360 degree experience - Shark feeding frenzy

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Summary:	The Oceans film team are captured on the 360° panoramic video camera surrounded by fur seals.
Location:	Diving in Tasmanian coastal waters, during the filming of the Southern Ocean episode.
Clip length:	Two minutes, 58 seconds
Description:	This video shows the camera crew being inspected by curious fur seals as a film shoot comes to an end. The Australian fur seal is among the world's rarest seal species, having been hunted to the brink of extinction during the last century. The population recovery has been slow and seals are now fully protected. This species is the most common seal in Tasmanian waters and breeds on small isolated rocks in the Bass Strait. Seals can also be seen "hauled-out" at various rocky areas around the Tasmanian coastline, especially outside the breeding season when many disperse from their colonies.
Camera:	The 360° panoramic video camera has 11 individual video lenses which record simultaneously. The lenses are housed in a "dodecahedral" camera head, encased in a waterproof plastic surround. The camera is kept on the sea bed using dive weights and is permanently connected to the boat. A cable feeds images back to a viewing engine where the "blending" of all the camera image streams takes place in real time. Once this process is complete and the film is captured on a hard drive, stitching software creates "sphere movies" showing the whole environment in motion at once. Visit this specialist camera website to learn more about the technical specifications of this 360° camera.