Now in its second year, the blooloop Innovation Awards, presented with AREA15, saw over 120 entries in 12 categories. The Awards recognise and celebrate the imagination and creativity that drive the visitor attractions industry forward.
The Awards have been judged by a panel of thought leaders and industry experts from around the world. They searched for the products and projects that will effect real change in the industry.
AREA15 is the world’s first purpose-built experiential entertainment district located minutes from the Las Vegas Strip. The complex is designed to be an imagination box and a place of wonder. Here, creativity and content flourish through best-in-class experiential entertainment companies such as Meow Wolf, Lost Spirits Distillery, Wink World, and Illuminarium.
Blooloop Innovation Awards entries showcase talent from across the industry
The winners of the Awards will be announced during The Festival of Innovation, taking place online between 6 – 8 December.
All blooloop Innovation Awards entries will also have an Innovation Showcase where attendees can learn more at the event. In addition, attendees will be able to vote for the People’s Choice winner out of all the 2022 entries.
Attendees will also be able to hear from leading operators and some of the people behind the entries in our panel sessions as part of blooloop’s Festival of Innovation.
Ahead of next week’s event, here’s a sneak peek of some of the Innovation Award entries that will be showcased at blooloop’s upcoming Festival of Innovation.
MONET: A Journey Through Seasons at Changi
ARTiStory entered its immersive art experience, found at Singapore’s Changi Airport, in the Immersive Experience and Storytelling categories.
Alongside the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Changi Airport Group (Singapore), ARTiSTORY has co-created an immersive showcase of eight famous landscape paintings from the MFA’s Monet collection. Visitors to Changi Airport’s terminal two will be able to explore a multi-sensory walk through all four seasons. Real-life Monet paintings are on display alongside an immersive, seasonal scene that takes inspiration from the artwork.
ARTiSTORY is a leading specialist in art and cultural IP licensing. This experience uses the IP licensing of the paintings to create an immersive setting that is full of rich storytelling. It represents an innovative approach to art IP licensing and LBE projects.
As one of Asia’s most connected international aviation hubs, Changi Airport connects with over 120 cities globally. So, the installation can reach an unprecedented number and diversity of people from the immediate area and around the world.
Guest Experience Platform
Attractions.io has entered its Guest Experience Platform into both the Guest Journey and Sustainability categories.
In mid-2022, Knoebels Amusement Resort adopted Attractions.io’s Guest Experience Platform. In doing so, it became one of the first theme parks to leverage its new wayfinding features. The technology is delivered through the resort’s mobile app. It allows guests to receive GPS-enabled directions anywhere on site.
This reduced the need for printed park maps and brochures, reducing paper waste. Furthermore, friction is eliminated for guests and they are able to plan their itinerary before they arrive at the resort. By integrating the technology into Knoebles’ app, guests have one single, intuitive interface to manage their entire guest journey.
With this technology from Attractions.io, operators don’t need to rely on passive signs and maps. For example, the app sends push notifications to visitors reminding visitors to go to a show they favourited earlier in the day. It can even send them directions.
Giving a Voice to Puppeted Walk-Around Characters
Next on our list of blooloop Innovation Awards entries, Beaudry Interactive has entered its voiced puppeted characters in the Experiential Technology category.
In collaboration with Sesame Workshop and SeaWorld, the company’s performer-based gesture and show control technology allows Big Bird to speak and walk around in the new Sesame Place in San Diego.
Utilising over 500 prerecorded sound bites from Matt Vogel, the voice of Big Bird, the puppet is able to walk around and interact with guests anywhere in the park. All of the equipment needed is embedded in the costume or on the performer.
Furthermore, strategic sound amplification puts the sound at Big Bird’s beak. This means it sounds like he is talking to an individual guest. The puppet’s gestures are simple to execute, whilst also being natural to Big Bird’s mannerisms.
Leveraging Memories to Transform the Guest Experience
Capturelife has submitted its guest photography technology into the Guest Journey category of the Awards.
The company believes that technology should make the customer journey indistinguishable from magic. Its technology allows guest photography to be a seamless, and lucrative, part of the overall guest experience at attractions.
Capturelife’s system integrates with the attractions’ existing ticketing or RFID system to automatically associate a guest’s photograph with their account. All areas of the photo experience can be branded for the individual attraction, supporting and amplifying their brand.
Using AI, Capturelife is able to remove any background from an image, without the need for a green screen. The system also offers on-site purchasing locations as well as mobile ordering to bridge the digital and physical worlds.
Personalised Engagement Tools
Convious entered its all-in-one eCommerce platform into the Guest Journey category.
The cloud-based solution brings all eCommerce functionalities into one location and uses AI to streamline and enhance operations. Real-time reporting allows operators to monitor, adapt and improve their performance.
Furthermore, the platform makes it easier to collect visitor data in order to create personalised content and offers. Using personalised calls to action, guests are more likely to make the desired decision. This is a proven way to optimise booking conversion rates.
Using the Convious app, guests have a mobile-first end-to-end digital journey. They can use it to book tickets and view the attraction map as well as to make contactless payments and see real-time queue updates.
Chaperone – The Experience Platform
The entries from Dapper Labs Ltd, Chaperone Experience Platform, can be found in both the Experiential Technology and Guest Journey categories at the blooloop Innovation Awards.
Chaperone is an ecosystem that connects the user (a guest of an attraction) to the experience in a highly personalised way. It allows for complex and extensive interactions between the user and all elements around them, both physical and digital.
Now, the new Chaperone Experience Builder allows designers, creatives and operators to build and adapt fully interactive, story-led, personalised and engaging experiences throughout the user journey. This typically looks like a branded app that takes less time and money to build than a general-purpose app.
Furthermore, operators are able to make changes to the content and configuration quickly and as often as needed, allowing them to adapt the entire user journey.
Digital Park: Mission Space
DOF Robotics has submitted Digital Park: Mission Space into the Immersive Attractions and Storytelling categories.
This Digital Park allows guests to step into space for a 30 – 40 minute immersive experience. Visitors are put into teams of six and each is given a character to fulfil a space mission. As part of this mission, they visit eight different space experiences.
DOF designed the experience for people of all ages to enjoy. It also gives information about space, to create a combined entertainment and educational experience.
During the visit, visitors will board a rocket simulator, journey to the International Space Station on a spaceship simulator and play two interactive games. In addition, at the end of the experience, visitors receive an ID card with their photo, designating them as a ‘Real Astronaut’ to keep as a souvenir.
Summit One Vanderbilt
Electrosonic entered Summit One Vanderbilt into both the Immersive Experience and Experiential Technology categories.
Summit One Vanderbilt is a 65,000-square-foot, multi-sensory, immersive observation deck in Manhattan, New York City. It combines themed entertainment and experiential technologies to create a unique observation deck experience.
Electrosonic collaborated with a variety of partners to develop and integrate the technology for a large-scale immersive experience that covers 26 unique spaces over four levels. The technology includes choreographed audio and light installations, a 3D soundscape and interactive video walls, as well as projection mapping and highly personalised interactivity.
In total, the audiovisual estate at Summit One Vanderbilt includes 16 LED displays, three video walls, 247 speakers and subwoofers, four audio controllers, 14 video controllers and 11 racks worth of equipment.
Express da Vinci
Express da Vinci Group has submitted Express da Vinci into the Creative Technology category.
This is the first portable observation flight and digital travelling simulator for 60 passengers. It features two product options:
- The outdoor portable travelling simulator
- A portable hologram museum with an indoor travelling simulator
It is designed to operate in cities within areas with an existing flow of visitors. The Express da Vinci allows visitors to explore famous tourist destinations digitally, making it perfect for use by tourism boards to attract visitors from abroad.
Frameless
Frameless is a submission in the Immersive Experience category.
It is a unique art experience, that allows visitors to experience art free from the confines of a frame. Situated within the newly developed Marble Arch Place, Frameless created a digital, immersive art experience in just over 18 months, becoming the largest experience of its kind in the UK.
There are four individually styled galleries, using projection technology and dynamic curation work to display a distinctive range of artists and genres. Guests can experience 40 different interactive digital interpretations of work by 28 of the world’s most iconic artists.
In order to create a more profound experience for the visitor, Frameless uses bespoke musical pieces in each area, from contemporary jazz to classical music.
‘The Imaginary Friend’
Freckled Sky entered ‘The Imaginary Friend’, a live multimedia performance into the Spectacular category.
This multimedia performance narrates a story about friendship with a digital ‘imaginary’ friend. The performance allows live entertainment to embrace a cinematic experience. It uses projection, lighting holograms and more alongside the performance of a real-life artist.
It was recorded as one piece and uses no post-production VFX. This means that the human eye cannot determine what is real and what isn’t in this organic mix of digital and physical components.
The performance shows how important linear storytelling is, and that it is creativity, not technology, that leads to innovations in entertainment. ‘The Imaginary Friend’ also demonstrates how to bring a mixed reality experience to an audience without using additional devices, such as VR glasses.
‘The Invisible Showman’
The second of two entries into blooloop’s Innovation Awards 2022 from Freckled Sky is ‘The Invisible Showman’, the first live digital entertainer, in the Blue Sky category.
The Invisible Showman is a digital character that performs in the real world and is able to communicate with people in real-time. Using mixed-reality technology, The Invisible Showman is able to perform in a variety of shows and settings.
The first performance using him was on a historic building in Binghamton, in upstate New York. The Showman appeared as a 3D mapping projection on the building, in front of a 40,000 people audience.
The Showman is able to change the performance each time it occurs, talking to the audience and changing his personality accordingly.
The Gunpowder Plot
Layered Reality entered The Gunpowder Plot into the Immersive Experience and Storytelling categories.
Alongside Historic Royal Palaces, Layered Reality has created an immersive experience in the vaults of The Tower of London. It takes audiences through the final 24 hours of the Gunpowder Plot, one of the most crucial events in British History.
The experience combines actors, virtual reality, and theatrical elements to immerse visitors and take them back in time. Live action scenes, such as when visitors must decipher a code, are weaved together with virtual reality scenes, such as sailing down the Thames with Guy Fawkes.
The visitors also participate in the scenes, playing an essential role in the experience. They must make a choice halfway through the experience, and one of two endings will take place based on that choice. For a more immersive experience, scents and sounds, as well as hot and cold airflow and lighting convince the senses that the visitor is in the world of the characters.
QUAKE Lisbon Earthquake Experience
Jora Vision Europe B.V. submitted the QUAKE Lisbon Earthquake Experience into the Themed Environment, Immersive Experience and Storytelling categories.
This experience tells the story of an earthquake that struck Lison in 1755, destroying most of its buildings and street. It features a 90-minute immersive walk-through experience, divided into nine timed and show-controlled scenes.
Visitors are immersed in an educational experience that is primarily a story-driven spectacle. It uses projection mapping, integrated media screens, interactive exhibits, special effects, show lighting, simulator effects, a custom soundtrack and highly themed environments. All of this allows the visitor to re-live the event and therefore understand it more fully.
The first focus of the project was creating a compelling storyline and narrative, giving visitors a beginning, middle and end. Jora Vision worked with the following partners on the project: Painting with Light, Kraftwerk Living Technologies GmbH, InFact Global and Mr. Beam.
Grand Magic Hotel
Moment Factory submitted Grand Magic Hotel into the Immersive Experience category.
The company collaborated with Schroders to help create a new identity for one of Schroders’ newly acquired hotels, as well as transform the hotel’s hall into an immersive story world. Moment Factory used their work in themed attractions to merge hospitality and entertainment and allows the hotel to offer guests a unique and engaging multimedia experience throughout their stay.
Moment Factory integrated interior design, lighting, technology and digital content into the hotel. Guests are now greeted by staff in themed costumes at the reception desk, and above a digital painting of the hotel owner comes to life.
The Grand Magic Hotel has four worlds: a garden landscape, an enchanted forest, an underwater world and a wonderland above the clouds. These worlds take the guests on a journey that includes relaxing ambient sequences and entertaining show moments.
Onhwa’ Lumina
Onhwa’ Lumina is a submission in both the Storytelling and Spectacular categories by Moment Factory.
This immersive outdoor trail experience brings visitors into the heart of Huron-Wendat culture. Moment Factory worked with the Wendake Tourist Office, community experts and cultural advisors for nearly two years to present Wendat culture in a respectful and meaningful way.
Creating an authentic narrative was key to this project, that pays tribute to their history. There are seven zones and it explores essential themes from the Huron-Wendat society, such as the cycle of life, generational knowledge and more.
It is a multi-sensory activity, using light installations, video projections as well as an original soundtrack. Visitors don’t just read about the philosophy of the circle, they can step inside the Great Circle and feel their connection to all things. The outdoor trail remains open during the day to the public, and the night walk’s fixtures do not alter it.
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Pavilion, Expo 2020 Dubai
Kraftwerk Living Technologies GmbH has entries in both the Creative Technology and Spectacular categories at the blooloop Innovation Awards 2022, with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Pavilion at the Expo 2020 Dubai into the Creative Technology and Spectacular categories.
Construction of the pavilion started in February 2019. Kraftwerk Living Technologies were responsible for designing the AV systems for the pavilion, alongside the architects and designers, Boris Micka & Associates. All of the media technology solutions are integrated into the architecture, allowing the design process for the technology to inform the building design.
The pavilion broke three Guinness World Records with the largest LED mirror screen of 1,305.5 sqm, as well as the largest interactive lighting floor using 7,798 LED lights and the longest interactive water feature of 32 metres.
Since the pavilion remained after the Expo, all of the technology was designed with long-term use in mind. Across all of the video displays in the pavilion, around 384 million pixels were integrated, and there are more than 160 digital audio channels. The pavilion represents one of the most technically advanced projects that KLT has worked on.
Mirador Torre Glòries
The Mirador Torre Glòries is an entry in the Storytelling category.
The Mirador Torre Glòries is located in the Glòries Tower which is one of the most iconic buildings in Barcelona. It is a new generation of observation decks that brings together art, science, technology and environmental awareness to allow the visitor to reimagine cities from a new perspective.
The MTG takes its visitors on a journey that invites them to take a conscious look at the urban ecosystem that surrounds them. The journey starts in The Hiperview which is located at the base of the tower. Here, multi-disciplinary art installations give visitors real-time information about the city, allowing them to understand it as a living organism.
An elevator then takes the guests up to the observation deck which has 360-degree views over the city. They can also view the walkable sculpture, ‘Cloud Cities Barcelona’ by Tomas Saraceno. It is a multi-sensory sculpture that invites guests to reflect on cities and the urban ecosystem.
Luminous clouds with acoustic optimisation
Painting With Light submitted the Acoustic Light Clouds into the Creative Technology category.
The company designed an energy-efficient and broadcast-compliant lighting installation with acoustic optimisation for the Belgium House of Representatives. They designed a three-story cloud structure that harmonises with the rounded dome it occupies. The glass-topped dome of the building caused reflections back into the centre of the room, creating an uncomfortable acoustic experience.
PWL’s partner, Amptec, determined that the sound system needed absorbent panels. This led PWL to create a chandelier with integrated LED lighting that had the sound system and acoustic panels as the foundation of the design.
After a comprehensive light study, PWL designed the three-tiered cloud structure. The new lighting system mimics natural sunlight and meets the requirement for TV recording as well as illuminating the architecture.
Purple: Humanoid Photographer
Showtime Pictures entered Purple, the first humanoid photographer, into the Creative Technology category.
Alongside a Japanese manufacturer of robots, Purple took two years to research and develop. This new robot photographer and customer service assistant brings a new dimension to attractions. Initial testing shows that 90% of customers wanted to interact with the robot.
Purple takes pictures by automatically tracking guests’ faces, and it is also able to recognise and greet customers through facial recognition. The robot can display the guest’s photos, take payment, print the images or airdrop them.
The robot will enhance the guest journey as well as increase the efficiency of staff members, who no longer have to stand at photography kiosks.
Otherworld
Next on our list of entries in the blooloop Innovation Awards 2022 is Otherworld, in the Immersive Experience category.
It is an art and entertainment experience where visitors interact with surreal worlds of science fiction and fantasy. The first location opened in 2019 in Columbus, and the second venue will open in Philadelphia. Otherworld aims to redefine the concept of an immersive art experience.
The venue in Philadelphia will be an evolution of the self-guided immersive experience in Columbus but on a much larger scale. Otherworld will push the boundaries of what it means to immersive visitors in dream worlds of accessible art and technology.
The Giant’s Head
The Giant Company submitted The Giant’s Head into the Creative Technology category.
It is a two-metre-tall sculpture of the bust of an androgynous human. Its skin is made up of addressable LED panels and connected to a volumetric scanning studio, controllers and computers that allow a variety of content to be displayed on the sculpture.
It is the first time a video scan (25fps) of a person has been mapped onto a 3D anthropomorphic figure. Furthermore, its audio capabilities mean that the scanned subject can speak or sing. The Giant’s Head can also display static scans to give a lifelike 3D portrait of the subject.
After the scan, the volumetric studio creates a hologram/avatar. This avatar can then be placed in AR and VR environments. The head can also display artwork, advertisements and promotional materials.
Double Walkthrough Hive Break
Triotech entered Double Walkthrough Hive Break into the Immersive Attractions category.
Triotech developed this walkthrough experience for OCT in Xiangyang, China. It is a 12-minute immersive and interactive attraction that features two parallel pathways. In the queue line, guests split into two groups and board either the Bounty Hunters or Space Pirates shuttle. This affects which side of the same interconnected story they experience.
Each parallel path has three unique zones and features a spaceship motion simulator, a training facility and an interactive theatre. The attraction uses 4K media content, special effects, motion platforms and Triotech’s illusio technology, as well as interactive media content and 3D content.
In the training facility, guests must learn how to use their targeting device and battle alien creatures and either a bounty hunter or a space pirate ship, depending on which side of the story they are experiencing. Projection mapping allows the environment to change, taking the guest on an ever-changing journey.
The Spatial Holodeck
Spatial has two entries in this year’s blooloop Innovation Awards 2022, with the submission of The Spatial Holodeck into both the Immersive Experience and Creative Technology categories.
It featured audio software that changes how we experience audio in spaces. It is able to place sounds within a space, regardless of speaker positioning. This removes barriers to traditional audio design and allows for technological ‘magic’ that completely immerses a visitor into the space.
In March 2022, The Spatial Holodeck debuted in The Sunset Room in Austin, Texas. This pop-up experience showcased Spatials 3D immersive audio technology to the wider public for the first time. Visitors experienced a more realistic and immersive soundscape in the pop-up.
The experience was a collaboration with The National Geographic Society. Visitors travelled ‘Around the World’ in a 360-degree multi-sensory tour, from the depths of the oceans to the top of mountains.
Wildcat Looping Coaster ‘Fønix’
Vekoma entered the Wildcat Looping Coaster ‘Fønix’ into the Thrills category.
This rollercoaster is a thrilling ride for the entire family. It is the largest, fastest and highest family thrill coaster in Denmark. It is 40 metres high and 905 metres long, and also boasts top speeds of 95 kilometres per hour.
Featuring 14 different elements in total, it is the world’s first roller coaster to introduce the Stall Loop. Riders have the most airtime in Scandinavia.
Register for the Festival of Innovation
See all these entries and more at the Festival of Innovation. We will be announcing the Awards winners, hearing from top speakers about key trends and you will be able to take part in the Public Vote Award.
You can now register for The Festival of Innovation for free, where the winning entries of the blooloop Innovation Awards 2022 will be revealed.
