The immersive display environment can put guests at the center of entertainment or gaming experience.

VS Park recently opened the Seven Park Amami store in Osaka to simulate players participating in variety shows. Photo courtesy of VS Park.

The growth of social entertainment has triggered a surge in global interest in immersive rooms and so-called "immersive display environments" (also known as IDEs).

Many developments in the immersive digital experience have evolved from what some people call "Cinema 2.0"-the heir to an attempt to create the cinema experience.

Outernet London, an immersive media and entertainment company, is a leader in central London, offering live performance space and a 2,000 square foot 8k LED display enclosure.

In addition to exhibiting specially commissioned experiences, the building will also be used as a licensed music venue and exhibition space, which can accommodate more than 2,000 guests. The space is designed to accommodate music, movies, art, games, and retail experiences.

In summarizing this approach to IDE, we also need to include investment in the field called "art" (museums and galleries), using this immersive environmental approach to create narrative interaction with the audience. The ability to create an exhibition based on the theme or the artist's digital representation can be easily installed in a suitable space and provide the miracle of an IDE. These benefits have increased the popularity of the concept.

The Portsmouth Historic Shipyard in Portsmouth, England hosted the "Immersive Mary Rose Exhibition"-a projection-based portrait depicting the history of the sinking of the Tudor warship during the Solent Battle in 1545. Develop the Royal Navy and Mary Rose Trust in cooperation with the National Museum. The exhibition is supported by interactive touch screens and multimedia displays.

As early as August, an interactive audience screen platform called "Magic Screen" debuted for the first time, allowing real-time interaction with real characters on the screen. The system was jointly developed by Alevy Productions and Super 78 Studios, using the world's first audience-based animation and live content interactive platform. The system is planned to be deployed in movie theaters and other outdoor entertainment venues.

The platform is supported by Microsoft, Nvidia, Unity and several other technology vendors. Based on its "Geppetto" system, the live-action character animation of Super 78 Studios has been produced-you can watch it in the park attractions such as Motiongate's "Smurf's Village Playhouse" arrive.

Based on this experience, the "Magic Screen" platform will create a cloud-based content delivery platform for interactive live character audience experience, which will be distributed by the metamedia entertainment network through the live experience.

Illuminarium in Las Vegas and passive "art entertainment" can also see the immersive miracle of a fully projected environment; it can be seen in the deployment of highly interactive and active applications.

One such example comes from the technology and development company Hello.io, which has a series of "Hello Park" venues and approximately 30 interactive digital parks internationally. The company cooperated with Kidspace, an indoor adventure playground company, to launch the "Aquarium"-an immersive and interactive 3D underwater adventure.

It uses projection and motion tracking elements to create an experience for multiple guests to play and explore in the space, while being able to interact with marine life moving on the walls and floor of the virtual aquarium. This is the first of its kind in Europe, providing an engaging interactive experience for the IDE approach.

We have also seen a surge in the development of game spaces or fences used to track the deployment of sports games. X-Golf has 25 locations in North America, providing a social entertainment venue with a golf simulation shell, using the latest digital screens and ball tracking-providing a large number of lessons and mini games, this is the best explanation.

Topgolf Swing Suite recently joined this concept, providing its own interpretation of virtual golf simulators and hotel models.

In addition to shooting golf, the virtual shooting simulator experience using IDE technology has also entered the field of social entertainment, such as the launch of the Point Blank venue.

Based on the same methods as social darts and mini golf courses, three Point Blank sites provide cocktails and meals for groups, and entertainment through state-of-the-art shooting ranges.

Use selected realistic laser shooting weapons on the large projection screen in each booth for at least one hour of meetings, providing a unique entertainment experience. Owner Point Blank Shooting currently operates three sites in the UK, located in Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle.

Bandai Namco Amusement launched the VS Park facility, which is another example of an independent attraction in an IDE-based venue. These spaces, known as "various sports facilities", provide a highly physical gaming experience based on sports activities using large digital screens and player and object tracking.

Bandai Namco recently opened a 3,000-square-meter fifth location in Amami Seven Park, Matsubara City, Osaka, providing a highly eclectic environment that simulates players participating in comical Japanese variety shows. Among the 24 activities, the IDE experience includes "Atetare! Football", "VS Handball", "VS Archery" and "Nigekiru"-allowing guests to try to run faster within a given distance against digitally represented characters.

The sports experience using IDE has been developed for some time, and the results of these developments have begun to appear internationally. Recently there was news of Toca Social, a football-themed entertainment space that brings social entertainment to 30,000 square feet.

The first of these will open at the O2 venue in London this year. The space will see 17 virtual football simulator shells, allowing guests to improve their skills in some football-based gaming experiences. It is tracked when the ball is kicked to the target on the screen. All this is supported by a wide range of food and beverage products in the concept developed by Toca Football, a sports training and fitness operator that has now brought this concept into the social entertainment field, and plans to launch more based on initial reactions website.

The movement and highly active elements of this method are reminiscent of Valo Motion's achievements with its projected augmented reality climbing wall (ValoClimb) and trampoline experience (ValoJump).

Other sports-based interactive experiences entering the market include "Neo-One" from NeoXperiences-an immersive projection shell that tracks player movements to create a combination of sports and entertainment.

The system is versatile and can be deployed in shopping malls, school environments, sports and leisure centers, and live events.

Electric Gamebox is one of the new entrants to social entertainment that also heavily adopts the IDE concept. The company developed its multiplayer, projection, and immersive game pod concept, which contains a series of games and a unique tracking system (via the player's hat), and opened it for the first time in London in 2019.

The company opened its first US factory in Dallas in 2020 and plans to open factories in Chicago and Los Angeles. In addition, the company is expanding its own independent venues, and recently partnered with entertainment facility brand Gravity Active Entertainment to open a "game box" in an existing location as an additional attraction. Electric Gamebox plans to launch approximately 1,000 locations by 2026.

The market is also seeing the entry of specific IPs that are being created to provide a unique entertainment platform.

Technology developer YDreams Global announced a partnership with global gaming and entertainment company Hasbro. YDreams is licensing the brands "Peppa Pig", "PJ Masks" and "Play-Doh" to create immersive playgrounds based on these assets, initially for the Brazilian market.

The partnership will develop immersive spaces for children and families and use these brands to launch in shopping malls across Brazil. This is a project aimed at a new generation of shoppers to meet the needs of shopping malls for "retail entertainment".

The ultimate example of an immersive entertainment environment, using a projection system to superimpose a synthetic digital game experience into the game space, the latest version premiered in London. Named "Chaos Karts" and opened near Brick Lane, the concept is a mixed reality karting adventure-developer Ents Inc. calls it the "ultimate karting experience", where up to eight electric karts can be seen racing digitally created Runway.

This puts the player in an interactive game space, as if living in a "Mario Kart" video game. It was designed in collaboration with Little Lion Entertainment, a company known for creating the "Crystal Labyrinth Live Experience", creating an eye-catching event space.

This concept uses two important elements. The first is the racetrack for projection mapping, which uses about 32 high-resolution projection systems to map the space. The second component is to include special electric karts that do not require helmets and overalls, including tracking that helps to place the vehicle in a virtual environment, as well as collecting virtual items to increase the player’s score, or deploying as "Power Ups" Hinder the progress of other competitors.

The "Battle Kart", launched in cooperation with RiMO electric kart, is expected to adopt a similar approach to the track experience. And Z, the new business unit from Zamperla, recently showcased the "BumpArcade" product, which combines physical bumper cars with the expected environmental experience.

The ability to place guests at the core of the gaming experience will see other forms of entertainment attractions and entertainment under immersive display processing. With the deployment of projection systems in projection mapping applications, the use of MicroLEDs will allow more eye-catching enclosures to be completely wrapped in the display medium.

The only real limitation of this application is the imagination of the graphic design studio used to create immersive experiences displayed on these multifunctional screens. Just as the outdoor industry focuses on forced perspective 3D digital advertising, the entertainment industry hopes to attract new audiences in a brand-new way and make them a part of the game!

(Editor's note: The excerpt from this blog is the latest report from The Stinger Report, published by KWP and its director Kevin Williams, the leading interactive outdoor entertainment company covering the immersive frontier and other fields. News Service Agency.)

Kevin Williams is an expert in the digital outdoor entertainment industry, operating KWP Limited, a consulting company in the interactive entertainment industry.

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