The world is living with the effects of COVID-19, both physically and mentally. People are shut inside in self-quarantine and self-isolation, making it difficult for many workforces and industries to continue functioning. Industries across the world are feeling the effects of the pandemic and are now scrambling to find ways to adapt. While events continue to escalate, every industry is looking to work remotely in ways they never considered before. That includes XR technology.
Transforming Offline Events Into Virtual Experiences
Live events, including sports and entertainment, are canceled because of strict rules about social distancing in most parts of the world. This leaves these industries high and dry with no one to watch and no clear way to recoup their monetary losses.
Festivals, award ceremonies, sporting events, and concerts are all postponed or canceled, and everyone involved with organizing and implementing these events has found themselves without their regular stream of revenue.
With all entertainment companies coming to a surprise halt in productions, how can they quickly adapt to survive and still bring their services to a remote population?
COVID and Live Events
Because of the novel coronavirus, this is a real dilemma for many industries. Most video conferencing platforms can’t scale to allow hundreds or thousands of people to connect at one time, which is a problem entertainment companies now need to overcome. The goal is to develop a way for thousands of people to enjoy an immersive experience at once, watching their favorite live performances.
The Future of Events
Thankfully, the virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies have advanced to the point that consumers can attend events remotely while fully immersing themselves in the experience. AR is already regularly used in entertainment.
The Opening Ceremony of the Pakistan Super League became the longest augmented reality broadcast in history. Similarly, the K-pop band BTS have used AR in their live stadium shows to increase audience engagement.
Connecting People Through Technology
Now that the world is stuck at home, using AR for entertainment is more vital than ever. Brands are now utilizing XR technology to take their performances to the next level for at-home viewers. Tech like XR allows brands to create immersive experiences to share with their fan base.
XR lets the performers and the audience interact with digital content included in the experience. Brands can also use camera tracking and render content in real-time to make the entire performance a seamless interaction on screen and the live set.
Now production companies, developers, and brands can work together to advance the VR and AR tech capabilities to bring increasingly better performances to viewers. XR helps developers give users a limitless environment within their homes and from the comfort of their couches.
What’s Next?
In these uncertain times, it is more crucial than ever that brands and production companies work with tech developers to create compelling broadcasts and engage their audiences in XR environments. Developers are working in overdrive to get the technologies to the levels that brands need them, quickly advancing the tech well past where it was before the coronavirus pandemic.
Many people are worried that some industries won’t recover from the continued closed economies around the world, which is probably a valid concern. But consumers will always want products, sports, and entertainment to take them away from the stresses of their lives. At the end of the day, if a band performs, whether it’s an in-person concert, at-home AR or VR event, or a combination of both, people will attend.
Guest PostAbout the Guest Author(s)
Marah Berezowsky
As Head of Public Relations - and the Director for the Virtual Events Association - Marah continues to spread the core values of Genius Ventures to democratize real-life experiences using immersive technology and to help educate the public about the benefits and solutions that technology delivers for us in our business and daily lives.
