Consumers today are enjoying an unprecedented advance in out-of-home experiential design, including all things immersive. The advance is propelled by new technologies, devices, connectivity, and “lessons learned” in placemaking tactics. One of the next exciting frontiers in this era is the fulfillment of place itself as a living character in the guest experience.
Among the technologies available to experiential designers are show control systems, and the ability to more fully integrate building systems, venue content, guest recognition and response, and generative A/I customized to areawide circumstances and guests. Given the creativity of experiential designers, we expect that fuller realization of shape-shifted environments will also emerge with moment-to-moment scene generation changes helped along by Unreal Engine and similar software. The Place itself as an almost living actor in a guest’s experience is waiting for coming innovations.
The organized “entertainment mall and district” that is emerging as a new place-product will be a place of great innovation in “Place as a Living Character” experiences. Area 15 in Las Vegas is such a place, offering a gathering place for immersive and traditional entertainment offerings including a vibrant common area. We do call these places a new kind of place-product, although there has been an array of predecessor concepts. These precursors tested such offerings with consumers.
PlaceLife Technologies
We are exploring all these possibilities through our PlaceLife Technologies business unit. We believe that “Place as a Living Character ™” in the guest experience is a sensibility that will be arriving to location-based entertainment offerings in the very near future.
The exciting options for experiential designers include the array of REALISM+ elements, including those elements listed below. All of which can be show-controlled in common and propelled as noted by Generative A/I in tandem with Unreal Engine kinds of software. We believe that show-controlled REALISM+ systems will take on a kind of sentience reminiscent of the wizard in the Wizard of Oz. Although in this case the wizard is an A/I creator that can observe, generate, and respond to guests with 3-dimensional environmental options.
- Recognition & Response – ranging from RFID chips, to customized A/I content.
- Environmental Effects – including the special effect fans, pumps, animatronics, actuators, and the like, that ride designers in particular enjoying using.
- Audio (Sound) – whether point-sourced or permeating an entire audience.
- Lighting – from architectural lighting and washes, theatrical, related to special effects.
- Imaging – including stills and moving displays, digitally-mapped, projected or displayed.
- Staging – the hydraulics, robotics, and overhead XYZ elements, including the explorations in shape-shifting guest environments.
- Magic – as advancements in technologies and show control continue, we are watching for experiential designers to employ the misdirection and engagement so long practices by the great magicians.