ONE of Europe’s largest virtual reality centres has opened for business in Bournemouth.

Centre VR has launched its second arcade in the town on the first floor of Richmond Gardens Shopping Centre in BH1.

The new facility has 30 headsets split into two sections across the large area, with 15 for standing and mobile experiences and 15 for sitting down activities, like driving and flying from a fixed spot.

Managing director Colin Parnell has invested in industry-leading equipment for the centre, with the HTC Vive Pro and Samsung Odyssey Pro models. The latter is not available on the UK market and had to be imported from America for the Bournemouth centre.

The launch follows on from the company’s move to open in the BH2 complex last year.

“It was always planned to have two centres,” said Mr Parnell.

“The smaller one at BH2 is a taster, while here we have a lot more space and we have plans to do various tournaments and competitions.”

The new centre is working towards providing more 200 hundred games on its ‘your choice’ platform, while there will be a hand-picked selection available at the smaller BH2 facility.

People can play against each other across the two centres.

The larger site can accommodate group bookings for events and parties, and Mr Parnell has also linked up with several schools to make use of the technology for educational benefits.

“Part of the appeal for me is I am able to bring people this amazing new experience,” he added.

“I put virtual reality on for the first time and was blown away by it. At home I found I was secluded having a great time on my own in VR but having to just tell everyone else about it.

“You need the multiplayer experience and people are not able to do that in their house because of the expense and the space required.

“With the space we have here we can give people the perfect VR experience.

“We have had a lot of children’s parties.

“They are all excited about playing and there is the fact they are doing so safely with no element of danger because it is a virtual and interactive world.”