A park-wide interconnected ecosystem, powered by Holovis’s mixed reality Extended
Experience technology, enables guests to engage before, during and after their visit
Holovis created the app, Battle for Cedar Point, to gamify the park experience for guests
New technologies are transforming theme park attractions and the guest experience. New forms of interactivity, real-time media and virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) are taking guests to places they have never been before. When combined with exciting, narrative-driven storytelling, compelling IP and effective personalisation, experiences can deliver new levels of engagement and immersion.
At Holovis, this is all part of the Total Attractions offering. By adding guest personalisation, new engagement formats, gamification techniques and back-end database connectivity, a completely new kind of product offering becomes possible. No longer are attractions standalone three-minute events with long waiting times, but they’re part of a park-wide, interconnected ecosystem, giving guests completely new ways to plan their visit, more intensive engagement during their visit and the ability to share the experiences and memories afterwards.
Holovis calls it the Extended Experience (EE). Based around the guest’s own smart phone or tablet and a dedicated downloadable app, EE unlocks a rich, interactive park-enabled environment where Holovis’s own proprietary Augmented Mixed Reality technology gives the guest a variety of opportunities to enhance their visit.
“Augmented reality is aptly named – it’s about transforming the ordinary into something extraordinary, making magic out of the mundane,” says Stuart Hetherington, CEO of Holovis. “There’s something exhilarating about watching the real world come to life through a layer of AR magic.”
Expert delivery EE has been developed partly in response to changing park usage patterns and the need to increase repeat visits. Parks simply have to deliver more bangs per buck. But how do we deliver this most effectively?
“As experience designers, we need to effectively use the available tools and the smart phone/tablet is a fantastic device to work with —they’re slim, powerful, with an expanding sensor array, everyone has one and most regularly upgrade,” he says.
From the moment they download an app, guests can start engaging with the theme park, earning points ahead of their visit and answering cleverly hidden questions about their interests. All of this can be used to personalise the experience when they arrive at the attraction.
Game play The game play continues during the visit, with more hidden AR “treasure” to find around a site, again leading to extra points and incentives which could mean queue jumps or the ability to trigger something magical nearby, such as a water explosion from a cannon overlooking the queue line by pressing the virtual button that appears.
“Once users are in the attraction space, the app draws upon a variety of sensors to blend the physical and virtual worlds, using the phone’s camera to recognise key elements in the park and overlay digital media to create epic videos for sharing on social media,” says Hetherington.
“This is an excellent way of eliminating queue boredom, as people are engrossed in the game. It’s another layer of entertainment, turning a passive activity into a participative experience. It can also benefit the whole park ecosystem by driving footfall to all areas.”
Brand merchandise can be given a whole new lease of life, with AR characters jumping from T-shirts or specially created pin badges and merchandise. This encourages people to keep using the app outside of the park, showing friends, sharing on social media and wanting to collect them all.
“The next step for Extended Experiences is to synch them with the content people are experiencing during media- and motion-based dark rides. Combine with real-time media, and when a group of guests ride an attraction, the content can be personalised to them based on demographics, interests or even skill level. With other innovations to come, the future of EE is very exciting.”
Read more from this issue of Attractions Management magazine
View contents of Attractions Management 2016 issue 4
ABOUT HOLOVIS Holovis Attractions has always been at the forefront of creating experiences. Whether conceptualising and advancing early dark ride formats, devising the most effective Immersive Tunnel experience or adding new levels of immersion to Media Coasters, 4D Theatres or FEC solutions, Holovis always delivers something extra.
Holovis has heavily invested in in-house media creation to achieve high-quality guest experiences, with a particular focus on rendering content in real-time using advanced game-engine systems and bespoke middleware technologies. This allows each guest to participate more effectively in the storytelling, giving each person a different and personalised experience depending on the decisions made during their engagement and play.
Battle for Cedar Point Holovis recently delivered its Extended Experience (EE) solution for Cedar Fair through The Battle For Cedar Point. This is an AR experience accessed through a custom-designed app that gamifies the park, revealing various levels of interactivity. Five key park coasters each represent a “clan” from which guests then select a favourite and engage throughout the day to earn points and incentives, with the overall winner announced during the Luminosity show in the evening. Points are earned by guests scanning the environment around them with their mobile device to discover hidden content, complete quizzes and ride the attractions. They can even save captured video content and share with friends across social media channels. Guests are incentivised to reach point targets to access special merchandise that is only available to the winning clan. Holovis and Cedar Fair are now working on major new upgrades to the existing Cedar Point installation, as well as rolling out the product to multiple parks in 2017.
Holovis is working on ways to extend and personalise ride experiences
Holovis is working on ways to extend and personalise ride experiences
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A park-wide interconnected ecosystem, powered by Holovis’s mixed reality Extended
Experience technology, enables guests to engage before, during and after their visit
Holovis created the app, Battle for Cedar Point, to gamify the park experience for guests
New technologies are transforming theme park attractions and the guest experience. New forms of interactivity, real-time media and virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) are taking guests to places they have never been before. When combined with exciting, narrative-driven storytelling, compelling IP and effective personalisation, experiences can deliver new levels of engagement and immersion.
At Holovis, this is all part of the Total Attractions offering. By adding guest personalisation, new engagement formats, gamification techniques and back-end database connectivity, a completely new kind of product offering becomes possible. No longer are attractions standalone three-minute events with long waiting times, but they’re part of a park-wide, interconnected ecosystem, giving guests completely new ways to plan their visit, more intensive engagement during their visit and the ability to share the experiences and memories afterwards.
Holovis calls it the Extended Experience (EE). Based around the guest’s own smart phone or tablet and a dedicated downloadable app, EE unlocks a rich, interactive park-enabled environment where Holovis’s own proprietary Augmented Mixed Reality technology gives the guest a variety of opportunities to enhance their visit.
“Augmented reality is aptly named – it’s about transforming the ordinary into something extraordinary, making magic out of the mundane,” says Stuart Hetherington, CEO of Holovis. “There’s something exhilarating about watching the real world come to life through a layer of AR magic.”
Expert delivery EE has been developed partly in response to changing park usage patterns and the need to increase repeat visits. Parks simply have to deliver more bangs per buck. But how do we deliver this most effectively?
“As experience designers, we need to effectively use the available tools and the smart phone/tablet is a fantastic device to work with —they’re slim, powerful, with an expanding sensor array, everyone has one and most regularly upgrade,” he says.
From the moment they download an app, guests can start engaging with the theme park, earning points ahead of their visit and answering cleverly hidden questions about their interests. All of this can be used to personalise the experience when they arrive at the attraction.
Game play The game play continues during the visit, with more hidden AR “treasure” to find around a site, again leading to extra points and incentives which could mean queue jumps or the ability to trigger something magical nearby, such as a water explosion from a cannon overlooking the queue line by pressing the virtual button that appears.
“Once users are in the attraction space, the app draws upon a variety of sensors to blend the physical and virtual worlds, using the phone’s camera to recognise key elements in the park and overlay digital media to create epic videos for sharing on social media,” says Hetherington.
“This is an excellent way of eliminating queue boredom, as people are engrossed in the game. It’s another layer of entertainment, turning a passive activity into a participative experience. It can also benefit the whole park ecosystem by driving footfall to all areas.”
Brand merchandise can be given a whole new lease of life, with AR characters jumping from T-shirts or specially created pin badges and merchandise. This encourages people to keep using the app outside of the park, showing friends, sharing on social media and wanting to collect them all.
“The next step for Extended Experiences is to synch them with the content people are experiencing during media- and motion-based dark rides. Combine with real-time media, and when a group of guests ride an attraction, the content can be personalised to them based on demographics, interests or even skill level. With other innovations to come, the future of EE is very exciting.”
Read more from this issue of Attractions Management magazine
View contents of Attractions Management 2016 issue 4
ABOUT HOLOVIS Holovis Attractions has always been at the forefront of creating experiences. Whether conceptualising and advancing early dark ride formats, devising the most effective Immersive Tunnel experience or adding new levels of immersion to Media Coasters, 4D Theatres or FEC solutions, Holovis always delivers something extra.
Holovis has heavily invested in in-house media creation to achieve high-quality guest experiences, with a particular focus on rendering content in real-time using advanced game-engine systems and bespoke middleware technologies. This allows each guest to participate more effectively in the storytelling, giving each person a different and personalised experience depending on the decisions made during their engagement and play.
Battle for Cedar Point Holovis recently delivered its Extended Experience (EE) solution for Cedar Fair through The Battle For Cedar Point. This is an AR experience accessed through a custom-designed app that gamifies the park, revealing various levels of interactivity. Five key park coasters each represent a “clan” from which guests then select a favourite and engage throughout the day to earn points and incentives, with the overall winner announced during the Luminosity show in the evening. Points are earned by guests scanning the environment around them with their mobile device to discover hidden content, complete quizzes and ride the attractions. They can even save captured video content and share with friends across social media channels. Guests are incentivised to reach point targets to access special merchandise that is only available to the winning clan. Holovis and Cedar Fair are now working on major new upgrades to the existing Cedar Point installation, as well as rolling out the product to multiple parks in 2017.
Holovis is working on ways to extend and personalise ride experiences
Holovis is working on ways to extend and personalise ride experiences
A new immersive attraction designed to transport visitors into the final hours of ancient Pompeii
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Experience design company, BRC Imagination Arts, has completed a transition that sees founder
Bob Rogers pass ownership of the business to four long-serving senior executives, while
remaining actively involved with the company.
Movie Park Germany has opened a new Paramount Pictures-themed attraction as part of its 30th
anniversary celebrations, using immersive storytelling and adaptive reuse to reinforce the park’s
longstanding “Hollywood in Germany” positioning.
Therme Manchester’s 28-acre development, which will include interconnected glass pavilions
that measure 65,000sq m, will be the largest bathing and wellbeing attraction in the world once
complete, according to prof David Russell, CEO of Therme UK.
Efteling has opened Hooghmoed, a new family drop tower designed to broaden the appeal of its
recently launched Sirene Island themed area and introduce younger visitors to thrill attractions.
A proposed Puy du Fou development near Bicester and Universal Destinations and Experiences’
planned resort in Bedford are emerging as part of a wider transformation of the Oxford–
Cambridge Growth Corridor into a major centre for UK leisure and tourism inv
Shedd Aquarium has opened the Immersion Theater developed in partnership with SimEx-
Iwerks, as part of a wider strategy to enhance the guest experience and create additional
revenue opportunities.
The UK government has announced a temporary reduction in VAT on visitor attractions and
children’s meals as part of a summer cost-of-living support package designed to stimulate the
visitor economy and encourage family days out.
As designer Yinka Ilori prepares for his first solo gallery show in London, he speaks exclusively
to CLADmag about his mission to spread joy, the power of play, and his bold approach to using
colour (including the colours you won’t see in his work).
The government of Thailand is exploring plans for a THB300bn (£6.3bn, US$8.3bn)
entertainment complex in the country’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), with officials
proposing a large-scale theme park and sports destination as part of a broader tourism and
economic development strategy.
An opportunity to reimagine one of the UK’s most recognisable towers has been formally
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