WDR virtual reality project Cologne cathedral in 3D

Köln · The Cologne cathedral can be experienced in a brand-new way. The WDR has started a virtual reality project.

 A virtual reality project shows the Cologne cathedral in 3D.

A virtual reality project shows the Cologne cathedral in 3D.

Foto: dpa

From this Tuesday, the Cologne cathedral can be experienced in a brand-new way. This opportunity has been made possible by the Westdeutschen Rundfunks’ (WDR) most elaborate virtual reality project to date. Users visiting the website dom360.wdr.de can hover through the cathedral, travel back to the Middle Ages or attend a choir concert during the night.

In this way, the cathedral will be brought closer to the younger generation. “It is really overwhelming,” says WDR Director Tom Buhrow during the presentation. “Almost more real than reality. You just want to put your hands out and touch it.” In answer to the question of whether it is really the responsibility of public service broadcasting to finance such projects, Buhrow says, “as a media company we must be out front and be experimenting.

That is the service to the community, that is our responsibility.” To the project developers, he said “thank you for convincing me to support this.” Cathedral Dean Gerd Bachner compared the extraordinary project to a pair of glasses, saying “wearing a pair of glasses you can see even more”. The viewer can select his or her own view points and go into rooms which would normally be inaccessible to the public in real life. “You can catapult yourself through time” said one of the women working on the development, “into the middle ages or to Cologne in the postwar period.”

(Original text: dpa, Translation: Caroline Payne)

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