Virtual Gigapixel Panoramic Tour 3D View of the Rhine River

Virtual Gigapixel Panoramic Tour from the highest rooftops of Düsseldorf, Cologne, Bonn and Krefeld

Marcus Mitter

360-up’s founder wanted to turn the Rhineland metropolitan region into a 360° interactive experience using extraordinary and inaccessible viewpoints. The project’s success depended on him being able to access these panoramic viewpoints.

In the middle and the lower Rhine regions, the City of Bonn allowed us to take a gigapixel panorama from the Stadthaus building’s rooftop. With its 72m high location in the centre of Bonn, it was perfect.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t take a gigapixel panorama from the 103m high LVR tower, for legal photo usage permission issues, but an interesting and helpful alternative was found with the KölnTurm operator, Cologne Tower, which is the tallest office building in the northern Rhine region of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The KölnTurm building is 148 metres high which is only 9 metres lower than Cologne’s Cathedral. In Cologne you can’t build higher than Cologne Cathedral is

In Düsseldorf, the Hyatt Hotel was very helpful and generously allowed us to work from its rooftop. It’s from this particular vantage point we took our widest picture of Düsseldorf.

Düsseldorf

The gigapixel panorama came out at about 220,000 pixels wide and 30,000 pixels high. It was Düsseldorf’s biggest image file. From the rooftop of the Hyatt Regency in the Media Harbour Düsseldorf you can zoom in on the screen and watch the Bayer-Cross in Krefeld in full screen . The distance, as the crow flies, is about 17.5 kilometres.

Cologne

The gigapixel panorama taken from the KölnTurm rooftop was subsequently installed as a digital signage implementation in the building’s reception area. Every day, the 500 or so visitors and employees to the city’s Media Park, enjoy the 150-metre-high interactive view of Cologne.

Bonn

Zoom from the rooftop of City Hall in Bonn and take a close look at the Ferris wheel in Pützchens Market or fill your screen with the hustle and bustle of the fair. Zoom into the Petersberg or the Drachenfels if you prefer … and whatever you decide, it’s all there, right in front of your eyes!

Media

This is what the media said about this virtual and interactive representation of the Rhineland metropolitan region, which is still unique today: