Wrapping Up XReco: A Major Immersive Media Milestone
,It's always bittersweet when one of our R&D projects comes to an end – cue the tiny violins. And XReco was a giant, spanning three years, twelve countries and twenty partners. Let's look back at what we achieved.
First things first. XReco's overall mission was to create a B2B platform that enables content search, retrieval, creation and adaptation. For instance, one of the many things users could do is find videos and photos of a landmark (or anything else, really) on the XReco platform and use one of the integrated tools to transform the 2D footage into a 3D model. The main areas of interest explored were: XR in tourism, the automotive industryand, of course, news media. Our goal was to create a decentralized, democratized platform for the creation of XR experiences. And that's exactly what we did.
The News Media Use Cases
As always, there were use cases. In this instance: real-life examples showing how to best use the 3D reconstruction tools in journalism. DW contributed to three big XR productions.
First, we had a presenter walk through 3D models of buildings and showcase them. To achieve this, we leveraged:
- The FVV technology of our partner UPM (Polytechnic University of Madrid) that basically makes live 3D video a real thing. Read here if you want to know how.
- And, in a separate iteration, we used the integrated VR studio technology of one of our DW TV studios at our headquarters in Bonn.
The 3D buildings in question were Turin's Arco Del Valentino and Berlin's former Palace of the Republic. Similar results – different workflows, depending on whether you are an amateur creator or a professional journalist.
We still hadn't had enough – so we continued by creating an entire virtual TV studio in Unity3D with the help of tech partner Capgemini. Small building reconstructions, e.g., Timisoara's St. George Cathedral, rotated on a platform so they could be viewed from all sides. All 3D models were created and optimized with the technologies and skills of UPM, CERTH, i2Cat and FFP. We even integrated security avatar Guardia into the 3D studio in collaboration with the SERMAS project (that we were also a part of, by the way). If you want to learn more about the virtual production use cases, check out this blogpost.
Lastly, we made a 3D infographic template for journalists in collaboration with Capgemini. They allow you to turn 3D models into interactive experiences. Clickable, zoomable, and ready to insert into any online article. Currently, we are working on integrating them at DW.
We are proud that all tools we have developed with the XReco partners are user-friendly, even for non-experts. They simplify once-complicated work processes with 3D models and enable journalists to take their storytelling to an immersive level in a very straight-forward way.
Our Role in the Project
At DW Innovation, we are used to acting as use case partners, but in XReco, our role was special: Project Coordinator.
Providing guidance and support for 20 partners through a multitude of administrative processes can be challenging – but the collaborative spirit of the partners made it that much easier. As coordinator, facilitating communication where necessary, creating connections wherever possible (e.g., between use cases), and maintaining an overview are all part of the job. A job our very own Nico Patz and Nico Heise enjoyed a lot – especially when it came to upholding the project spirit that the consortium shaped together. It's clear that everyone believed in the project vision. And from the get-go, the XReco members were helpful towards each other, hungry for innovation, and worked together closely.
Following the final consortium meeting in Basel in the summer of 2025, we gathered online for the official project review just before Christmas, successfully concluding XReco.
Project Legacy
XReco is over, and while there is currently no public version of the platform, the good news is that our project results and building blocks will be used by others in the future. For example, tech partner i2CAT created a Holoportation System, which includes point cloud compression. This has resulted in a patent that will support Volum, a start-up dedicated to bringing real people into the digital world as photorealistic 3D holograms in any virtual or mixed-reality space.
If you want to learn more about XReco, check out the project blog or YouTube channel. What we achieved is still out there. We are glad to have been part of such an extensive XR project and will continue to show how 3D assets can contribute to high-quality journalism.
