Are technology-driven experiences the new face of the entertainment market?

If you could immerse yourself into an interactive world of light, sound and images, you’d likely remember it more than having to read or create the story yourself. The ‘entertainment experience’ market is growing rapidly. No longer interested in material items, Millenials, in particular, are now looking to experiences on which to spend their cash. But how is technology being used within entertainment? And for how long can these experiences continue to grab the attention of visitors?

The integration of technology to create an immersive environment has brought something new to the entertainment space. No longer satisfied with passive experiences, audiences seek to watch 4D films, experience virtual simulation and play augmented reality games. A trip to a humble kitchen shop now comes complete with a VR tour of your own home and your own future kitchen.

Such technological innovations create a unique environment that offers added value. Content can be offered in all sorts of new forms including mobile or even life-size holographic projections. Plus, because creating such innovative showcases is far simpler than it was five years ago, the production costs have fallen sharply and the quality is increasing daily, making it more accessible to smaller organisations and subsequently becoming part of the mainstream market.

How is the market changing?

In 2017, Panasonic assisted the Comics Station amusement park in Antwerp, to create a technology-driven experience to reintroduce visitors to famous Belgian cartoon characters. Comics Station installed 90 displays and 20 laser projectors to create an interactive walk-through experience for its visitors. These developments are able to breathe new life into smaller visitor attractions, which might have found it more difficult to compete with large-scale theme parks.  

Technology-driven experiences are also useful for museums, which face the challenge of engaging young minds with culture and history in a digital age. In the Netherlands, for example, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam introduces visitors to twenty works via apps on a multimedia tour of the museum. Short films and interviews with musicians are used to bring pieces to the life for visitors. 275,000 works are available online to be downloaded and the Rijksmuseum hopes to open up the entire collection of one million items worldwide in this way so that visitors can come into contact with and experience the Rijksmuseum in a totally new way. As a result visitor numbers to the Rijksmuseum are rising steadily and have passed the two million a year mark.

The experience economy is big business, economists are predicting that billions of euros will be spent on the further development of technology-driven experiences. Everyone from retail outlets to car manufacturers is offering something and we expect this to become even more commonplace as company’s look to offer something new to customers to remain competitive.

How do we create these experiences?

For many organisations, including a technology-driven experience into day-to-day service provision is a new activity. The formula to a successful experience requires the following ingredients: Visuals, Broadcasting, Telecom, Light, Sound and Design.

The equipment used to create the experience must be reliable and up to the job at hand. Panasonic projectors and displays, with up to 20,000 hours of maintenance-free operation, remove the risk from implementing experience-led exhibits.

Experiences must be well designed and thought out in addition to it being appropriate to the target market. That calls for expertise covering the entire design of the technological environment. Fragmentation of the various tools and technologies leads to a difficult construction with a high level of unreliability. This means a real risk of failure and the associated monetary and reputational costs.

Where else can technology-driven experiences find its place?

In both education and business, the learning experience can be enriched by using technology-driven experiences to make students and employees more engaged and improve their absorption of information. Research shows that we learn more by active learning than passive involvement, emphasising the value of providing experiences. Digital learning can supplement and in some cases replace the real thing. Holographic projection is one of the newest developments forging its way into education. Holograms are created using a camera feed taken from a remote studio which is watched in different global locations using projection. Speakers are able to engage with participants in real-time, responding to reactions and answering questions via a camera link as if they were in the same room. Apart from cost-savings, it significantly improved the event experience and enables both the speaker and the audience to participate in a way they could not via a video conferencing link.

The future for technology-driven experiences looks set to grow as its quality increases and costs decrease. Is it possible that an immersive experience will be as ubiquitous when visiting a museum or amusement park as a wifi connection or mobile tickets?