360 Photography for the NHS

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust operates 24 clinics specialising in children’s mental health. The clinics are located across Sussex, Kent and Hampshire.

The Issue

It can be a worrying time for children and their families when they are referred to a mental health clinic. The team at Sussex Partnership NHS Trust were keen to make the process straightforward and comfortable for families, even before a patient sets foot inside a clinic. They decided that if children and young people knew exactly what the environment would look like beforehand, then it would hold no surprises for them. This acquaintance with their clinic in advance should help them feel more relaxed about the whole experience. Traditional stills photography could give a small insight into the clinic, but the team were concerned that this wouldn’t give viewers a true familiarity with each clinic’s key areas. 360 photography was felt to offer a more immersive experience for viewers, helping them really become comfortable that they knew what to expect from their surroundings.

The Brief

Sussex Partnership NHS Trust approached us with a view to creating several virtual tours at each of the 24 clinics across the region. They wanted a high-quality, flawless finish, so there were no distractions for viewers from the clinic itself.

The Trust built on this brief for certain clinics with the addition of voiceovers from young people who have previously used their services, talking about how they felt about visiting the clinic and how it helped them. This was intended to further put patients and families at their ease while they explored the clinics.

The Process

As budget is always key when working with any public sector client, our producers worked closely with the Sussex NHS team to plan each region’s shoots in the most time/cost-efficient manner possible. In many instances, we were able to shoot multiple clinics on the same shoot days, thus keeping costs low. Each region’s shoots were planned out so clinics were prepared for the photographer’s arrival, and the areas were clear and ready to be photographed.

In advance of each shoot, we provided clinic staff with a checklist of ways they could ensure that the clinics were well-prepared for the 360 shoot, from adding flowers to reception areas to ensuring dead light-bulbs were replaced.

After the regions shoots, all the images went into post-production at our studio in London. The interfaces created were rolled out for each clinic, with all areas labelled and thumbnail navigation to move the viewer through the different areas.

Audio

Eye Revolution provided the equipment and support for the client to create the audio in-house. This allowed them to find the right young people to create reassuring voiceovers, and to take their time over each one. Once they were happy with the final recording session, the audio was uploaded to us and we cleaned it up and edited it before adding it to the selected 360 virtual tour (this process is ongoing).