PBS To Use Digital Technology To Recreate D-Day Battle

PBS is offering viewers a detailed new view of one of history’s most seminal events.

The network will broadcast the hour-long “D-Day 360″ on Tuesday May 27 at 9 p.m. as part of a special month of programming honoring the 70th anniversary of the historic event. The documentary will use data and statistical tools to examine the historic five-hour invasion of a five-mile stretch of French coastline in a new way.

Data gathered though forensic laser scanning, three-dimensional computer modeling and eyewitness accounts will be utilized to “bring the battlefield to life as never before,” the network said in a statement Wednesday. The film takes advantage of light detection and ranging technology, or LiDAR, to re-create the landscape and allow viewers to see the big picture as well as close-ups of a single soldier on the battlefield.

“D-Day was a logistical effort on a scale never seen before or since and its ambition and scope are reflected in the cutting-edge use of technology pioneered in this film,” said Ian Duncan, film director and creative director of Windfall Films, which produced the project.“Conveying the sheer scale of the D-Day operation is at the heart of our radical approach to the graphics.”

“D-Day 360″ will be available for pre-order on shop.pbs.org starting Tuesday, May 27, 2014.

Related stories

TV Review: 'Pioneers of Television'

TV Review: Ken Burns' 'The Address'

TV Review: 'The Bletchley Circle,' Season 2

Get more from Variety and Variety411: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter