As part of the EMERALD Project the BBC's technical research department, BBC R&D, is investigating the potential for using AI-based tools to create or modify media in a way that makes them suitable for use by a broadcaster. One such technology is Neural Radiance Fields or NeRFs. NeRFs are neural networks that are trained using a set of 2D images of a scene and, once processed, enable the creation of new views of the scene not previously captured. This allows the creation of virtual camera movements around the scene.

Current NeRF technology cannot make videos of moving, dynamic, scenes which is ultimately what a broadcaster needs to make content. Part of BBC R&D's work within EMERALD will be to develop technology that enables the creation of videos of those dynamic scenes. However, the BBC is still interested in seeing what the limits and opportunities are of the current NeRF tools so undertook this project to investigate them.

The collaboration with the BBC's 6Music radio station was a way to publicise the station's annual T-Shirt Day, where listeners wearing their favourite band t-shirts can request songs. The team from BBC R&D's brief was to create short, eye-catching videos for social media to communicate the concept of a T-shirt being used to request a song. NeRFs enabled the creation of camera shots that would be extremely difficult and expensive to film using traditional technique such as flying around inside a radio studio or a performance space.

The finished videos were published in November 2023 on the station's social media channels in the run up to T-Shirt Day. This is the first use by the BBC of NeRFs to create content for the audience. You can  watch the videos and read more about the process of creating them on BBC R&D's blog. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2023-12-nerfs-neural-radiance-fields-video).