense, and I want to share some detail on how we’re working with them.

Immersive live gigs are sessions with a difference – where fans at home feel like they’re in the room with the artist as they perform by entering a virtual venue called the New Music Portal.

The New Music Portal enables the BBC to bring the best of our performances to younger audiences who are increasingly spending time in these sorts of game-like online environments. In fact, they’ve already seen massively popular music events in spaces like Fortnite – young people in their millions have gone to online concerts from megastars like Travis Scott, Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande.

Using Condense’s technology, we can give artists access to this technology at a much earlier stage of their career – and give their fans an experience they can’t get anywhere else. Artists’ performances are captured and live-streamed as “true-to-life” video, and fans can join live events as an avatar on their mobile or laptop and move around the venue like a video game. This lets artists and their fans ​see and interact with each other live, from anywhere, offering an unprecedented level of connection, community and engagement.

“This partnership positions BBC audiences at the very forefront of the evolution of what it means to be a music fan in an age where people all over the world can now come together in-game to experience live music. You can attend a gig with your cousin who lives hundreds of miles away and share a real moment with your favourite artist through the New Music Portal.”

In May, Sam Tompkins treated fans to a special performance in the New Music Portal. It was the first time Sam had performed in a virtual environment, and he said of the experience: “The more that this technology moves on, the more we’re going to get closer to that live experience and I think that’s so special. This is a much more accessible way for people to hear live music and I’m all for that.”

Nick Fellingham, Condense’s CEO

This is how it works: An artist performs in a “capture area” which ensures every movement is picked up using Condense’s capture system. The performance is transformed, live into a 3D model and streamed into the virtual venue where it can be viewed from any angle.

To watch the gig, fans simply go to bbc.co.uk/jack, where they choose an avatar as they enter the New Music Portal – no specialist equipment needed, just a normal phone or laptop will work. Once they’re in the virtual venue they can move around the artist as they perform and interact with them and other gig goers using in-game emotes and dance moves. While the artist is performing, they can see the virtual audiences’ avatars too, and can build a real connection between themselves and the audience by giving shout outs and interacting with fans as they might do at a real gig.

Condense’s technology also provides us with the option to pre-record performances where we choose to and play them back “as live” to audiences in the virtual venue, allowing us to experiment more with types of content and events that will benefit from pre-production.

These immersive gigs are going to be a regular part of BBC Radio 1’s New Music Show with Jack Saunders going forward, with more performances coming up over the summer with a host of exciting artists.

As well as the music gigs, partnering with Condense also enables us to explore other ways we can use their technology to bring great live and immersive experiences to audiences. We’ve established a dedicated team ​to ​explore opportunities in sport, education, news and more.

The BBC has a long history of collaborations where we have worked with an external organisation to help us innovate and bring audiences fantastic experiences using cutting edge technologies.

This partnership is different though. We​ ​have invested £500,000 in Condense to ensure that as they grow and build on their success the BBC stands to benefit. Jo Sherlock, BBC group rights and commercial director will be Condense’s key contact with the BBC and she will help to shape the growth of the partnership as an observer on the Condense board.

By partnering in this way, we can rapidly explore new ways to engage younger audiences who don’t regularly come to the BBC. We can pioneer and shape the next evolution of content creation, and by investing in this Bristol-based startup, the BBC is backing British creativity, innovation, and technology.

We said earlier this year that we will need to work more strategically with the best tech companies to co-create solutions and form business partnerships that save money, inject capital and create better products. It’s an ambitious plan, not just to nurture the BBC but to support the UK, partnering with others and growing the creative industries.

This is us doing just that. Condense’s expertise, technology, and experience in immersive live events makes them the best partner for us to work with to bring the best of the BBC to audiences in new and exciting ways.

The partnership is already delivering value for viewers and we are looking forward to using gaming as a new way to get our content to audiences. I look forward to seeing you soon inside BBC Radio 1’s New Music Portal.