“With VR goggles, we can get very strong reactions,” he told Reuters in Bangkok, the Thai capital, where the programming team is based. Although the mass market for virtual reality has yet to achieve the most dramatic forecasts that surrounded the launch of Facebook Inc.’s Oculus Rift and Sony Corp.’s Playstation VR over two years ago, it is increasingly finding uses for specialist training.

On a soundstage no bigger than a large bedroom a cameraman takes up various angles to film a helicopter that isn’t there, landing in a field that isn’t there either. Until recently, virtual reality was the preserve of the gaming crowd but producers say the technology is on the cusp of a boom which could change forever the way television is made.