Environment sector | virtual tour case study
Svalbard Global Seed Vault
2024 BIMA Award Winner – Most immersive Experience
Explore the Arctic’s most secure facility with our immersive Svalbard Global Seed Vault virtual tour, featuring multilingual access, dynamic lighting states, and cutting-edge accessibility in one of the world’s most iconic scientific sites. Alongside with the team at Svalbard we created a spectacular visual experience.
To enhance the digital experience, we created a VR-enabled video that lets users explore the vault using VR headsets. Delivering an engaging, lifelike experience, bringing the vault’s underground world directly to viewers.
The numbers that make us proud
The tour has received over 6,363,852 scene views from across the globe. Showcasing the wide reach of accessible virtual tours
The tour has had over 312,686 visitors, with the United Kingdom, Canada, and Portugal being the top spots where users are visiting from
Users that visit the tour spend an average of over 5 minutes exploring and learning more about the global impact of projects like this
The Brief
The project scope defined it was crucial to combine the best possible image quality with a branded, seamless user experience. The photography element included some unique challenges, shooting in temperatures of -25°C and below. Careful planning and precise execution was key to ensuring all images were captured successfully.
The tour includes our unique change of state feature highlighting how the vault is accessed and what it looks like during darkness and light. This stunning design and build sets the standard for interactive 360 experiences and reflects the brand, vision and brief perfectly. The tour structure has been built so that multiple languages can be added at any point in the future.
What we achieved
Amongst standard features and processes we implemented a range of bespoke components that makes this virtual tour stand out in true form.
World-Class 360º Images
Each scene on the tour portrays world-class high-quality 360º images that have been captured to show the vault in the best light.
Interactive Map
The interactive map shows the depth of the vault and allows users to easily navigate to any area within the vault.
Language Options
The tour offers several language options to cater to a wider audience across the globe
Accessibility Widget
Our accessibility widget follows WCAG guidelines and creates a more accessible platform to allow users to interact with the tour in a way that suits them best
Easy Navigation
Through the menu, the interactive map, or navigational hotspots users can easily navigate through the tour to explore all public areas within the vault
Information-Rich Hotspots
The tour includes several informational hotspots, including video and imagery that educates users on the various spaces and features within the vault``The Virtual Tour Experts were incredible to work with and they went above and beyond to help take our project to the next level. With innovative and leading technical expertise, we couldn't recommend them enough!``
Step Inside the Seed Vault with VR
Our VR-enabled video offers an immersive 360° journey into the Seed Vault, fully compatible with headsets. Viewers can navigate naturally, turning their heads to explore the facility’s tunnels, chambers, and secure vaults as if they were truly there.
Features include:
Natural VR Navigation: Look around freely to explore the environment on any device.
Audio Narration: A narrator talks through the spaces, giving information on each scene
Informative Pop-ups: Key points feature optional pop-ups with added context and visuals.
Future-Ready Quality: Captured in high-res 6K for longevity and evolving platforms.
Why it matters:
This VR video makes the Seed Vault accessible in a whole new way, deepening engagement, increasing educational impact, and offering a powerful tool for outreach and public awareness.
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Unique benefits that are perfect
for environmental virtual tours
- a cutting-edge visual showpiece of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, its facilities and location.
- attracting all past and future visitors.
- a superb interactive, fast loading and responsive tour.
- accessibility features set the standard in following WCAG 2.1 guidelines.
- content management system giving staff options to add information to scenes, create and edit hotspots, add audio and videos.
- our CMS ensures the tour can be adapted year after year without additional costs.
- unique design in keeping with their strong branding.
- fully customised and generated talking heads distributed throughout the tour.
- custom interactive map and menu styles to enable users to explore by area.
- multiple change of state features throughout the tour, enabling a rich and interactive user experience.
- fast turnaround time.
- the tour has been a huge hit with users spending an average of 7 minutes and 40 seconds engaging and exploring.
The Client
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (Norwegian: Svalbard globale frøhvelv) is a secure backup facility for the world’s crop diversity on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago. The Seed Vault provides long-term storage of duplicates of seeds conserved in genebanks around the world. This provides security of the world’s food supply against the loss of seeds in genebanks due to mismanagement, accident, equipment failures, funding cuts, war, sabotage, disease and natural disasters. The Seed Vault is managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement among the Norwegian Government, the Crop Trust, and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).
Visit the Svalbard Global Seed Vault website.
GLOBAL MEDIA COVERAGE:
The Virtual Tour Experts supported the campaign by securing media coverage for the virtual tour in a range of media outlets across the globe, including:
QUICK LINKS
Svalbard Global Seed Vault Virtual Tour | The Virtual Tour Experts