shooting 360° in a clean room

date: June 8, 2020

Problem: Capture photorealistic 360° content of a pharmaceutical production facility. Clean room standards meant minimal equipment, strict protocols, and limited time. One day. One person. Two cameras. Five rooms.

Solution: Pre-planned every shot before entry. Used a DSLR rig for ultra high-res capture with HDR bracketing to handle challenging lighting. On-site tablet verification caught issues while fixing was still possible.

The Challenge

Pharmaceutical clean rooms maintain strict contamination control. Air quality is monitored constantly. Particle counts matter. Every piece of equipment entering the space must be approved, and the list has to be minimal.

This ruled out standard film production: no large crews, no multiple lighting setups, no particle-shedding materials. What we could bring in was a DSLR camera rig for ultra high-res 360° capture, a tablet for monitoring, power banks, and protective equipment. 60 minutes per room. Suiting up and accessing the clean room ate into that window, so every second inside had to count.

The Production Plan

Pre-production happened outside the clean room. We walked through the facility, identified key equipment and stations, and planned five shots per room for coverage. Every camera position got marked on a floor plan. Every piece of equipment got approved by the safety team before we could bring it inside.

The on-site workflow was sequential and unforgiving. Suit up in protective gear. Enter the clean room with pre-positioned equipment. Set up the DSLR rig at position one, capture multiple exposures for HDR bracketing, rotate the rig to capture the full 360° sphere. Verify the capture on the tablet while moving to position two. Repeat for remaining positions. Exit.

No time for second attempts. Every shot had to work first time. Post-stitching issues discovered back at the office would mean rebooking facility time, which takes weeks.

Technical Decisions

Standard 360° cameras weren't sharp enough. We needed photorealistic quality that would hold up on VR headsets, so we used a DSLR rig capturing multiple photos per position, then stitched them into seamless 360° spheres. Higher quality, but a more complex workflow with more points of failure.

Clean rooms have challenging lighting: bright overhead lights, dark corners, reflective metal surfaces all in the same frame. We couldn't add film lights, so we worked with what existed. HDR bracketing compensated for this. We shot multiple exposures per angle and merged them for proper dynamic range.

The hardest part was stitching metal surfaces. Stainless steel equipment creates reflections that confuse stitching algorithms. The same surface looks different from slightly different angles, so automated matching fails. We knew going in that we'd need to manually fix seams on reflective surfaces during post-production.

Every camera position and rotation angle was predetermined. The DSLR rig captured overlapping shots in a specific sequence. Miss one rotation and the sphere wouldn't stitch. The tablet let us verify captures on-site. Discovering gaps back at the office would mean rescheduling facility time, so we checked every position before moving to the next.

What We Shot

The spray drying towers were the visual centerpiece. These are massive pieces of equipment, and capturing their scale required careful positioning. We shot angles that showed both the full height and the control panel detail. Material handling systems and quality control stations filled out the operational picture.

We planned shots that could be sequenced to show product flow through the facility. A customer in VR could follow the journey from raw materials to finished product, understanding each stage.

Beyond equipment, we captured environment details: clean room suits, air handling systems, the airlocks between zones. These elements demonstrated pharmaceutical standards without needing explanation. We also recorded ambient audio (equipment hum, ventilation systems) because sound matters for immersion. A silent clean room would feel artificial.

Production Results

Pre-planning eliminated on-site uncertainty. Every shot was mapped before entry. Tablet verification caught one exposure issue immediately, while we still had time to reshoot.

The challenges were physical as much as technical. Full protective gear limited mobility and endurance. The DSLR rig positioning required precise timing to stay out of frame. And as expected, reflective stainless steel created stitching failures that needed manual correction later.

Clean room sterility worked for pharmaceutical trust-building but provided minimal visual interest. These spaces are designed for function, not aesthetics. Equipment detail compensated for the visual minimalism. The spray drying towers in particular translated well to VR, where their scale became tangible in a way photos never could.

Post-Production Integration

Raw photos needed stitching first. Each position had 20-30 individual DSLR shots that we merged into one seamless 360° sphere. Automated stitching handled 80% of it. The remaining 20%, mostly reflective metal surfaces and tight corners, required manual correction. This was expected and budgeted.

Then we built the VR experience in Unity. The ultra high-res 360° photos formed the photorealistic base for each room. We added interactive hotspots on equipment that revealed technical specifications when selected. Navigation followed product flow, with smooth transitions between rooms. Equipment sounds mixed with expert narration completed the immersion.

The real value came from the multiplayer layer. Sales reps could join sessions remotely. A customer at a trade show puts on a headset. A technical expert joins from headquarters. Both see each other as avatars. Both can point at equipment. Both can talk in real-time.

This wasn't just VR. It was networked collaboration in a virtual space. Beyond the photorealistic environments, we built animated 3D sequences showing how chemical processes worked inside the equipment. Spray drying, material flow, the transformation from raw input to finished product. These animations needed deterministic networking: when one user pressed play, both clients had to show the exact same frame at the exact same time. Pause, rewind, jump to a specific moment, all synchronized. Voice networking let participants talk through what they were seeing. A technical expert could walk a customer through a complex process step by step, pointing at equipment while explaining the chemistry.

The photorealistic base gave users trust. The interactive layer gave them education. The multiplayer gave them expert access they couldn't get any other way.

What We Learned

Constraints drive precision. Limited equipment and time eliminated room for error. Every decision had to be right the first time, which forced thorough preparation.

Days of planning enabled smooth execution in a one-hour window. Pre-production determined the outcome more than anything we did on-site. By the time we entered the clean room, we were just executing a plan.

360° capture reveals everything. There's no off-frame space for lights, crew, or equipment. Everything in the sphere appears on camera. This changes how you think about production: you're not framing a shot, you're capturing an entire environment.

DSLR stitching provides the quality we needed but demands manual correction. Automated algorithms fail on reflective surfaces. Budget for that work in post-production, not as a surprise.

Industrial spaces lack visual interest by design. Clean rooms prioritize function over aesthetics. Creating compelling views in minimal spaces requires deliberate composition and careful equipment positioning.

The Result

Five fully captured clean room spaces, integrated into a VR experience that let pharmaceutical customers explore the facility, examine equipment, and understand production processes from anywhere in the world.

The combination worked: photorealistic environments for trust, interactive elements for education, multiplayer for expert access. Customers who couldn't visit the facility in person got something better than a tour. They got an experience they could share with colleagues, revisit later, and explore at their own pace.